Book Review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman

WARNING: This Review might contain spoilers about If I Stay

At First Sight: Three years after the accident that killed his girlfriend's parents, Adam Wilde is still confused about everything that happened afterward, about the things that are still happening to him. 

By now, he's a rock star, his band has made it huge and he's about to leave on a world tour to promote their third album. In theory, he has everything a guy could ever want: success, fame, music and a hot girlfriend; but he doesn't have the things he most wants: peace, quiet, answers. 

Somehow, in the last few years, he stopped loving music as he used to, stopped hanging out with the band, and Mia stopped talking to him without warning or explanation.

But now, the day before he leaves New York, she runs into Mia, who has been living there these past years; and she talks to him, and somehow they end up touring Mia's favorite spots in the the city, as Adam tries to find those elusive answers.

Second Glance: Where She Went is the sequel to If I Stay, and it also takes place over a few hours as the first book did, only that this time we see things from Adam's perspective. 

I raced through this book, I started reading it at around 11 PM and I didn't stop until I finished at around 3 AM. The story just took hold of me and didn't let me go until everything was said and done. Now, things are different, so so different from what they were in If I Stay. Adam is a mess and he knows he is a mess, he knows he is loosing it, but he doesn't know how to stop it. Mia is a rising star in the classical music world, but they haven't spoken since she started at Julliard and there are so many things just standing between them. 

At the beginning, I didn't like Mia all that much, she was somewhere between bitch and ice queen, and seeing things from Adam's POV,  he was angry and hurting and I was angry at Mia too, a bit. But as the book progresses and she starts to show and tell what was going on, why things happened the way they did, I warmed up to her again. She isn't the Mia from If I Stay, but honestly it wouldn't have made sense if she was.

I did feel like the book didn't flow as smooth as If I Stay, the flashbacks and the backs and forths sometimes didn't seem to flow that well this time around, but maybe that's just me. However, I do give props to Ms Forman because she doesn't go for the obvious: in If I Stay, the accident was just that an accident - not a drunk or reckless driver, just an accident; and in Where She Went, it would have been so easy for her to make us hate Adam's current girlfriend Bryn, but she's not a bad person and she was, in her own way, sort of good for Adam. 

Bottom Line: I really enjoyed this book, particularly toward the end. It made me tear up and cry a few times, and Adam was a great narrator - and it's rare for me to find boy-narrators engaging - and his story is heartbreaking but ends up in the place I think it's best for a story to end: hope.

Favorite Quote: There were many quotes I loved but they were all too spoilery, so I'm putting this one.

"This whole night has been a mistake. It's not going to let me rewind. Or unmake the mistakes I've made. Or the promises I've made. Or have her back. Or have me back" - Adam

3/4

Book Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

At First Sight: Mia seems to have it all: loving parents, an adorable younger brother, a best friend and a hot musician boyfriend, and she might be going to Julliard next fall as she is a remarkable cello player in her own right. 

But on a day like any other, when a light snow fall cancels school and work just to turn into a nice morning a few minutes afterward, Mia and her family decide to make a day of it: go visit friends, shop a little and top the day with a visit to her grandparents.

Only that they never made it that far. One second Mia was falling asleep in the car and the next she was standing in the middle of the highway staring at what's left of her family's car... and of her family. Looking as the paramedics come to take her to the hospital and hitching a ride with them. Looking, and waiting... trying to decide if she should stay or not.

Second Glance: First, let me say that I can't believe it took me so long to read  If I Stay. I was a fool. I had heard so many good things about it but was reluctant to read it -as it usually happens with me.  If I Stay is a story that sucks you right from the start; it took me just a few pages to connect with Mia and her family. 

The story takes place over  a period of 24 hours (which I didn't know at first) and it has an amazing pace and flow. Mia both relates what's happening and we learn what's happening to her family as she does; and she also tells a series of flashbacks about her life, her best friend Kim, her boyfriend Adam and her family - I adored her family, they were so loving and together  even with their many differences- but it all makes sense, the flash backs flow from the stuff that's happening 'in real time', and keep moving the story forward, showing just how hard Mia's decision is. 

Kim, Adam and Mia's grandparents were amazing, they felt so very real in their emotions and their reactions and I could see how much Mia loved them and how they loved her too.

Bottom Line: If I Stay made me cry - a lot - and ache, yet there were times when I smiled at this loving group of people -and in a non-cliched way it made it the sadness and loss hit your harder. I love this book, is going into the shelve of honor and I can't wait to read it's sequel Where She Went.

Favorite Quote: "I have a feeling that once you live through something like this, you become a little bit invincible."