You Were Here

Gr 10 Up—It's been five years since Jake died—he broke his neck the day of his high school graduation while attempting a daredevil stunt. Jake's sister, Jaycee, has had a hard time letting him go. It's now Jaycee's own high school graduation, but she's still consumed with sadness, guilt, and anger over his death. When she discovers a map in Jake's old room of all the locations he visited during his urbex explorations (going to abandoned man-made structures like a mall or amusement park), she and a group of unlikely friends decide to re-create Jake's path. There's Natalie, Jaycee's former best friend; Zach, Natalie's slacker boyfriend; Bishop, a lovesick artist; and Mik, Jake's former best friend who is now a selective mute. The story is told from five points of view in alternating chapters. Three follow a traditional prose narrative, while Mik's is told in graphic novel style and Bishop's through chapters consisting of street art reproduced on a single page. The emphasis, however, is on the two female characters, and since Jaycee's chapters are in the first person, her story is the most personal. The pacing is slow at the start, and the work has an ambitious structure with a lot of moving parts; it may take a while for readers to become vested in the outcome or care about the characters. Readers who persevere, however, will be rewarded by the emotionally satisfying conclusion.