An email from high achiever Meg informs everyone that she has committed suicide. Her best friend Cody is shattered by the loss of her lifelong friend, but equally so by the realization that she she didn’t know Meg as well as she thought.
How did Meg manage to plan and execute a meticulous plotted suicide without Cody knowing a thing?
Cody retraces Meg’s trail of University friends and acquaintances, to uncover anything that will tell her why Meg would make such a choice, and who assisted her in seeing it through. She devises a daring plan to discover the why, who and how of this tragedy.
She slowly finds answers to her questions and more. Suicide Support groups are found on-line encouraging suicide. Shameless, nameless predators lurk behind the guise of helpers for the depressed, anguished, and vulnerable young people who can’t find answers to their problems. Insidious auto-suggestions coated in clever words, befriend and persuade, then drop their line for the Final Solution. This chilling information falls like ash over Cody.
Her search will bring her to love but with the person she sees as having caused Meg’s death.
Generating conflict and a deep mystery, the story follows trails and side roads on its way to the final revelation. Lives crumble but are put together again in a courageous and uplifting way.
This is a love story that is about living as much as dying. It reveals the widespread devastation that suicide and its ripple effect leaves behind. Themes cover the strength and power of family, and overcoming grief and loss.
Title: I Was Here
Author: Gayle Forman
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, $19.99 RRP
Publication Date: 27 January 2015
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781471124396
For ages: 15+
Type: Young Adult Fiction
