This isn’t your typical ‘coming of age/first love’ teen novel. I was half expecting the surrealism of ‘Just In Case’, or the movement of ‘How I Live Now’: two more of Meg Rossoff’s critically acclaimed books. When that didn’t come I’ll admit to feeling a little lost. But then I started picking up on the atmosphere she’s created in ‘What I Was’, and from that point on I was hooked. It’s poetic in a subtle kind of way: poignant without being mushy or sentimental. You believe in the characters, are pulled in to Finn’s lifestyle and feel Hillary’s heartache when it’s all turned upside down. You end up wishing things would go back to how they were just as he does, because in those few chapters when Finn’s little world stands intact it’s so comfortable and sheltered you never want to leave. Simply put, this is a beautiful book. Not an instantly re-readable one, because it takes a while for all that atmosphere to sink in. But definitely one that stays with you.