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?
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