Sixteen year old waitress and high school student Hope Yancey and her guardian Aunt Addie are used to moving around. From Florida to Atlanta to South Carolina to Brooklyn, and now Wisconsin, Aunt Addie is the constant in Hope’s life. And Hope is the name she chose for herself because she thinks “hope is just about the best thing a person can have.” Hope is really working hard at holding on to that name after she and her aunt have been cheated out of their business and life savings by an erstwhile friend in Brooklyn and are now moving to Mulhoney, Wisconsin to work in a diner owned by man who’s been diagnosed with leukemia and is need of help fast.

Hope Was Here is a good young adult novel with wry humor, a lot of fitting food and cooking metaphors, a touch of romance, and deep insight into the processes of grief and hope. Hope’s mother, who left her when she was a premature and fragile infant, shows up every four or five years for a quick visit, and Hope has to learn when to have hope and when to accept that some people are not ready to change and some bad things can’t be changed. Hope’s new boss at the diner really is dying of cancer, and Hope must figure out how to hold on to hope when what you hoped for isn’t happening.

I really enjoyed how the waitress motif and metaphor was worked into Hope’s story again and again. I learned a little bit about working in a diner, and I learned a lot about life and how to live it with hope. “A good waitress has to be ready for anything.” Hope Yancey lives by this and other maxims, given to her by the people she loves and the people who love her, and even by those who, like her mom, are quite imperfect and even selfish, in their relationships with others. “If you want a thrill there’s nothing like in-the-weeds waitressing. You never know what’s coming next. You could wait on a maniac or a guy passing out twenties.”

It’s good to read a young adult book that’s clean and good, about ordinary people living extraordinary lives. Hope is a resilient and admirable character, and the book itself is kind and good without being unrealistic or preachy.