Allison Freeman

APA Citation:

Whaley, J. C. (2011). Where Things Come Back. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Award: William C. Morris YA Debut

Format: Print

Selection Process: School Library Journal review

Alexander, K. (2011). Where Things Come Back. School Library Journal, 57(7), 110. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Review:
The title of this book is a bit confusing but by the end it makes total sense. 17-year-old Cullen Witter lives in the small town of Lily, Arkansas. Nothing out of the ordinary happens there till Cullen's cousin Oslo overdoses on drugs and dies in far off Little Rock. Cullen's aunt Julia is crushed by the loss of her son. Some things that had left Lily, Arkansas came back again. John Barling spots the-thought-to-be-extinct-since-the-1940's Lazarus woodpecker. Alma Ember went off to college only to return to Lily heart-broken over dropping out of college, a miscarriage and a failed marriage. Benton Sage returns to the states after a failed mission to Africa to help spread the word of God. Shortly after Alma and Benton return from their journeys of self-discovery, Cullen Witter's brother Gabriel, age 15, goes mysteriously missing. None of these events seem to be connected over the course of the Lazarus mania in Lily but a connection is made unknowingly through the intersection of the life and death of Benton Sage and the return of Alma Ember to Lily. The characters in this story were fascinating. Cullen Witter is a writer, a dreamer and doesn't really fit well in Lily. He wants to leave Lily and never return but everything that leaves Lily comes back again. Gabriel is Cullen's gifted younger brother. He has a special way of looking at the world and experiencing the world through music and reading books. Lucas Cader is Cullen's best friend who adopts Gabriel as his brother after his own brother perished following in their father's destructive alcoholic path. The story is primarily told from the perspective of Cullen but soon the plot thickens with the addition of chapters written from the perspective of Benton Sage, his roommate in college Cabot Searcy and a few other perspectives. As the story progressed, the plot kept returning to seemingly unimportant characters, such as Cabot Searcy and Benton Sage. These characters role in the plot become apparent and the pieces of the somewhat confusing plot from the multiple characters perspectives finally fall into place as the story comes to a satisfying resolution. The ending was a complete surprise but the reader is left wondering what really happened and if the conclusion was merely Cullen Witter's dream or a reality. John Corey Whaley created a plot fraught with loss, death, journeys (physical and metaphysical), shattered dreams, faith, true friendship, family, love, and hope even in the worst of circumstances. Highly recommended. Grades 8+

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