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When You Were Everything

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When You Were Everything

By: Ashley Woodfolk
Narrated by: Imani Parks
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About this listen

 For fans of Nina LaCour's We Are Okay and Adam Silvera's History Is All You Left Me, this heartfelt and ultimately uplifting novel follows one sixteen-year-old girl's friend breakup through two concurrent timelines--ultimately proving that even endings can lead to new beginnings.

"Stunning." --Nic Stone, bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out

You can't rewrite the past, but you can always choose to start again.

It's been twenty-seven days since Cleo and Layla's friendship imploded.

Nearly a month since Cleo realized they'll never be besties again.

Now Cleo wants to erase every memory, good or bad, that tethers her to her ex-best friend. But pretending Layla doesn't exist isn't as easy as Cleo hoped, especially after she's assigned to be Layla's tutor. Despite budding friendships with other classmates--and a raging crush on a gorgeous boy named Dom--Cleo's turbulent past with Layla comes back to haunt them both.

Alternating between time lines of Then and Now, When You Were Everything blends past and present into an emotional story about the beauty of self-forgiveness, the promise of new beginnings, and the courage it takes to remain open to love.

"Breathtakingly beautiful....Woodfolk has a way of making words sing and burst with light." --Tiffany D. Jackson, award-winning author of Monday's Not Coming and Let Me Hear A Rhyme Contemporary Contemporary Romance Difficult Situations Family & Relationships Friendship Literature & Fiction Multicultural Romance Heartfelt Feel-Good

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Critic reviews

“A stunning story that speaks to the deeply human need to love and be loved in myriad ways.” —Nic Stone, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Jackpot

“This is a heady, heart-squelching book. I loved it.” —Mary H.K. Choi, New York Times bestselling author of Emergency Contact and Permanent Record

"This book has everything I want.... Wise and melancholic, gorgeously nostalgic, Woodfolk’s stories pummel your heart and make you stronger for it." —Justin A. Reynolds, author of Opposite of Always

“A breathtakingly beautiful and intimate story.” —Tiffany D. Jackson, award-winning author of Monday's Not Coming and Let Me Hear A Rhyme

“A hugely evocative and deeply relatable elegy to friendship, heartbreak, and love, this book is gorgeous in every way.” —Jennifer E. Smith, author of Windfall and Field Notes on Love

"Digs in to what makes a friend break-up feel life-shattering. Exquisite, intimate, and vulnerable, this story will surely stick with readers long after they finish it.” —Mark Oshiro, award-winning author of Anger is A Gift

“Ashley Woodfolk's When You Were Everything is a nuanced view of the complicated layers of teenage friendship. In gorgeous, evocative prose, Woodfolk explores the different types of love that feed, wound, and heal us.” —Brandy Colbert, award-winning author of Little & Lion and The Revolution of Birdie Randolph

“A satisfying coming-of-age friendship story.” —Publisher's Weekly, starred review

"Skillfully voices the pain of unexpectedly losing a close friend and explores the choice to remain open despite the risk of future heartache…. A well-crafted story of resilience.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
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Most relevant
I have a lot of feelings for this book <3

When You Were Everything is the story of two teenagers who grow apart, who were everything to each other until they weren't. It's about the ugliness of being a teenager at high school with gossip-y bullies. It's about making new memories and finding new joy. It's about the pains of growing up and realising no one in your life is as perfect as you made them out to be in your head.

It was also beautifully nostalgic for me. My BFF and I fought when we were around the same age, and I thought we would never be friends again. (As it turned out, we missed each other too much and were okay eventually, but that took years apart.) So, this book had a lot of emotions and realisations I felt on a personal level.

It shows that it's perfectly normal for the friends you make at school to not stay your friends forever, and that it's okay to move on, make new friends, and be okay again when everything else falls apart. For that reason alone, I think every teenager should read this. Yes, it sucks in the moment and it will probably suck for a while, but it's temporary.

It also reminded me how glad I am to be out of high school o.o (not that I needed reminding *ahem*)

It does read like it's perfect for a younger audience, entirely because there's a LOT of teen drama and 'you ruined my life!' going on. I expected as much from the blurb and didn't mark it down for that (can't really punish a book for doing what it promised on the cover). I did enjoy it overall, but there were moments where I didn't care as much as I did in other moments *shrugs*

SO glad I'm out of high school XD

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