I was there ~ Gayle Forman ✩ Review

*Read in french as “J’étais la” *

This novel is the story of a young lady, Cody, who discover that her bestfriend, Meg, killed herself. Thoses two ladies were “best friends”, although Cody never knew that her sister of heart was depressive and even thought of suicide until the day it happened. She’s hurt and lost.. why did she never spoke to her about it ?! What must she do now that a piece of herself is not living anymore ? Pushed by the realisation that she always lived in Meg’s shadow, she goes on an adventure to understand and find out what truly happened – not only for her, but also for Meg’s parents ..

Although this book didn’t let my brain in ebullition after every read like my last one did, I quite enjoyed it nonetheless. Giving it 4 stars out of 5.

At first, this is not the book I thought it would had been, and I found the start to be a bit lenghtly. But the further I went, I got scooped into it and even feared of what Cody would discover. A warning however, this might not be the book for you if you are in a dark state of mind, like I was. I related to Cody so much in the way she acted, but also that I decided to buy this book when my depression was much more strong than it is now – and, like her, my very own bestfriend is hours apart from me. Some things i stood into from this book was a bit hard for me to take in the moment – for exemple the interactions with “All_BS”.

This is the first book that treat of mental illness and suicide this close to reality that i’ve read, which made me shed some tears at the end .. in the thanks pages at the end, The author even wrote a little tribute to every men and women who battle depression/mental illness/mood disorders/suicide who surrended it and ended up recovering, but also to thoses of us who couldn’t make it.. along with some encouragements to do reach out and talk about it and seek the help we may need;