Review: Where She Went (If I Stay, Book 2) by Gayle Forman

4 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Dutton

Goodreads Synopsis:

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:

I don't know what I was expecting when I started this book. Because there was a sequel, I know that there wasn't a happy ending and I was afraid that it was just going to get worse. So I was happy to find that I liked this book even more than the first one.

I didn't feel a big connection to Mia in the first book, but I felt more for Adam in this one. He's still upset over her and depressed, and I didn't think it was too much. I mean, sure, the part of me that's all for self-love and all that, thinks that he should have moved on a little bit, dealt with it better, but it mostly fits and it was done very well. He didn't seem whiny or anything to me. He was a bit depressing, but I liked it. I like those kinds of characters, though.

When I heard about this book, I imagined something more along the lines of Adam and Mia stumbling upon each other in a subway or something and having one night to try to work out their problems, and I imagined that they would fight and talk and all those things, but I was unsure if it would have a happy ending or not. I was really happy to find that this wasn't the case.

Instead, Mia is successfully being a musician and Adam is not successfully being in the band anymore because of how depressed he's been. It's sad how badly losing Mia hurt him. And Adam finds out that Mia is playing near him, and despite his promise, he goes to watch her play. I hadn't realized that his promise at the end of the first book was going to be taken seriously. To me it didn't seem like either one of them should take it seriously, that either of them would want to fulfill it, so that bothered me. But I see why it was important, and things played out like they did partly because of it. Then there are some awkward moments and painful moments as they try to talk and find themselves unsure how to do it.

Their relationship, as they start talking and start moving on from it, is so sweet. They're much more mature in this book, and they need t move on from some things and they do. They're so very sweet to each other and cute together. They belong together, and they know it. I loved seeing them together in the present in this book. There should be more couples like this in books.

The writing was pretty much the same from before. It flows easily and it keeps me compelled to read more.

The ending is very fitting to the story. It's showing that they are going to work things out and are going to stay together no matter what happens. And Adam does a bit of growing, as well. I liked that he went to go talk to his band with Mia, and that it shows us that he did work that out, instead of leaving it open to our interpretation.

This book was fantastic. It was definitely better than the first one.

Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

4 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Dutton

Goodreads Synopsis:

In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen year- old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck...

A sophisticated, layered, and heartachingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make -and the ultimate choice Mia commands.

Review:

I read this a while ago, a little before the second book came out. I'd heard a lot about it from other authors and reviewers, most saying how good it was, how much they enjoyed it. (Kiersten White especially.) I was a little wary, because it didn't sound as good, but I didn't like it as much as most people seemed to.

I did still really like it. I mostly liked the authors take on moving on, and how Mia was like a ghost while her body was in a coma. I've always found these kinds of things interesting, and wonder about them like most people do.

I probably liked this book as much as I did because of her take on that. I liked how Mia walked around and watched her family and friends. I liked most things about the book, really, except for a few things in the plot.

I liked her writing. It flowed very smoothly, and it was simple but still pretty. It kept me reading, and I didn't want to put it down. I finished it in a day, I think.

I didn't particularly feel for Mia, but I did like her enough. I did like her thoughts on all of the things she saw and what she was doing. I liked going through her memories especially. I liked how Forman did that, too. Put the book together like she did, with going back into memories as she's doing things. It was done very nicely. I did get a feel for why Mia was doing and feeling how she was, even if I didn't feel like she should be having such a problem choosing to stay or not. It didn't feel like there was much question as to whether she would stay or not, but that might have been because I already knew how it was going to end.

I definitely did feel her connection with Adam, and her friendship with Kim, and how close she was with her family. I liked all of her memories with them, and I genuinely liked all of them. Because of how well all of that was done probably also made it seem like there was no question as to whether she was going to stay or not, even with her parents and brother gone. Which, by the way, sucked. That was probably the saddest part of the book, aside from seeing her friends and family grieving for them and her.

The ending was open, but I didn't have much doubt on how I thought it had ended. But because there's a sequel, or companion if you rather, I figured that obviously something had gone wrong... I'm not going to get too into that, actually. Because I've already read it and will be writing the review of it soon, so I will talk about that in there.

Anyway. So, I actually did really like this book. Almost everything about it, really. I would probably even recommend it.