Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

I had to stalk John Corey Whaley because I was so captivated after finishing Where Things Come Back. I made sure to check out Wikipedia first and added some changes to the summary which did not do the story near enough justice.

Cullen, a young writer who cannot create anything but book titles.  I felt as if I was seeing into Whaley himself with this personality trait.  How many times have I wanted to write, have willed myself to write but absolutely nothing more than a useful sentence or two would make it onto the loose-leaf or blinking Microsoft word document?  The classic "over-thinker" can be found in Cullen Witter and I have the same curse as he.  Our brains are constantly working through some mystery or puzzle, whether this puzzle is real or self-created. Cullen wants to know why his love interest, Ada leaves him from her paralyzed ex-boyfriend. He jumps to the most illogical conclusion, that he has somehow caused Ada to leave.  The most logical conclusion is that she feels she is guilty for paralyzing her ex-boyfriend and must make it up to him. It is all about Ada's own guilt and the feelings she's dealing with and has nothing to do with Cullen.

Cullen Witter. Corey Whaley. That cannot be coincidence. The author referred to himself of Corey Whaley, not John Corey Whaley, in one part of an interview.

I had asked myself many times in high school why my best friend had chosen me.  She WAS and still is Lucas Cader. Perfect at everything. I had to discover myself and value my uniqueness before I could understand that I gave as much to her as she did to me, just like Cullen. How did John Corey Whaley managed to capture so much of adolescence that I had forgotten about his words seeped through my brain and ignited my memories?

In our teenage years, everyone else seems perfect and that we are the one and only person who is flawed. Part of growing up is finding that other people have faults too; no one person is the center of the universe.  Cullen starts to learn this important lesson, but he is still young to have learned the whole lesson.  Cullen is still progressing as a person, just as all humans are works-in-progress. This is such a great message for a young adult who is feeling lost, lonely, and scared.

Fruity Pebbles. The cereal of my adolescence.  I share this love of Fruity Pebbles with my younger brother.  The use of cereal stirred more memories in me than many of the other incidents of Where Things Come Back.

Teens love zombies.

It is curious that Cabot decided to let Lucas go. In the many day off I have had over the past few years of college, I have developed an extensive knowledge base of crime shows. Usually if a kidnapper needs the person they kidnapped to play a specific role for whatever reason (as Cabot needed Gabriel to play the role of Gabriel the archangel), once the role is fulfilled, the person kidnapped is killed. The mere fact that Gabriel started playing his role should have made Cabot kill him, but Cabot did not. For me, there was no logical reason that Cabot would keep Gabriel alive, and yet he did.  This bothered me, but the fact that Gabriel was alive helped smooth this possible unrealistic character decision in my mind.

The sudden realization that the time periods for the two stories of the novel were not the same could be surprisingly annoying. The author clearly misleads the reader to believe the two stories are taking place around the same day and same time.  I myself was a little peeved until I figured out what a strong way to keep the mystery in the novel mysterious.

The use of "one". Hmm. I have never found any piece of writing (fiction, non-fiction, formal, informal, etc.) that used the term "one" as much as this novel.  I, for one, did not like this tactic.  It made the narrator feel suddenly distant from the reader. Cullen's switch from his imaginings back to the real world was too smooth for my taste.  I feel I should be able to clearly tell

How did my small university library end up purchasing this novel anyhow?

Fade by Robert Corimer

I was extremely intrigued by this novel by Stephen King's quote on the back cover, “Imagine what might happen if Holden Caufield stepped into H. G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, and you’ll have an idea how good Fade is. . . . I was absolutely riveted.”

I don't know that I agree, Mr. King. But then again, I was terrorized by the movie image of "IT", so our disagreement could just be based on our difference tastes and interests.

Fade is the story of Paul Moreaux, an extremely curious young man who discovers he has been passed the ability to "fade" or make himself invisible down from his uncle. He becomes jaded of the world when he uses his ability to spy on neighbors, friends, and family. His vows to never use his ability again when he seemingly kills his younger brother.  The novel diverts after his brother's death with the story of Paul's distant cousin, Susan, the story of Paul's estranged, abandoned, and abused nephew, Ozzie, and the story of Paul's adult life.

The largest problem I had with this novel was the unnecessary details/side stories. The young narrator finds his aunt irresistible and eventually considers her "the one who got away" and "the love of his life". A preteen girl has sex with a married, adult grocer for money.  A set a seemingly perfect twins have an incestuous relationship while their rich parents party out of hearing. A twenty-something woman explores the truth of Paul's story after he is dead.  Paul has to find the next relative who can "fade".  The aforementioned relative, Ozzie, is taken over by an evil schizophrenic personality as a result of his ability to fade.  Paul is forced to kill Ozzie and his evil schizophrenic personality. Why, oh why did the author chose to even include these stories??????!

One could argue that these details were important, added to the story, moved the plot along, etc.  That simply is not true, in my perspective.  Paul could have yearned for a teacher, co-worker at the grocery store, or any woman or girl in the community (the community was small enough that everyone knew everyone), but Corimer chose the cause of Paul's lust to be his Aunt Rosanna.  I could deal with this though, as it could be said that a person does not chose who they love/lust after, especially a teenage boy who has yet to learn how to control his "urges". The grocer may have been the owner of the grocery store, but it was mentioned that this grocer had to lay-off Paul because of the low funds caused by the depression.  So would this grocer really have the money to pay for prostitution? Or the time to do so? Wouldn't he be trying to say as much money as possible and spend as much time as he could trying to keep his grocery store running? Then there are the incestuous twins.  The beauty is unrivaled, by Paul's descriptions, and yet, the twins chose each other.  They have a driver who could take them any place at any time (because their parents are frequently absent) and they choose to stay at home and have sex.  And what about school? The twins aren't "flowers in the attic", but two rich children who could get action from any peer they wanted, it seems. And why even create the characters of Susan and Ozzie if the novel is supposed to be young-adult fiction? Wouldn't the reader want to follow the main character. Paul, through his young adulthood? There are clear enough consequences of the fade for Paul, but the author questions whether the consequences were real or imagined out of guilt.  Why question what you wrote previously? Why create a completely separate conflict about schizophrenia? Why make it seem as if mental illness can only be fixed by death?

Robert Corimer had a good story going with Paul's French-Canadian heritage and his insecurities about life and his identity (because his ability to fade, his heritage, his school, and the fact that he was a teen).  Young adult readers could relate to the depression Paul must have felt after his younger brother died, but the author chose to completely skip over this aspect of Paul's life.  Paul is about to go to a high school and have a brand-new experience, similar to that of many young adult readers and Corimer chose not to write about this part of Paul's life either. How did Paul resist the urge to use the fade through his terrible teens? When did he really want to fade but couldn't make himself do it? How did Paul deal with the aftermath of the murder he committed? Did he feel guilty? Did he lust for more? How does Paul deal with all of the things life has thrown at him and get through them into adulthood?

Or if the author wanted to explore other young adult characters, he could have written about any of Paul's four remaining siblings or Paul's friends.  If the author chose to keep the incestuous twins, what would they do if/when they found out their actions are deemed immoral by society? What happens when one twin falls in love but the other is still pining for further incestuous acts? Or the preteen prostitute? What has happened in her life that forces her to such extreme behavior?

I did not wholly dislike this book, but I am 22 years old and no longer a teen.  I must say that I would not recommend this book as a piece of rich young adult literature.  The only format I could see myself teaching this book in is in excerpts.  There are many fantastic passages of teenage struggle which are simply dampened by the extra, unnecessary details of the book.  If the author chose to further expand on the basic teen struggles which are already in place in Fade, the book's merits would rise significantly in my view.

Why I'm Writing This

I have been trying to read lots of young adult literature this summer to prepare for my destiny in teaching.  I need to have knowledge of lots of books, in general, as a future high school English teacher, but young adult literature is such important genre for high schoolers to read.  It gives them something to relate to and makes something feel real in their lives.  Teens deal with a lot of tough stuff in a small chunk of their lives, but that "chunk" is so concentrated and packed full of haywire-y emotions and fluid identities that is feels like the endless hallways of so many Washington D.C. apartment buildings.  I once asked a friend why he lived so far away from the entrance of his apartment building in Washington D.C. and he told me it was because of the view.  Young adult literature helps teens see that view in a way they never could before.