I stayed up late last night to finish this book and, I confess, I had chills down my spine as I came to the final page. At the same time I’m also watching as Griffin gets used to the fact that there was another boy that Theo loved, reading as his jealousy and hatred slowly melts away as he realizes Jackson is in the same spot he is.People are complicated puzzles, always trying to piece together a complete picture, but sometimes we get it wrong and sometimes we’re left unfinished. Within just a few pages I found myself enthralled in Griffin’s story, wanting to know more about how he and Theo’s relationship started, reading as they grew and became a cute couple but then breaking up. We go back and forth between 2014, 20 and each time we do, the characters change and grow and give us a whole new view of the story. It’s an odd feeling when you turn the first few chapters and you have to realize the Griffin whose words you’re reading just lost Theo, when only moments ago you were reading his adorable excitement at the possibilities of new romance. Silvera’s approach to telling this story is poignant. We watch as Griffin and Theo’s friendship blooms into a full-blown romance, and we weep as we see Griffin start to have to get used to a life without Theo for the second and heartbreakingly final time. It begins with the day Theo died and switches chapters into the day Theo and Griffin first started their relationship.

The novel alternates which Griffin we’re hearing from. Jackson makes it to New York for his funeral where he has to face Griffin and Theo’s past. Theo and Jackson become closer and Griffin is forced to accept this because he knows Theo is happy, but then Theo drowns. Not wanting to do the long-distance thing, they break up, but to Griffin’s surprise Theo is able to move on a few months later with Jackson. Griffin and Theo are separated at first by Santa Monica College, where Theo gets accepted for early admission. Then we have sixteen-year-old Griffin from 2014, who has just begun to date Theo. As if grieving wasn’t hard enough, Griffin also has OCD, something that he struggles with often throughout the story. He’s an eighteen-year-old kid living in New York who was in love with his best friend and ex-boyfriend, Theo, and is now mourning his loss. To better understand the concept of the novel, you’ll need to know more about Griffin. This is not a simple Romeo and Juliet tragedy, folks. Grieving his loss, he finds that the only person who could possibly understand turns out to be Theo’s final boyfriend, Jackson. The story follows Griffin, whose very complicated ex-boyfriend, Theo, drowned and broke the biggest promise he ever made to him - don’t die.

History was all you left me