When You Were Everything

The Young Adult genre focuses on conflicts and issues that are particularly relevant to adolescents, and the featured protagonists are often dealing with fundamental questions of identity, interests, and morality that often beset readers of a similar age. The first book that was intended exclusively for a teenage readership was Seventeenth Summer, which was written by Maureen Daly in 1942. Other early contributions to the genre include S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders (1967) and the so-called “single-problem novels” of authors like Judy Blume and Robert Cormier, who dominated the YA arena in the 1970s and 1980s. The genre began to incorporate more aspects of fantasy and horror in the 1990s, and series such as R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps and Fear Street series became wildly popular. However, the true heyday of YA literature arrived with the release of the internationally successful Harry Potter series, by J. K. Rowling, which combines fantastical elements with relatable interpersonal conflicts and charts a young boy’s progression into the beginnings of adulthood (Strickland, Ashley. “A Brief History of Young Adult Literature.” CNN). Ultimately, YA stories focus on the stresses of inhabiting multiple worlds, for the protagonists are often caught between childhood and adulthood as they struggle to navigate the conflicting expectations of their family, their schoolwork, and their friends.

Within this context, Ashley Woodfolk’s When You Were Everything focuses on the dissolution of Cleo Baker and Layla Hassan’s high school friendship, and Cleo’s first-person narrative provides an in-depth look at Cleo’s emotional experiences and interpersonal challenges in a way that is designed to engage readers who may be experiencing similar issues in their own lives. This facet of the novel sets it apart from other contemporary works of YA fiction, for as a Kirkus review of the book observes, Woodfolk “skillfully voices the pain of unexpectedly losing a close friend and explores the choice to remain open despite the risk of future heartache” (“When You Were Everything.” Kirkus Reviews). Woodfolk situates these multifaceted experiences within the familiar setting of the high school world, further engaging with adolescent readers. Cleo’s narration also presents her conflicts and worries in a raw, vulnerable manner that captures the intensity and sensitivity of youth.

Significantly, Cleo’s storyline and experiences are inspired by Woodfolk’s own encounters with loss. In the acknowledgements section of the source text, Woodfolk remarks on how difficult it was to write Cleo’s story because she too has “lost close friends several times over the course of [her] life in incredibly painful ways” (387). Woodfolk makes these challenging experiences accessible to young readers via the innocent lens of Cleo’s day-to-day experiences. The novel’s unabashed explorations of teenage love, revenge, loss, and friendship puts it in conversation with other young adult novels such as S. K. Ali’s Love From A to Z and Maleeha Siddiqui’s Barakah Beats.