Where Things Come Back

Name: Where Things Come Back
Author: John Corey Whaley
ISBN: 9781548603007

John Corey Whaley

award won

score

John Corey Whaley

award won

score

#1523 of 8,085 books · #103 in Young Adult

Won the Michael L. Printz Award (2012).

Where Things Come Back follows two parallel narratives. The first involves Cullen Witter, a high school senior in a small Arkansas town who struggles with an obsessive compulsion to document everything in his life through photography and journaling. When his younger brother Daniel goes missing, Cullen must confront his own mental health issues and learn to live in the moment rather than constantly recording it. The second narrative is set decades earlier and explores the legend of the Lazarus woodpecker, a bird thought to be extinct that is suddenly sighted in the same small town. A young minister becomes obsessed with proving the bird's existence, leading him down a path of obsession and faith. The two stories interweave, exploring themes of loss, obsession, faith, and the ways we try to hold onto the things that matter most. Through Cullen's journey, the novel examines how documenting life can sometimes prevent us from truly living it, while the woodpecker narrative questions what we believe in and why.

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