What I Was by Meg Rosoff

What I Was by Meg Rosoff
Reviewed by Suzanne Dlugolonski, Teen Services Librarian

Award-winning young adult author Meg Rosoff’s first adult novel, What I Was, is a thrilling coming-of-age tale.  The 100-year-old narrator, H, takes us back to his year at St. Oswald’s, an all-male school on the eastern coast of England.  This is H’s third boarding school.  H knows he is a disappointment to his father but doesn’t much mind.  H assumes this school will also have little success turning him into a man, and his tenure at St. Oswald’s will be as brief.

Skipping out on a long-distance run, H meets Finn, a boy living alone in a rickety fisherman’s hut.  An unlikely friendship is struck—one that will haunt H for the rest of his life.  H envies Finn and his life by the sea.  Thoughts of Finn become all-encompassing; minutes, hours, days, weeks are all planned around Finn.  However, H cannot escape the real world by hiding on the beach and scandal soon shatters their idyllic world.

What I Was is spellbinding.  H’s adolescent insecurities are relatable to all readers, as were his wistful feelings of longing and regret.  Rosoff keeps the reader captivated through the entire book—and even pulls off a big surprise twist toward the end.  The Lewiston Public Library owns one copy; it can be reserved through NIOGA.  To learn more about author Meg Rosoff visit her website.