The story of life is written by the people, places and events that come and go, which is what makes the constants, however, boring they may seem at times, so important when all else seems to change. Where Things Come Back follows individuals searching for a life outside of the small town of Lily, Arkansas. Though, in the end they are all searching for a way back.
Lucas' cousin dies of an overdose and his Aunt is left to drudge through the guilt and heartbreak of losing her son. Soon after, Gabrielle, Lucas' brother, goes missing. The appearance of what was thought to be extinct woodpecker keeps the story from the headlines, but it turns Lucas' life upside down as his Mom slowly retreats to her son's room and his Father stops working to focus on finding his son.
Lucas' best friend spends most of his days and nights at Lucas' since his home is no place to call "home." Yet, his spirits are always high and the care of his girlfriend, Mena, make the future something to look forward to.
Ada Taylor is the girl that all the boys dream of, including Lucas, but all the boys she dates die. There's only been two, but the whole town is waiting for the next to go. When her boyfriend, the Quitman, is paralyzed in a car wreck, the curse seems true, but this doesn't keep Lucas from giving into Ada's coming on.
Meanwhile, in Georgia two college students, Alma Ember and Cabot Searcy, find one another during a time when their lives are in flux. Alma soon find that she is pregnant and the two marry in a flurry. However, the fast love is quick to die as Alma finds Cabot's obsession with the book of Enoch, which started with the death of his college roommate years before, too much to handle and moves back to her hometown, Lily.
Some, like Cabot, see Lily as their destiny, as he thinks, "Everything that had, in some way or another, led him to some nothing town where, as it seemed, things could come back from the dead, mistakes, could be rectified, lives could be started over" (207). Others, can only see it as a prison, but what Whaley makes clear in his seamless third-person writing from Lucas' perspective, the perfectly uncomfortable first-love feeling, and the spot-on description of the mind-numbing feeling of losing a brother, son, and friend is that life is chock-full of horrendous days and months that are made bearable by the tremendous moments that keep bringing us back for a second helping of life.
