Where Things Come Back in Around the World in 80 Books

Feb 25, 2012 mstan rated it really liked it

Shelves: for-young-adults-or-children, addictive-ya, american, src-spring-2012

This book was good reading - hard to put down and told in that oddly distant 'male' voice that I find endlessly fascinating in YA lit:

"It was at that point that I had to, contrary to my normal behavior, hug my brother's best friend. What you need to know about me is that I don't like to hug people with whom I am not romantically involved. I also don't really like to shake people's hands, sit close enough to touch someone else, or feel other people's breath on my skin. If you're the type of pers This book was good reading - hard to put down and told in that oddly distant 'male' voice that I find endlessly fascinating in YA lit:

"It was at that point that I had to, contrary to my normal behavior, hug my brother's best friend. What you need to know about me is that I don't like to hug people with whom I am not romantically involved. I also don't really like to shake people's hands, sit close enough to touch someone else, or feel other people's breath on my skin. If you're the type of person who likes to do any of those things, then I won't pretend to understand you. Libby was tougher than I had imagined she'd be, never once breaking down or even shedding the first tear. She hugged me tightly, her face pressed firmly against my neck, and sat there still and quiet until I finally patted her twice on the back the way a boy does when he is ready to stop hugging." (pg. 124)

Cullen is a 17-year-old boy whose younger brother Gabriel (aged 15) suddenly goes missing one day. At the same time, the 'Lazarus', a rare breed of woodpecker, becomes the talk of their little town in Arkansas. Cullen's grief and claustrophobia are deftly written, as is his relationship with his brother (sibling love! my favourite!) and his best friend Lucas.

Alternating rather strangely with chapters on Cullen's life are chapters about a wannabe missionary in Ethiopia, Benton. It all comes together (somewhat) in the end though.

There are loopholes in the story: I don't quite understand how Cullen can be sort of a loser at the early part of the story, then suddenly become a lady-killer (and I doubt this is some profound remark on how ladies want to mother a grieving adolescent male either, because his pseudo-girlfriends are just weird). And while the adults are compellingly written, their different kinds of downbeat craziness become uniformly depressing after a while.

There's no doubt though that I'll read the next book by Whaley. It's been a while since I've added anything to my addictive-ya shelf (the last was Schmidt) - I've been seeing the cracks in this genre more often lately and been unable to lose myself in the readability of YA books as a result. ...more

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Aug 23, 2012 alana rated it really liked it

Shelves: southernlit, young-adult

Hmm...I really enjoyed reading this book as an adult. However, I'm unsure if the disturbing content is eventually balanced out by the thought-provoking content to make it worthy of donating to my small school's small library.

When there are less than a dozen books for high school students, of course each book gets a fair amount of attention and consideration. If we had a big library, I could sneak in Where Things Come Back and trust it would be discovered by the right audience. Instead, I think ...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Astrid Lim rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, tragedy, america, religion, gift, family

I don't really get the hype of this book. Too many things happened and they distracted me from enjoying the real story. The theme of second chance is actually pretty nice, but the writer wanted to include too many symbols into the book that made everything seemed too chaotic. There's this missionary thing, all religious hubbub, the extinct bird that suddenly showed up again - and also so many deaths, tragedies, and dysfunctional families. For a YA book, this is just too much. I wish the writer w ...more

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