A story of one girl who navigates the loss of her brother and the journey to overcome the loss.

Grief is different for everyone and how that impacts a life depends on therapy, friendships, connections, and a willingness to move forward.

When Jaycee lives past the age of her brother what will become of her?

This has multiple POVs, talk of death, relationships, and all the things that young adults are battling through. While this wasn't something I could connect with I'm confident it will find a welcomed reception by readers who are looking for something with this plot.

I really enjoyed the mix of written, art and graphic novel storytelling. I found myself more invested in only 2 of the 5 main characters (Mik being the obvious favourite). Good book about a group of people that came together because of trauma or grief. I was very close to shedding a tear at some parts. I just wished I liked some of the other characters more.

I received this free eARC novel from NetGalley. This is my honest review.

This has been on my TBR pile for so long, and I'm glad I finally got around to it. I really enjoyed the storyline and seeing the characters change throughout the story was a great character development. The plot was great and kept my attention. I'm glad I got the chance to read this and will be on the lookout for more in the future!

This was a really nice surprise! I wasn't expecting the writing to be so nice and to become so immersed in this book!

I requested this e-arc many years ago when I first joined Netgalley, and life got in the way and I never found my way around to reading it. I now no longer have access to the e-copy, so I do not believe I will be reading it. My deepest apologies.

3.5 stars for me. This is a good reminder that one person can affect so many lives. Jaycee clearly takes the death of her brother, Jake the hardest but she eventually learns that more people were affected than just her. It takes five years for her to move on (there is NO time limit for grief).

I did enjoy You Were Here. Ryan is my favorite character. He is probably the most level headed of the group and helps Jaycee move on from trying to be Jake and be herself.

This was a very dark book. Jaycee struggles to accept her brother's death. She begins to follow in his footsteps and recreate some of his most daredevil stunts. Along the way she collects a group of unexpected friends who follow along as she attempts to re-live her brother's life.

I can appreciate Jaycee's dedication and devotion to her brother, and I can understand that she want's to re-discover him in many ways. She discovers truths about herself and her brother, and she also unearths secrets that may just be better left unknown.

I liked this book. It's catchy to me at least. I managed to finish it and not DNF. I'd like to read more of this book

The book did not really work for me. I DNF'ed it. I wasn’t able to connect with any of the many characters in the book and I found myself putting down the book a lot because it was never really catching my attention.

Very interesting book. Story sounded really good. Author does a good job of bringing the story to life. Enjoyed reading this.

I had mixed feelings about this book. One of the things that I just really didn’t like about the book were the characters. I felt like I couldn’t connect with any of them and I didn’t like how they treated each other. However, losing a brother and a close friend can be so incredibly hard and I thought that aspect of the book was what I liked most. People react to deaths differently and the way Jaycee deals with her grief was unique to herself. However, there were definitely times when I thought that Jaycee’s lashing out to people was too extreme. But overall, the author did such an excellent job at showing how grief affects people differently. It was very interesting to read about that and the different ways of grieving

I recently bought a new kindle after my old one broke. For some reason I was unable to download this title from the cloud onto my kindle, therefore I will be unable to review this title. I am sorry for any inconvenience caused

You Were Here by Cori McCarthy
On the fifth anniversary of her brother’s death, his graduation night, Jaycee is spending her own graduation night trying to lose herself in the memories that she’s been holding tightly to. She’s revisiting the places he enjoyed but she feels him slipping away. She reluctantly lets people tag along as friends on the adventures and each of them experiences something eye-opening that shoves them into adulthood. I love this book and even though I just finished it, I want to read it again. The circumstances that start the story, the character development and growth, the uniquely different characters and the setting work together to build a wonderful book, 5 stars!

This was an interesting and uniquely told story that I really enjoyed.

I look forward to more from Cori and appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book.

I received this book free for an honest review from Netgalley.

I think the reason I requested this book in the first place is because it has an insane asylum in the book blurb haha. This wasn’t a bad book, I just couldn’t connect to the characters. I liked and disliked that it was told from so many perspectives. I feel like the things these guys did were a bit unrealistic because they were so dangerous but maybe that’s just me. I really wanted more background on each of the characters, we got a bit at the end and that made me want to know more about them all. I’ll have to do some searching, but it would be cool to get some of James story from his perspective as well and heck, even Tyler’s. I would recommend this to those looking for a kind of quest book with a bit or romance.

I really enjoy young adult contemporary books that deal with grief. I think it is because of the emotions involved while reading. You just get so invested and really end up feeling something for the characters. You Were Here by Cori McCarthy centers the grief of main character Jaycee, who is almost in stasis for the years after her daredevil brother Jake died. McCarthy’s book explores the impact this has not only on Jaycee, but on her childhood friends Mik and Natalie. Rounding out the case is Natalie’s boyfriend Zach and Zach’s friend Bishop.

You Were Here is told in chapters that alternate between Jaycee, Natalie, and Zach. Interspersed are manga chapters for Mik and street art for Bishop. While I did not connect with any particular character, I did think this story was uniquely told. I enjoyed the different forms the story took. Also, moving between characters kept the story from getting stale.

I would not say this is my favorite book. However, it’s an okay read. It also is a relatively fast read as well. I think if you want to read a book that doesn’t pull punches and that is different, pick up You Were Here. It is a great book for the actual audience that it is aimed at. As someone who is actually not a part of the intended audience, it wasn’t quite for me, and that is just fine.

Have you ever read a book that blew you away so completely, you had to talk about it right away, just to get the feelings out? That’s how I felt about this one.

I’m not sure why it hit me so hard. It’s a tough subject, sure, but I could not stop reading. This is a well-written character study in grief and what it does to people. Jake died doing something stupid (he did a back flip off the top of some playground equipment and broke his neck), but everyone in this book has processed it differently. Jaycee has distanced herself from everyone and has started doing the same reckless behaviors as her brother so that she can feel close to him. Her former best friend, Natalie, has never told Jaycee that she witnessed the accident, as she was hiding from the older boys, who were all drunk, waiting for the chance to tell on them all. Mik, one of Jake’s best friends, has pretty much stopped talking to people, but silently has joined Jaycee in her trips to the abandoned mental hospital every year on the anniversary of Jake’s death.

Rounding out our group is Zach, Natalie’s boyfriend, who takes nothing seriously as a way to distance himself from his abusive home life. And Bishop, Zach’s friend, who is recovering from the breakup of his emotionally abusive girlfriend. All of these characters are incredibly flawed and struggling with different issues in their lives. It all came across as very real. Real people are flawed. Real people are confused and don’t know what to do with their lives. Real people don’t know how to move past something terrible that has happened to them.

This is a sad story, but there was also quite a bit of dark humor. That helps a lot, because despite the sadness, I didn’t actually get misty-eyed until the very end. I’m not going to spoil it, but I will just say this: the paper airplane. You’ll know it when you see it.

GoodReads rating: 5 stars. This book will stick with me for a long time.

Sweet and heartbreaking.

I received this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

DNF
I simply found myself not enjoying this book. I set it aside, because I found I couldnt get into it. Picked it up read a little more.. and kept doing that until I admitted defeat at 30%
It's simply not my kind of a book

I am working through and clearing out my list of galleys and unfortunately not interested in reading this any more.