A Zoella Book Club 2017 novel - History Is All You Left Me

Another beautifully written novel by Adam Silvera. Heartbreaking, hopeful, beautiful story about love, healing, forgiveness and about those puzzle pieces that sometimes don't fit and it is maybe better to leave it this way. "People are complicated puzzles, always trying to piece together a complete picture, but sometimes we get it wrong and sometimes we’re left unfinished. Sometimes that’s for the best." Griffin learns about death of his best friend and ex boyfriend and he feels that his world collapsed. It collapsed again. Before he felt that it's the end, when he learnt that Theo is going to California. It collapsed, when Griffin decided to break up with Theo, for the best. It collapsed when Theo found a new boyfriend. And it collapsed again when Theo died.
Griffin tries to understand it all. Put the pieces together. He wishes there was an alternative universe, where Theo was alive, when they never broke up, when Theo didn't move to California to study.

Can time heal? Can you fall in love again after huge loss?

You guys...this book REALLY surprised me.

I wasn't a fan of Adam's first book, More Happy Than Not- so I was pretty hesitant going into this one because I was almost positive I wouldn't like it. Well...I was SO wrong.

This book captured me from the beginning, from the first page I was on the edge of tears and it's rare that I have to hold back tears in any book at all, let alone the FIRST page.

History is all You Left me is so important because it deals with topics so well. This book deals with anxiety, ocd, depression and LGBT issues. This book is own voices (Silvera is gay and has OCD) and I haven't read a book that dealt with OCD so well since Every Last Word by Tamera Ireland Stone.

LIKES:

-The writing was phenomenal! Within the first few sentences of the book I was already feeling a rush of emotions.
-The chapters were written in alternate times in Griffin's life, and it helped to give full context of Griffin's feelings about Theo's death, and also it shows just how complicated their relationship/friendship was.
-Silvera writes grief so well! The character's emotions felt so raw and gritty that it was hard to read at times. It also made the characters seem more realistic.
-I loved Griffin. He is such a complex character. He made mistakes and was selfish, but he also had such a good heart and I felt for him.
-Silvera wrote Griffin's OCD in a realistic way that didn't feel stereotyped or demonizing (at the same time, I don't have OCD, so I'm not an authority on this subject).
-I liked how Silvera didn't demonize Jackson (Theo's current boyfriend), and while I felt weird about Griffin's friendship with Jackson at times, I also realize how important it was for them to grieve together.
-The ending was so satisfying, it wrapped everything up perfectly, and made me feel hopeful.

DISLIKES:

-I loved Warren so much and I wish he would have been more fleshed out, and I wish his friendship with Griffin would have been more fleshed out as well.
-This book deals with a heavy topic and it hurt to read. At times it was hard for me to pick up this book after I put it down because I wasn't sure if I was ready to delve back into Griffin's grief. I'd really suggest having a fluffy book on hand to read at the same time because of this.

Overall, I felt that this was such a beautiful--albeit sad--book and I can't recommend it enough!

After being the only person in the world who didn't flail all over MHTN, I was excited to try this new book.

Sadly, I didn't care for Griffin. I get that he was grieving, but there was just something about him that I couldn't connect to. Something that kept me from being 100% immersed in the story. I did enjoy the back and forth between the present and past chapters. I liked the overall story and the secondary characters and the ending.

I know with certainty that I will be in the minority, that this will be another book that everyone raves about. I'm clearly missing something and I wish I could see it.

**Huge thanks to SoHo Teen and Edelweiss for providing the arc in exchange for an honest review**

This book really lacks interesting prose. There are some nicely constructed sentences but they are few and far in between. The writing borders on sentimentality. It comes across as a gay answer to John Green's fiction, which is also guilty of the latter trait - thus Silvera's book seems passe. Even, in some points, stale.

The lead characters are not particularly involving and the story they are encapsulated in is sometimes lacking in credulity. The protagonist is a sufferer of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which is portrayed as endearing and sometimes romanticised.It is not particularly subtle, and it doesn't evoke much of a lyricism or an evocation of location which I enjoy in a novel.

I had to pass on this one. It was a let down.

This was heartbreaking, if still hopeful. Silvera is skilled at how he balances the flashbacks, or "history", with the contemporary action. The pacing always feels natural and truthful to the story. And I was truly invested in these characters and their heartbreak. Theo's death did not feel cheap, and it did not feel like a device. Which is so hard to do. My heart does feel like it's been stomped over now though.

Oh, that title, that title gives me all the feels. It promises a book that will envelop me and take me through a beautiful journey of love, loss, and redemption.

That is not what I got.

What I got was a selfish MC who continually hurts other people, a love interest who we’re told is a mesmerizing genius but never actually feels like it, and some side characters who deserve a lot better than what they get.

The narrative structure—interweaving past and present timelines—seems to serve to hide the fact that there is very little plot; if told in linear fashion it would be very clear how thin the plot actually is. The present tense and POV choices also seem to make it very tell-not-show, so I could never get swept up in actually feeling any of the relationships.

I’ve seen this book referred to as a “feel-bad” book and that’s true, it definitely will make you feel awful, but I didn’t get any of the uplifting aspects that you need to justify the feeling bad. Just wallowing, more wallowing, bad behavior, and then a rushed ending where we are supposed to feel like things are looking up, even though it doesn’t really feel earned.

There’s no doubt the author is extremely talented and very good at describing crippling grief. Anyone who has lost a loved one can relate to the feelings that the author evokes, but that alone isn’t enough to propel a 300+ page book (which got especially boring in the middle).

It’s a perfect title—I just wish the book lived up to its promise.

Whoa. What a roller coaster. The book switches between the past where Griffin and Theo were in love and the present where Theo has passed away and his current boyfriend, Jackson, comes to town for the funeral. Heartbreaking yet hopeful. You’ll only understand if you read.

Adam Silvera has such a wonderful writing style that I honestly don't think I could not like this book. I will admit that I did not find it as sad as I was expecting and I'm an easy crier but that did not make it any less great or beautiful.

Overall there are so many wonderful parts of this story and I love the way Silvera writes relationships and characters. I know I said this but his writing style is so excellent and it's so easy to get lost in this book and to feel for ALL his characters.

(There was ONE part of this book that I did not like, but it's not necessarily that I did not like it, it was more like I didn't want to happen, even though I knew it was inevitable.)

When i first started reading this book i could not put it down. The passion behind this book is so strong that i could feel it with every page i read. I could feel myself feeling Griff's thoughgts throughout my expierence while reading this. Although i am not a crier, i cried multiple times. This book was written so well, plot twists got me. Whenever somebody wod asks me what my favorite book is or asks for a book recommendation i always answer with the same book, History is all you Left Me.

Thoughtful, well written book. It is sad but it doesn’t hit you over the head with it. You really are taken on a journey with griff and how he copes with everything that happens him, often times by way of talking to Theo. Just started reading lgbt fiction again after ten years or so and it’s great that everything isn’t focused on coming out. There’s a place for that, but it used to be large proportion of the genre. Highly reccomend.

Jesus. I want to write a review for this beautiful, heartbreaking book so badly but it's reduced me to an absolute puddle of emotions and cluttered thoughts. It was a really heavy emotional rollercoaster for me, but still so touching and wonderful that I never once thought to put it away - permanently, anyway...I definitely needed mini breaks to keep my sanity. Beautiful story, soul-tearingly sad, but absolutely worth it.

Absolutely amazing heart wrenching story cover to cover. It has so much heart, intensity, and honesty. It made me cry, laugh, smile, and want to tear pages out in rage. It's a story of love, grief, loss, and the complexities of all those emotions, life, and the heart in general. I love, love, love this novel.

A tear-jerker about first loves -- and first losses. Griffin's love for Theo is so wild, in the way that only those first foundational feelings are, but what he finds along the way, in remembering that history, is something full of hope.

Hand this one to those who love a good love story, good writing, and queer characters.

This book is an amazing one. It tackles themes like grief, love, self discovery, coming out, and forgiveness. The writing is so well done and the story is such a roller coaster of emotions that by the end of the book you feel like you've gone through the same events as our main character Griffin. Highly recommend it!

I loved Adam Silvera’s debut, More Happy Than Not, a one-of-a-kind blend of speculative fiction and coming-of-age tale, so I was extremely eager to get my hands on his sophomore effort – History is All You Left Me.

Unfortunately, the flaws that I was willing to overlook in his first novel because of its uniqueness completely overshadow the storyline in this one. Basically it’s about two NYC high school sweethearts who are separated when one gets an early acceptance to a university in California and then drowns within his first year away…but not before finding a West Coast boyfriend. Griffin, the boy who’s been left behind in New York narrates the story by speaking directly to Theo, his dead ex-boyfriend. The narrative structure is probably the best and most unique thing about the book. As it moves back and forth between the present day (late 2016 – after Theo’s death) and “history,” (from 2014 up through Theo’s death), the reader sees how Theo and Griffin went from friends (part of a three man “squad” of high school nerds) to lovers to ex-lovers/friends to grief-stricken survivor and his deceased beloved.

The problem isn’t the plot, per se, nor the structure, but with the characters and the strenuous way in which Silvera tries to manipulate the reader’s feelings. There’s way too much telling and not enough showing. The reader is told that Theo is a genius, but there’s nothing to illustrate that on the page. We are told that Griffin’s OCD is nearly debilitating but, with the exception of some internal dialogue involving his obsession with even numbers, his need to be on everyone’s left side and the occasional nervous palm-scratching, it never feels like a serious issue. We are also told, over and over, that Griffin and Theo are meant to be together but there is little real evidence of that either. And, much like in his first novel, the boys' pursuits and conversations seem more juvenile than nerdy. I mean, seriously, how many male high school kids (gay, geeky or otherwise) put together jigsaw puzzles (and make up stories about the images) and use coloring books? Nothing about any of it rang true for me.

On top of that, at nearly 300 pages the book seems padded and desperately in need of an editor to trim out much of the redundancy. The story seems to frequently meander, with the boys bickering and making up and falling out again. And rather than being simply an unreliable narrator, Griffin struck me as childish, inconsistent and difficult to care about. The author kept hammering home how sad it all was, but somehow it didn’t translate.

I really wanted, and completely expected, to enjoy this book because More Happy Than Not was so refreshingly unexpected and unlike anything out there in the LGBT YA market. Perhaps the success of that one caused the publisher to rush this one to press before it was ready. Let’s hope this is just a hiccup in a promising career.

This book is about a teenager whose best friend\ex boyfriend dies and then he has to deal with the new boyfriend. Its that simple and like all the books I'm reading lately. No one is likeable. I'm not saying the books horrible by any means but its hard to feel bad for characters when they annoying. The only non crappy character is Wade and he really gets treated horribly by everyone so that doesn't help. Also, do all teenagers have sex so quickly? Am I officially an old woman? Eh I wanted to like this more.

This book is heartbreaking and wonderful! Adam Silvera really knows how to tell a story that you cannot put down. His details about OCD ring true. He has a way with writing that makes you want to cry but also fills you with wonder. BUY and READ this book!