Review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman

After I read If I Stay, I read the synopsis of Where She Went and was instantly horrified. Freaking out, I read the entire thing in one day, because I needed to know that everything would turn out okay.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman 

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. 

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Two words can sum up Adam Wilde since the tragedy three years ago: Screwed Up. Ever since Mia recovered from the crash and walked out of his life, he's been empty, despite his growing fame, his rock-star life and his beautiful movie star girlfriend.


I was really excited when I found out that Where She Went would be from Adam's point of view. What I wasn't expecting was for this book to be so SAD. Adam was crushed by the choice Mia made, the one I was not expecting her to make. The choice only Adam knows he gave her.


Just like in If I Stay, music was a big part of Where She Went. Of course, that's to be expected, as Adam is a famous rocker and Mia is a cello star. I really loved the lyrics from Adam's songs opening some of the chapters. I'd love to actually hear them, I bet they sound heartbreaking.


This book kept me reading and reading, desperate to find out if everything would work out for Mia and Adam.


Does it?


I guess you'll have to find that out yourself.


This book gets <*><*><*><*>


(:D)
~Mag

Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

I've got to tell you guys, I was kind of terrified to read this book, because I knew it was going to be sad. If you've known me a while, you know I tend to avoid sad books. I'm a worrier by nature, so it doesn't do me any good to read books about people who have terminal diseases or get kidnapped or something. But I'd heard so many good things about this book, I had to give it a shot.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman 

In the blink of an eye everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall what happened afterwards, watching her own damaged body being taken from the wreck. Little by little she struggles to put together the pieces - to figure out what she has lost, what she has left, and the very difficult choice she must make. Heart-wrenchingly beautiful, Mia's story will stay with you for a long, long time. 

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One second Mia's hanging out with her family, looking forward to dinner with her grandparents and spending time with her boyfriend. The next she's hanging between life and death.

She can see her body from the outside as it's taken from the wreckage of the horrible crash to the hospital, where doctors and nurses fight to keep her alive. She can see her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in the waiting room, tensely waiting for any news. And slowly, bit by bit, she begins to realize that the choice of whether she'll live or die rests solely in her hands.

I can't even begin to imagine how horrible a choice that would be. How can you stay without some people, or go without others? How can you decide which is more important? That's the root of Mia's problem. 

But beyond that choice, there were two major parts of If I Stay that I absolutely adored: Adam and Kim. Those two were incredible. Their loyalty and devotion to Mia was beautiful, especially Adam's. I absolutely loved Adam. I would have loved him even if the whole book had taken place in the days surrounding the accident. As it was, the flashbacks only made me love him infinitely more.

The flashbacks were, in a word, interesting. I've heard some people talk about flashbacks in general being annoying in books, but I've never minded them, especially when they tie so flawlessly into what's going on in the present of the book, which was certainly the case in If I Stay. 

This book made me happy, sad, and scared. It made me hold my breath and hope that everything would work out in the end for Mia  and the people who love her. And it made me desperately want to read Where She Went, which is (luckily) next on my TBR list.

Altogether, this book gets <*><*><*><*>

(:D)

~Mag