Review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Description:

It's been three years since the devastating accident . . . three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever.

Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future - and each other.

Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance

Details:

Audio CD, 5 discs
Published April 5th 2011 by Penguin Audiobooks
ISBN: 0142428256 (ISBN13: 9780142428252)
series: If I Stay #2
literary awards: The Inky Awards Nominee for Silver Inky longlist (2011)
(Goodreads)
 

Review:

For starters, I highly recommend reading both books in this series back-to-back.  The non-ending of the first book (although a perfect ending for the story) left me dying to read Where She Went.  Gayle Forman, you are a genius!

If If I Stay is tragically beautiful (which it TOTALLY is), then Where She Went is brutally honest.  Told from Adam’s POV, we are taken on a journey through what happened since the accident that took Mia from him (ok, well, you can tell from the description above that she isn’t dead, but you’ll understand when you read this…that’s a command, by the way, to READ THIS BOOK!): his rise to fame, hardships of being a star, etc.  It is all very gritty and genuine.  And, if you’re anything like me, you’ll hate Adam for the first quarter or so of the book.  He’s such a pretentious jerk.  He’s angry, self-absorbed, and childish.  But as the story progresses, you being to she why he is that way and you begin to hurt with him, and build defenses with him, and hate the world for him.

New York to me, is one of those fantasy cities, where anything is possible.  I love that Forman set is as the backdrop of the second installment.  More than just a setting, it is a character in it’s on right and has taken an influential role in Mia’s life.  It sort of says a lot about who Mia is, as much as Los Angeles does about Adam.  About their transformation as people and how they have dealt with tragedy.

I’m trying really hard not to giveaway too much.  Geez this is a hard review to right.  So much happens that is central to the plot, that commentary on those things would give too much.  You don’t want to know what is coming next because if you do, I’m sure it will take some of the magic out of Where She Went.  You may just have to trust me on this: go read this!

4 Trees: Where She Went is definitely a place you should go!

Get to reading,

Richard