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Meet Me Here by Bryan Bliss
In a single night—graduation night—Thomas has to decide: do what everyone has always expected of him, or forge an entirely new path? Bryan Bliss’s absorbing examination of one boy struggling with expectations and realities will appeal to readers of Sara Zarr and Chris Crutcher.
Thomas is supposed to leave for the Army in the morning. His father was Army. His brother, Jake, is Army—is a hero, even, with the medals to prove it. Everyone expects Thomas to follow in that fine tradition. But Jake came back from overseas a completely different person, and that has shaken Thomas’s certainty about his own future. And so when his long-estranged friend Mallory suggests one last night of adventure, Thomas takes her up on the distraction. Over the course of this single night, Thomas will lose, find, resolve, doubt, drive, explore, and leap off a bridge. He’ll also face the truth of his brother’s post-traumatic stress disorder and of his own courage. In Bryan Bliss’s deft hands, graduation night becomes a night to find yourself, to find each other, to find a path, and to know that you always have a place—and people—to come back to.
Review from School Library Journal:
Thomas is set to leave for the Army from his hometown of Hickory, NC, the day after his high school graduation, as his family expects. His father was in Desert Storm, and his brother Jake recently returned from overseas, injured and a hero after saving two other soldiers. When his seven-years estranged friend Mallory punches her boyfriend at a post-graduation party and asks Thomas for a ride home, they visit an old hotel and attend a party, among other adventures. All the while, they must keep track of wandering Jake and avoid Mallory's boyfriend. Throughout the novel, Thomas thinks about how he is tired of telling people he is excited about the Army, and worries that he will end up like his veteran brother, who always carries a mysterious backpack and appears aimless. Mallory is supposed to marry her boyfriend the day after graduation but has reservations. Bliss's novel addresses the push teens may feel after high school to do what is expected of them and not what they want, as well as stereotypes of masculinity and femininity, and the stigma surrounding post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Teens may find the small-town setting or the feeling of expectation familiar.
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