<![CDATA[What I Was]]>

false <![CDATA[What I Was]]> 1220721 19 Rising star Meg Rosoff delivers a piercing and magical story about friendship and humanity. In the not too distant future, a one-hundred-year-old man called H sails the eastern coast of England with his godson. H recalls when he himself was sixteen —his godson'’s age— as they search for the site of H’'s life-altering friendship with a boy named Finn. Finn lives alone on an isolated slip of land and follows no rules: he spends his days swimming, fishing, and collecting driftwood for his tiny beach hut. H, on the other hand, is an upper-class boarding school boy stifled by monotony and endless rules. They meet by chance on the beach, and H is immediately awed by (and jealous of) Finn'’s way of life. They strike up an unlikely friendship but the gap between their lives becomes difficult to bridge, and before long the idyll that nurtured their relationship is shattered by heart-wrenching scandal. Meg Rosoff was formerly a YA author, but her work transcends categorization and we are delighted to bring it to adult readers for the first time. What I Was is a timeless, enthralling story destined to become a classic. 3094323 2007 What I Was total:436|5:77|4:142|3:151|2:50|1:16| 436 1522 813 138 2 3 false false Fri Apr 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 03 18:49:05 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 04 13:27:21 -0700 2008
I LOVED How I Live Now, so much so that I even consider it one of my favourite books of all time, and when Just In Case came out, I snapped it up immediately. It too was a bit of a let down. This novel was well-written and immersive but ultimately I...more...]]> 4 3 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 01 13:44:04 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 02 14:20:09 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false true Sat Mar 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 14 20:57:55 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 15 18:37:48 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false true Fri Apr 11 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 05 19:20:12 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 11 20:18:55 -0700 2008
For instance, this book is, in...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 17:06:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 18:27:06 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false true Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 09 01:50:09 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 09 02:03:44 -0800 2009
No.

This is another book in which I didn't like any of the characters but I was intrigued by one, Finn, the teenage recluse who lives in the hut by the shore.

The wr...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 05 11:48:46 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 05 11:49:38 -0700 2009 http://www.hipsterbookclub.com/reviews/c...

Meg Rosoff's novel What I Was will early on remind readers of John Knowles's classic coming of age tale, A Separate Peace. Both books feature an adult narrator reminiscing about his time as a 16-year-old in a boarding schoo...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Jun 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 22:43:57 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 22:45:04 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Mar 25 08:30:35 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 30 10:54:46 -0700 2009
In the not too distant future, a one-hundred-year-old man called H sails the eastern coast of England with his godson. H recalls when he himself was sixteen his godson's age as they search fo...more...]]> 3 0 false true Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 08:13:09 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 14:01:56 -0800 2009 How I Live Now. Then I read her second book Just In Case and now can barely remember anything about it. When I looked up a summary, it didn't do much to jog my memory. I don't recall being impressed. What I Was kind of falls in between the two books...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Jul 26 11:04:24 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 05:25:58 -0700 2009 How I Live Now was good, but I was stunned by this one. From the dust jacket annotation I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to buy the plot, but once I started the story I found it perfectly plausible. The twist ending is something I hadn't seen coming, which ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jul 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 14:54:04 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 15:10:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon May 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 22:17:45 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 22:22:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jun 09 15:13:25 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 18:40:57 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Feb 26 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 11:22:51 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 09:51:50 -0800 2009 1
A...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Nov 20 12:34:27 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 20 12:51:44 -0800 2009
Like "How I Live Now", I think the narrative voice takes a bit of getting used to - despite the first person perspective, Rosoff's writing style leaves you feeling a little disconnected from everything. Ev...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon May 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 11 12:47:27 -0700 2009 Mon May 11 12:49:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Sep 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 25 14:49:04 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 24 20:03:54 -0700 2008 1
I like books like this, but I didn't enjoy this particular one as much as I had hoped. I just could not commit myself to empathizing with the narrator, so the entire story left me hollow. I felt like I was a passenger.

The first part of the book was quite i...more...]]> 2 0 false true Sat Jul 19 19:06:46 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 09 18:36:54 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 07 15:32:32 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 07 15:36:47 -0700 2008 Meg Rosoff book. None of this wishy-washy, "Oh, that might be nice to pick up tonight." You've got to be all in. Ready to let her work her magic. Interestingly, What I Was was first released in Britain as a YA ti...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1220721