History is All You Left Me by: Adam Silvera

Summary:

When Griffin’s first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he’s been imagining for himself has gone far off course.

To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. But no matter how much they open up to each other, Griffin’s downward spiral continues. He’s losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he’s been keeping are tearing him apart.

If Griffin is ever to rebuild his future, he must first confront his history, every last heartbreaking piece in the puzzle of his life.

The Review:

This was another book on my TBR. Earlier this year I read Adam Silvera other book, More Happy Than Not and I really liked it so I was glad that he wrote another book also dealing with gay themes.

History is All you Left Me, like More Happy Than Not deals a lot with grief and death, but does it in the best way possible. It begins with Griffin dealing with the death of his ex-boyfriend Theo, and Griffin feels a lot of grief towards it especially when he meets Theo’s current boyfriend Jackson at the funeral, and they start to sort of befriend one another.

The book also uses the narrative of flashbacks which gives us a glimpse into the relationship between Griffin and Theo, which includes their entire courtship from them both coming out and dating to them breaking up after Theo leaves for college. I thought the relationship was extremely well developed and you actually care about both of them even though you know whats going to happen.

Griffin, was also a well developed character. After the death of Theo he is going through a lot of emotions, and a bulk of the present day narrative he is “talking” to Theo, and is acting like all of his actions Theo is watching him. Throughout the book he is dealing with not only the break up between him and Theo but also his death and him trying to get over it. Griffin trying to befriend Jackson and their relationship was also pretty good with both of them having a shared grief towards Theo.

Another relationship Griffin had is with Wade, a friend of his and Theo’s. It was nice to him have a best friend especially when his relationship with Theo deteriorates and they even are about to enter a relationship until Griffin gets a call about Theo’s death.

What makes the book great is how Adam Silvera writs characters, especially LGBTQA+ characters as normal people and makes them relatable. Griffin was an average teenager who likes video games, comics and Harry Potter. But writing grief was also very well done and seeing Griffin’s inner turmoil is what made the book great.

In the end, History is All You Left Me was a great book that really sets up Adam Silvera has a great YA contemporary author. It gave us well developed characters and I want to see more books by him.

Grade 5/5