What You Left Me

In Bridget Morrissey's debut novel, we examine the intersecting lives of Martin and Petra, graduating high school seniors who meet at their graduation due to the magic of alphabetical seating. They flirt, it's cute, and despite Petra's reservations, she decides to take him up on his offer to go to his graduation party. When she and her friends arrive, however, the house is empty, and they find out the horrible truth: Martin and his best friend ducked out of graduation early and were in a terrible car accident, and Martin is just barely alive. Despite not knowing him at all, Petra becomes entangled in his life through extraordinary means, and the story unfolds to examine how influential even the smallest of connections on our lives can be.

The premise of this book was intriguing, and Morrissey can craft some lyrical, poignant lines, but this story just did not work for me. Part of it was related to my own expectations of a pseudo-Dear Evan Hansen plot, where Petra simply becomes involved in his life post-accident due to some hidden truths that spiral out of control, rather than the magical realism of dream-hopping, ghosty Martin that actually happened. But another part of it is the way the plot is structured: we're barely given time to get to know Martin before the accident - which I realize is kind of the point, but made my feelings toward his perilous situation kind of blah, and sad only in that surface-level, but-he's-so-young sort of way - and the repetition of the alternating POVs/dream sequences only offer a cursory glimpse into who he is to all of his loved ones. As a result, I thought he fell sort of flat, and I was more interested in Petra's story, especially her connection with her friends and how she feels (not unfairly) that she is not living up to the expectations of her family. Again, since the POV is alternating, and since so much time is spent on dream sequences - and then condensed, summarized versions of said dream sequences spoken aloud to other characters - we're not given a full picture of that, either.

I'm not one against magical realism, but this is one story I think could have functioned better without the fantastical elements. I suppose I was looking for something more akin to Paper Towns, where Petra and her friends unspool the threads of Martin's life and get to know him, or at least their perception of him, as his life hangs in the balance, but it is more similar to If I Stay or Before I Fall. I enjoy all those books for different reasons, but this one failed to meet the caliber of any of them for me.

I know this review may seem overwhelmingly negative, but I didn't hate this book at all. There were a lot of things I liked about it, first and foremost Petra and her friends, as I stated; I also loved the acknowledgment that even people you love most in the world don't always know how best to comfort you or fix a situation, and that teachers/parents/adults can often screw up when trying to help kids, no matter how well-intentioned they are. This is something any kid can tell you, naturally, but it's always good to have a reminder that none of us actually know what we're doing.

I'll read more of Morrissey's work in the future, but for this one, I'm giving a 2.5/5, rounded up for potential and awareness of my own skewed expectations.