Where Things Come Back

by John Corey Whaley

Just when seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter thinks he understands everything about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town, it all disappears...In the summer before Cullen's junior year, a nominally-depressed birdwatcher named John Barling thinks he spots the ivory-billed woodpecker--a species thought to be extinct since the 1940s--in Lily, Arkansas. His rediscovery of the so-called Lazarus Woodpecker sparks a flurry of press and woodpecker-mania. Soon all the kids are getting woodpecker haircuts and everyone's eating "Lazarus burgers." But as absurd as the town's carnival atmosphere has become, nothing is more startling than the realization that Cullen's sensitive, gifted fifteen-year-old brother Gabriel has suddenly and inexplicably disappeared. While Cullen navigates his way through a summer of finding and losing love, holding his fragile family together, and muddling his way into adulthood, a young missionary in Africa, who has lost his faith, is searching for any semblance of meaning wherever he can find it.
As distant as the two stories seem at the start, they are thoughtfully woven ever closer together and through masterful plotting, brought face to face in a surprising and harrowing climax. Complex but truly extraordinary, tinged with melancholy and regret, comedy and absurdity, this novel finds wonder in the ordinary and emerges as ultimately hopeful. It's about a lot more than what Cullen calls, "that damn bird." It's about the dream of second chances.

• ISBN10: 1442413344
• ISBN13: 9781442413344
• Publish Date: 24 July 2012 (first published 3 May 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Edition: Reprint ed.
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 272
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kelly]

4½ Stars.
Deep. Emotional. Poignant.
http://www.divabooknerd.com/2015/02/where-things-come-back-by-john-corey.html
Where Things Come Back was incredibly complex, poignant and an engaging story that I simply couldn't put down. It follows two separate storylines, Benton who is a young Missionary in a foreign country, always striving for his father's acceptance and Cullen, who lives in a sleepy country town, where his brother has disappeared. They're worlds apart, but through fate, both Cullen and Benton's stories combine to one bittersweet and climatic ending.

Although I couldn't relate to Benton, as his life was dictated to by the word of God, Cullen's character was realistic, raw and I couldn't help but be drawn into his storyline. His pain and anguish as the weeks fly by with no sign of his brother was painful. Cullen's emotions flew off the page and I felt every high, every low and held out hope for Gabriel to return.

This isn't your average contemporary, it's intricate and as the puzzle pieces fall into place, the reader will discover the connection and events that will ultimately change lives and leave destruction in their wake.

I loved it. An intelligent read that will appeal more so to the mature young adult reader. Deep, philosophical and a raw.

[Stephanie]

I really liked this book. That's pretty much it.

[clementine]

Man, I could write so much about this book but I'm tired and my brain is mush from watching the Olympics all day so I'll just have to say that I thought it was really damn good. I loved the characters, I loved the subtext, I loved how quietly moving it was.

The intersecting storylines were the strongest part of it to me. Even before you see how it all comes together (and let me tell you, when I realized that Cabot kidnapped Gabriel I for real gasped), there are a lot of really interesting parallels, tied together by different religious imagery. Even just the part that was narrated by Cullen was really interesting, because the Lazarus woodpecker was so intensely symbolic.

I don't know, I just thought it was really really wonderful, and an incredible YA offering. Teenagers need books like this, books that are clean and intelligent and constructed in an unpredictable manner and chalk full of flawed, realistic characters and emotional without being in your face about it. This one's definitely moving with me to Montreal, which is not something I say lightly since I'm trying to keep it down to 2 shelves!