Cullen Witter's summer break begins with a trip to the Lily, Arkansas morgue. With this aunt and mother too distraught to get out of the car and his father on another long haul delivery, Cullen is left to identify the body. And his summer only gets better when an ornithologist from Washington shows up in town claiming he has seen a species of woodpecker previously thought to be extinct.
As the small town of Lily is brought to life by the sudden influx of scientists, media and bird watchers, Cullen's life is turned upside down when his younger brother Gabriel goes missing. Cullen spends his summer going through Gabriel's things, wondering what happened to him, and trying to keep the faith that he will see his brother again. As summer drags on, Cullen and his best-friend Lucas never lose hope that Gabriel will return home, even as everyone else in Lily moves on. Meanwhile, after his roommate and friend kills himself, Cabot Searcy finds his hidden journal filled with mysterious bible quotes. Cabot decides to take on his former friend's search for meaning and purpose in life.
These two stories collide in an unexpected way. I was interested in reading Where Things Come Back after I met the author, John Corey Whaley in December. His description of the book did not do the plot justice, but I will give him a break since it is very difficult book to describe. I originally thought it would read a lot like a John Green novel, but now I am not sure it can be so easily pigeonholed.
For a first novel, I think Whaley did a fantastic job of weaving the two stories together (a task that I would have told you was impossible at the beginning of the book). I liked the characters, especially the relationship between Cullen and Lucas. I wish that Whaley had taken a bit more time to round out some of the characters and plots. I felt like there were a lot of people who came in and out of the book and we knew very little about them, or they left without much explanation. I think had the book been another hundred pages long, it would have been no problem for the author to fill them.