#78- What I Was

Book No: 78
Title: What I Was
Author: Meg Rosoff
Genre: Fiction
Published: 2008
Obtained: 2008/Paperbackswap
Completed: 10/15/08
No. of Pages: N/A
Rating: 2.5/5*****

This is a coming of age story told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator. He is 100 years old, it is the middle of the 21st century and he is recalling a period in his life during the early 1960's. Miserable in his boarding school, in an isolated area of England, and unhappy with his strained relationship with his parents, his lack of social graces and lack of friendships the protagonist comes across a boy named Finn, about his age, who lives alone and self sufficiently in a small beach hut not far from his school. Our narrator becomes friends of a sort with Finn. This friendship eventually leads to tragedy and the revelation of a secret that changes both their lives.

I cannot put my finger on what I didn't like about this book, except that I figured out the secret quite early in the book and after all the events unfold the narrator gives an anti-climatic telling of his life after the events of that year - yet I wanted to know more about some of the things he mentioned in passing. Also there was a bit of environmental doom preaching that seemed contrived.

The author usually writes YA books, and I think that although this book is marketed to adults it might resonate more with older teens.