#look. I know Griffin didn't even know how the story would unfold

[gabenvrhappened]

BooksOr... History Is All You Left Me

Continuing my journey through Adam Silvera's books, my next one was History Is All You Left Me. Just like More Happy Than Not, I mainly bought the paperback version for the cover, and I now decided that these are the perfecy editions for daily reading. There's something cool about carrying a book on the subway or in the park and looking like that mysterious boy I want to be so bad, but can't, most of the time because I'm a Gimini.

If you didn't stop reading this review after discovering I'm from that zodiac sign, we're all good and we can return to the book. I remember thinking it was better than More Happy Than Not. Adam's writing skills were improving — I actually thought this was his sophomore book, but it was actually They Both Die at The End — and the story had that nostalgic teenage feeling of 2017, when I was a teenager myself, falling in love and fearing if the target of my infatuation was straight or not. Thankfully, in the book, the outcome is more positive than the first book Silvera published, but up until a certain point where everything turns to chaos and depression hits our shores. Adam has this obsession with death, and I love it. I never lost someone I cared about deeply, but I know people who have, and I can't imagine how devastating it must be.

Moving on, one thing about me is that I hate spoilers. So when I discovered how Theo, one of the main characters, died through a random post on Instagram, I was so mad! That's why in my reviews, you won't find many details about storylines, because I'm a spoiler hater. But even so, I had the feeling that Adam didn't want this to be a big revelation, since it was so casually dropped in a sentence… if that's the case, I consider it a bad choice. This could've been a mystery to keep us guessing when it would happen until we saw it unfolding. The way Adam approached this, telling us in "advance", made it lose some of its "magic", if I can call a death scene magic. Either way, I'll never know if it was supposed to be a big revelation or not. Maybe that's not even the case, because the biggest scream I gave while reading this book was when Griffin, the main character and narrator, did that with Jackson (this is me avoiding spoilers, just so you know). It was also mentioned in the middle of a sentence, so who knows.

Apart from that, I really enjoyed the read. I liked how Adam used OCD to give more personality to Griffin, in a humanizing, but not romanticized, way. Sorry if that's something bad to say, but I just feel like I love it when characters have something unique about them, something that doesn't fully define them. It's not something that impacts the story, but it enriches it. I love when authors bring these types of nuances to their narratives.

Of course, there were eye-rolling parts where I could cringe at the teenage dialogue and actions choices, but it could be that I'm just too old for some things or just too jealous not to have those experiences anymore. But nothing made me feel as strongly as reading What If It's Us or Here's To Us. Man... those books are something else.

There was something, though, that made me really lose my cool while reading. Now I think it's something that Adam does for the sake of the narrative flow, so it's annoying but not something worth stressing out. But I can't wrap my head around the fact that Griffin was able to go to another city with an underage boy, being underage himself. Just like in Adam's first book and the whole issue with Aaron's mother supporting some questionables decisions, this type of plot convenience seems like lazy writing to me. I'm sure the outcome could've been better achieved in a different way.

Overall, the experience was incredible. It gets repetitive to say that History Is All You Left Me can make you feel all the emotions and make you wonder about everything. The ending was cool and unexpected, but only to some extent (honestly, from the beginning, I sensed some gay vibes coming from Wade), and I can only wonder how Griffin's and Jackson's lives must be now. Even with the new chapeter the paperback edition bring us, you can't tell that much. But for one thing, I'm glad they're not together. Some things should be left in history, and I'm glad that's what they left us with.

[vulturevanity]

Magnus: “Do you know anything about this umbrella?”

Madam Director: “Uh, no.”

Me: