Where Things Come Back

Summary: In the small town where Cullen Whitter lives, a man claims to have spotted a rare woodpecker, which brings hordes of tourists to the town. Amidst all the madness, Cullen's little brother Gabriel goes missing, and Cullen begins trying to find him. Meanwhile, the book focuses on an alternate timeline that features a failed missionary named Benton Sage and his roommate, Cabot Searcy. This is an incredibly compelling piece of fiction.

enjoyed this when I was younger. might revisit.

Enjoyable; well-plotted and structured.

Lorsque j'avais terminé en début de semaine Highly Illogical Behavior j'avais déjà envie de découvrir les autres romans de l'écrivain américain John Corey Whaley. Il ne m'a fallu que quelques jours et la lecture d'un roman très différent de Christophe Donner pour accomplir mon souhait. Il s'agit cette fois du premier roman de John Corey Whaley, intitulé Where Things Comme Back au résumé assez intriguant : 

In the remarkable, bizarre, and heart-wrenching summer before Cullen Witter's senior year of high school, he is forced to examine everything he thinks he understands about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town. His cousin overdoses; his town becomes absurdly obsessed with the alleged reappearance of an extinct woodpecker; and most troubling of all, his sensitive, gifted fifteen-year-old brother, Gabriel, suddenly and inexplicably disappears.

Meanwhile, the crisis of faith spawned by a young missionary's disillusion in Africa prompts a frantic search for meaning that has far-reaching consequences. As distant as the two stories initially seem, they are woven together through masterful plotting and merge in a surprising and harrowing climax.

This extraordinary tale from a rare literary voice finds wonder in the ordinary and illuminates the hope of second chances.

It was easier for me to hate everyone in town than hate myself for being afraid I'd be just like them.

My cynicism had been known, from time to time, to get me into accidental trouble. I was especially cynical in groups, perhaps feeling that a witty cut-down about a stranger would earn me the respect and admiration of friends. This rarely worked. You can only act like a jerk so many times before people stop listening to you. Gabriel broke me of this habit one night after I made fun of a couple leaving a movie theater. “You act like you hate everyone. It must be exhausting.” And, having no response, I decided that he was right.

Dr. Webb says that losing a sibling is oftentimes much harder for a person than losing any other member of the family. “A sibling represents a person's past, present, and future,” he says. “Spouses have each other, and even when one eventually dies, they have memories of a time when they existed before that other person and can more readily imagine a life without them. Likewise, parents may have other children to be concerned with—a future to protect for them. To lose a sibling is to lose the one person with whom one shares a lifelong bond that is meant to continue on into the future.”

Lordy, teenage angst + disappeared brother + small town life. I don't know what I'm going to be able to say about this “coming of age” genre in the end.

I enjoyed this book a lot, but the ending left me a little disappointed. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this book more if I hadn't read 100 Sideways Miles a few weeks ago, because both books have similar themes.

it has its moments, but was underwhelmed at the end.

It took me a little while to get into this one. Also, the chapters go back and forth between Cullen, Bentley, and Cabot, and I kept getting the weird-named teenage boys confused. After a few chapters I got everybody figured out, and I was definitely intrigued to see how all their stories would come together. (I was startled by how they did!)

This is definitely a self-aware, smart-ass teen book, in the vein of, I hate to say it, but something like Catcher in the Rye or a John Green novel. If you enjoy those things, you might enjoy this. If you're hoping for something with a strong female character or a bit more diversity, eh, maybe check elsewhere.

I'm starting this thing where after I finish reading a book, I review it rather than just giving it a rating. Now, with that said Where Things Come Back is, in my opinion, one of the hardest books that one could review.

There's nothing wrong with the book at all. I think it's an amazing story, and could possibly be one of my favorites. But it holds a lot of drawbacks. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot.

For one, the author uses: “When one (name of something happening), he (what he does)” more than it should be used. You can never go through a chapter with Cullen saying this, and later on in the book it takes up a hefty load of pages. It bored me, and I would even want to skim over it, but I knew that I could bare through it. What the purpose for Whaley overly using this is beyond me, but if he had just used it once, I would have been fine.

I only have two complaints after this. One is: Why in the hell was Cullen having all of these zombie hallucinations? It didn't happen as much as my first complaint, but when it did, my face seemed to contort into this weirdness of some sort. My next complaint is the weird names. I couldn't even pronounce some names, which was a little unsettling. And when he [Cullen] would mention the characters full names, I would passively roll my eyes.

All in all, I think this is a good start for Whaley, since it is his debut novel. I don't know if I'll check into Whaley's newer novels...that is if he writes any. This novel isn't meant for everyone, though, so if you don't want something that switches POV after every chapter, read of all the ass-hats (which is absurd. Who doesn't want to read of all the ass-hats?!), and especially if you don't believe in God, then this story is not meant for you.

Interesting, weird, and at times annoying (especially Cullen's habit of starting most of his thoughts with, “when one is...”), this would have to be matched up with the right kind of high school/8th grade kid, most lkely a boy. I've matched it with one odd-duck (in the best way) 8th grade boy who liked it alright and one high school boy who really didn't connect with it at all. I can see why it won awards from adult reviewers, I just think it'll be a hard sell to the intended audience (actual teen readers), and the book trailer that was aiming for mysterious but landed on pointlessly absurd doesn't really help.

I love books when it all comes together in the end. I love reading something and knowing it's all going to dovetail nicely but not knowing how it'll be done. That's how I felt reading this book. It's told from two different perspectives, with the main narrative being about Cullen Witter, his brother, and his best friend. After four chapters I was hooked and I read it in day (it's pretty short). I even tried to sneak away from the dinner table and read my last few pages because I just couldn't wait to see what happened. Only four stars because it wasn't perfect, and the writing was kind of strange at parts.