Author: Adam Silvera
Genre: YA Contemporary
You’re still alive in alternate universes, Theo, but I live in the real world where this morning you’re having an open casket funeral. I know you’re out there, listening. And you should know I’m really pissed because you swore you would never die and yet here we are. It hurts even more because this isn’t the first promise you’ve broken. OCD-afflicted seventeen-year-old, Griffin, has just lost his first love – his best friend, ex-boyfriend and the boy he believed to be his ultimate life partner – in a drowning accident. In a desperate attempt to hold onto every last piece of the past, a broken Griffin forges a friendship with Theo’s new college boyfriend, Jackson. And Griffin will stop at nothing to learn every detail of Theo’s new college life, and ultimate death. But as the grieving pair grows closer, readers will question Griffin's own version of the truth – both in terms of what he’s willing to hide, and what true love ultimately means...- Quoted from Goodreads
My Rating: 5/5 STARS
My Review:
I read Adam Silvera's debut book, More Happy Than Not, last year and I loved it so much I knew I was definitely going to read his next book. I was so excited for History Is All You Left Me and I'm so glad I ended up loving it.
History Is All You Left Me is about Griffin who is trying to deal with the loss of his first love (and who was also his best friend), Theo. The book is told in alternating chapters between the present where Griffin is trying to deal with his grief, and between the past where it shows how his relationship with Theo began and how it came to be how it is in the present.
I was not prepared for how emotional and heartbreaking this book was, it just felt so raw and it was written so well that I could almost feel Griffins pain and grief.
Although Griffin and Theo had been friends for years History Is All You Left Me focuses on when they began dating (which is told in the history chapters) and continues until the present where Theo is dead. It is only two/three years but it felt like a long time and because of that I felt so much more attached to the characters.
Throughout the book I was very curious to see how their relationship, which began so happily in the past chapters, came to the point of the present chapters where Griffin and Theo were no longer in a relationship before his death. In the present Griffin is trying to deal with his feelings on Jackson, who was Theo's boyfriend when he died. Although I felt sad for Jackson, I didn't feel as attached to his character as I did with the others.
Like I said before, the focus of History Is All You Left Me is Griffin and Theo's relationship but there was also other relationships it focused on and those relationships grew more complex as the book went on and secrets were revealed, it felt like such an emotional roller coaster.
Griffin has OCD and I liked how Adam Silvera wrote about the illness. He didn't shy away from it and it didn't miraculously go away or disappear, it was always at the forefront of Griffins mindset.
Overall I loved this book. It was such an emotional and heart wrenching read and I loved the way it was told (in both the past and present chapters). I thought the writing was very well done and can't wait to read more books by Adam Silvera in the future.
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