Review by Sam Redfearn, 15
You Were Never Here By Kathleen Peacock
Cat hasn’t set foot in Montgomery Falls in five years. The last time she was there, she’d spent the summer with her Aunt Jet and made a friend in the form of her neighbor, Riley Fraser. Riley had OCD and had been obsessed with the forest surrounding the small Canadian town. They’d spent hours exploring it together, and in Cat’s memory, Riley is the weird, nerdy social outcast she knew so well, but now, five years later, in the midst of his seemingly perfect life, Riley has vanished. In her quest to figure out where he went, Cat stumbles upon the web of lies and drama that Riley left behind. In the process, she makes many new friends, but after a girl is found floating down a river with strangely precise cuts running all along her arms and holding an object that once belonged to Riley, it is not entirely clear how many people from the town can really be trusted.
You Were Never Here is a captivating tale, incorporating many elements of mystery, horror, and even fantasy to create a world that reaches just beyond reality. The supernatural elements of the story are not overstated or made the center of the story, which was a unique and creative formatting. However, the book was not entirely lacking in flaws. In the beginning, one is inclined to believe the story will focus on Riley’s disappearance. This is not the case; as the book immediately deviates from its focus on Riley, hinging on the incredibly bare knowledge the reader is given about him to motivate the rest of the story. Although later on, the reveals that are made about Cat and Riley’s relationship are clever and unforeseen, they happen abruptly, as afterthoughts than key points to the plot. Even though the reader is told that Cat knew Riley quite well, he is still a stranger by the end of the story. The book is interesting, and the world is well thought out and truly brilliant as a concept, but since finding Riley is meant to be the focus of the story, it feels wrong that in the midst of everything that happens, he is never someone the reader cares about, just someone Cat cares about. Everything else about the story is chilling and truly enthralling, but Riley’s existence being reduced to a footnote is a fault that cannot be ignored.
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392 pages