Review: When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney

Title: When You Were Here 
Author: Daisy Whitney
Expected publication: June 4th 2013 by Little, Brown
Goodreads / Amazon
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I always feel awkward when I review books (which is very unfortunate since that’s what I do) but this time I feel especially inadequate. Because this book was beautiful and heartfelt and all I could think about was: WHAT KIND OF CANCER DOES ELIZABETH HAVE?

Really. My mind couldn’t stop swimming around all the possibilities and the possible treatments, and then I was just like; tea that cures cancer?! BS!

Yeah, not my classiest moment but sometimes I get carried away because I want everyone to win against cancer and I want to do everything possible and use ever single drug that’s been proven works.

I couldn’t concentrate, I couldn’t stop thinking what they could have done to save Elizabeth. I was a mess of feelings but not for the right reasons I think.

But then, when Danny (Elizabeth’s son) learns about the reason why Holland left him; I stopped, breathed in, and it was like I saw the story with different eyes, a new light was shed over the pages. I started to get the real point of the story.

That’s when my heart started breaking, because when your mom dies, omg I can’t even. Danny’s inconsolable, I was too; cancer’s an awful thing but when the person you love most in the world has it, how are you suppose to function still? I am fortunate enough to have my mom with me (thank God) but I still got Danny’s pain, felt it like it was my own, and grieved right along with him like it was my lost.

Despite all the sadness this book brought to my life (and believe me, it was a lot) there were some awesome aspects to it too. The most amazing of them all was definitely Japan. Now I’ve never been one of those girls obsessed with Japanese stuff, before this book I haven’t even considered ever visiting there, but I had another thing coming because Japan sounds awesome! The Karaoke! All the crazy colors! The fun merchandise! It sounds like I could be one happy gal over there.

 Also, I love boy point of views, and I personally think Daisy Whitney nailed it! I totally believed Danny’s voice, he didn’t seem like he was trying too hard at being all macho and ‘I’m a man, erase all doubt!’, he was teenage-boy-confused not only because his mom just died, or because he is now an orphan, or because the-big-secret-Holland-kept-from-him, it was everything that rolled into a big ball of destruction that crushed the life out of him. The real magic came when we got to see Danny rising from the ashes with the help of a city where dreams come true.

Now it's your turn to fall in love with Tokyo, and with Danny's story; since today's the day When You Were Here is out. Happy book birthday!