Review - Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Series:  If I Stay #2

Published:  April 5, 2011

Publisher:  Dutton Juvenile

Edition:  Hardback, US

Pages:  264

Source:  Own

Summary: 

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.

Review:

If I Stay was a heartwrenching and heartwarming story about love, life, and loss.  I was actually kind of disappointed when I found out that there would be a sequel to If I Stay, simply because the ending was perfect.  There was closure but the ending was still open-ended enough for your own interpretation.  That being said, I was totally intrigued by the fact the Where She Went would be told from Adam's perspective.

Plot:  Three years after Mia walked out of Adam's life with no explanation as to why, the 2 meet in New York City.  Their encounter is told over the course of one night, with flashbacks every other chapter.  These flashbacks give the reader the real story about what happened after the car wreck that shattered both Mia and Adam's lives.  Told in Adam's perspective, we get to see another side to the story that was told in If I Stay.  I think I might actually like Where She Went better, and that is mainly because Adam's point of view was so much better for me than Mia's.

Characters:  I have to admit that I always saw people mention Adam on their "Fictional Characters You Wish Were Your Boyfriend" lists (or whatever) and never quite got why girls loved him so much until I read Where She Went.  In this book he was a total bad boy with a heart of gold.  Maybe it had something to do with Adam being a rock god.....everyone's a sucker for rockstars, right?  Mia was a strong character as well, although she was so mean to Adam regarding their breakup.  I didn't understand how she could be so selfish to some one that she supposedly loved so much and thought the world of her.

  4 out of 5 stars