Chasing Ghosts

You Were Here by Cori McCarthy

It's Jaycee's graduation day, which is exactly five years to the day after her brother, Jake's, graduation. The difference is that Jaycee doesn't die as a result of truth or dare gone bad. Jaycee saw him die, and this has done a number on her.

In an effort to be closer to Jake, Jaycee goes to the scene of his death every year on its anniversary, and then goes into the abandoned asylum because she knew Jake liked to go there. On the night of her own graduation, she is accompanied by people who once were her friends, all of whom have their own problems to overcome.

This is a book of finding who you are, and finding your true friends. This one definitely deserves to make the 2017 TAYSHAS list.

One thing I would like to point out, since this is something I recently had lessons over for my own students, and because it is not something you see very often: This book is a mix of point of view. When we read Jaycee's chapters, they are told in first person, but Zach and Natalie's chapters are third person limited. It's unusual to see two different types of point of view in one story.