Where She Went

Original review first posted on The Book Addict's Guide 6/26/12: I must admit, at first I was a little bit unsure that we were getting this story from Adam's perspective after falling totally in love with Mia's story in IF I STAY. Needless to say, I was sooo not disappointed! It took a small bit of adjusting from a female perspective to a male perspective since I wasn't all together ready for it, but writing from any angle, Gayle Forman does an amazing job with building characters and just overall beautiful writing. I definitely saw the difference between Mia's first person and Adam's -- I felt like in the first book, Mia had a very pronounced maturity to her tone and her presence whereas with Adam (and we're supposed to), we have more of a "dude" feel. By that, I don't mean that we have less emotion because that is nowhere near the case. The language mostly is just a little bit looser and we see a more masculine side, a little bit rougher without being abrasive, and a little less proper.Okay, now to the story! I loved it. Love love love this series! If I was impressed with the first book, this one surely didn't disappoint me as I often fear with sequels. I immediately picked up on Adam's perspective and to be honest, despite his forthcoming of emotion at Mia's beside, I wasn't really sure if he was in love with Mia and how strong his feelings actually were. Throughout all of Where She Went, we see just how rough it's been on him since he and Mia stopped communicating and just how much she really did mean to him. She was his world, and you can see and feel the devastation coming from him.Guys, I'm not afraid to admit it. I totally cried. I got so sucked into the story and I just totally let myself be thrown into that world. There was a totally heartbreaking moment which I needed to note, and as all of the poignant moments in my life (at least in my head), it had a soundtrack. Adam turns on Sufjan Steven's song "Chicago" -- and with that album (Illinoise) always standing out in my head as being particularly emotional (let's not even talk about "Casimir Pulaski Day" because I cry every time I hear that song), I completely lost it. During that scene as he's listening to that song, I had it playing in my head and I just started letting the tears fly. I've always been strong into music so I absolutely adore when authors put songs into their stories. It really brings me in a layer further and helps me actually put myself in the story since I have a connection to the music that's play (something I forgot to mention in my review of ONE MOMENT by Kristina McBride -- rats!). That, and I always wanted to be the person who puts together soundtracks for movies. Another dream job!Sidenotes aside (wait, isn't that redundant?), I loved the story and I absolutely adore Gayle Forman's writing! I'm so glad I rushed to read this book so soon after the first! Usually I put a little gap in there so I get to enjoy a series as long as I can/as long as I can hold out, but when I found this in the library, I had to pick it up right away!Re-read completed 9/2/13: Oh my. WHERE SHE WENT was even better the second time around, even better than IF I STAY. Adam's POV is absolutely heart-breaking but I love reveling in that pure emotion. The beauty, emotion, music, suspense... It was all so amazing, even when I knew exactly what happened next.Re-read review originally posted HERE on The Book Addict's Guide 9/23/13: I am SO glad that I re-read WHERE SHE WENT. I remember adoring both IF I STAY and WHERE SHE WENT the first time around, but I had forgotten how emotional these two books were, especially picking up Adam's point of view in WHERE SHE WENT.Adam's point of view is so... raw. He doesn't hold anything back in his narration and I really felt everything he was feeling -- small and ... well, enormous. He's got some BIG FEELS in this book. Sometimes it was hard to watch and to see him in that much pain and constantly try to push it down or shove it away. For reasons I can't explain, I feel like it was that much more emotional because it was a male POV. You guys... Adam is 100% my favorite male POV of all YA. No wait. Of all time. His voice is so genuine and I feel like reading WHERE SHE WENT from his point of view captures all of the feelings that he's holding back from the entire world. That's pretty big stuff.I love catching up with Mia and Adam three years later and seeing where they are in their lives. This is a pretty significant jump in time from where we left off in IF I STAY, but Gayle Forman knew what she was doing. This is where the real story picks up again and we get a lot of the details from what happened in the past three years in flashbacks. Now usually, I don't like flashbacks. Actually, no, that's not true. Usually I'm very picky with flashbacks because a lot of the time I feel like they're not necessary and could have been summed up in dialogue or recounted by the main character. I do, however, love the flashbacks in IF I STAY/WHERE SHE WENT. They felt totally natural to the story and contained a lot of important information that we need to know for the present-day story.Once again, I find that music supplements a story to help draw me in even more. Just that one instance where Adam borrows an iPod and scrolls through a playlist... When I see music I love in a book or I can just hear a single song and imagine the characters listening to that one as well, somehow I just get that connection and it really adds to my reading experience. As far as the Shooting Star music goes, I could take it or leave it. I usually don't get anything from fabricated lyrics because I have no connection to them... It doesn't usually detract from the book, but it doesn't really do anything for me!I get ALL THE FEELS from WHERE SHE WENT. I loved every second of my re-read and I really enjoyed the male POV from Adam. Everything was so emotional and raw and it was just a really different feel for me. So glad I got to re-read this one!Okay, now to the story! I loved it. Love love love this series! If I was impressed with the first book, this one surely didn’t disappoint me as I often fear with sequels. I immediately picked up on Adam’s perspective and to be honest, despite his forthcoming of emotion at Mia’s beside, I wasn’t really sure if he was in love with Mia and how strong his feelings actually were. Throughout all of Where She Went, we see just how rough it’s been on him since he and Mia stopped communicating and just how much she really did mean to him. She was his world, and you can see and feel the devastation coming from him.Guys, I’m not afraid to admit it. I totally cried. I got so sucked into the story and I just totally let myself be thrown into that world. There was a totally heartbreaking moment which I needed to note, and as all of the poignant moments in my life (at least in my head), it had a soundtrack. Adam turns on Sufjan Steven’s song “Chicago” – and with that album (Illinoise) always standing out in my head as being particularly emotional (let’s not even talk about “Casimir Pulaski Day” because I cry every time I hear that song), I completely lost it. During that scene as he’s listening to that song, I had it playing in my head and I just started letting the tears fly. I’ve always been strong into music so I absolutely adore when authors put songs into their stories. It really brings me in a layer further and helps me actually put myself in the story since I have a connection to the music that’s play (something I forgot to mention in my review of One Moment by Kristina McBride - rats!). That, and I always wanted to be the person who puts together soundtracks for movies. Another dream job!Sidenotes aside (wait, isn’t that redundant?), I loved the story and I absolutely adore Gayle Forman’s writing! I’m so glad I rushed to read this book so soon after the first! Usually I put a little gap in there so I get to enjoy a series as long as I can/as long as I can hold out, but when I found this in the library, I had to pick it up right away!I don’t really have anything negative to say at all. I just loved it!

Three years ago, Mia had a choice. Stay or go. Live or die. Him or them.She chose to stay. But she didn't choose him.Three years ago Adam lost the girl he loved. It was a gradual losing, the petering out of a song, the gradual hush of harmony . . . until the day came that Mia got on a plane to NYC and Julliard, and never looked back. Never came back. Cut all ties.Three years later and Adam is lead singer and songwriter for Shooting Star. He is labelled as the new Kurt Cobain, and his romance with Bryn is tabloid fodder and on high-alert baby-bump watch. Adam is about to start a 63-day European tour. And he couldn't be more terrified or miserable.It has been three years since they last saw each other . . . but a poster beckons and Adam finds himself at Carnegie Hall, listening to Mia play in her first major concert. Tomorrow she leaves for Japan. In a few hours he boards a plane to London. They have one night to make up for three lost years - a night to explore New York, and learn each other all over again.`Where She Went' is the sequel to Gayle Forman's heartbreaking success, `If I Stay'.I went into this book weary. My heart still felt bruised and battered from `If I Stay'. . . reading the sequel's blurb and knowing that Adam and Mia's clear love from that first book didn't end happily-ever-after was another kick-in-the-guts. I didn't know if I could take reading this sequel, and being heaped with more sadness. But I, like many fans must have, found myself wanting to know what happened next . . . does love prevail? Is there a silver lining? Did Mia regret her decision? I will say that at the end of `Where She Went' I wasn't 100% convinced that Forman needed a sequel . . . but I was glad I read it.As the title hints, `Where She Went' is not told from Mia's point of view. `If I Stay' was all in Mia's first-person narrative. As suggests the new third-person title `Where She Went' is not Mia's story, but Adam's. The sequel is told this time from his first-person narration, and it's not always a pretty perspective.Adam got what he always wanted - fame. Rock stardom. The cover of Rolling Stone and Shuffle magazine. He got the groupies and now the famous girlfriend. But clichés are clichés for a reason, and fame is not all it's cracked up to be. Adam is scared of crowded spaces after a mob incident. He is ostracized from his band mates for his rising star and tabloid popularity. And he has taken to popping pills to stop his hands from shaking. Adam knows where it all went wrong, and who he owes his fame to. Without Mia and the heartbreak she inflicted, Adam would have never written the album `Collateral Damage' that catapulted Shooting Star into rock stardom. But to get there and write those lyrics, Adam had to have his heart ripped out by the only girl he ever loved. . .Adam is pondering and panicking the band's upcoming European tour when he decides, on a whim, to hear Mia play Carnegie Hall. A chance meeting has the two old flames reuniting for one night - a night to explore New York and remember each other. A night, perhaps, to right the wrongs of the past.In `Where She Went', Forman tries to adhere to the narrative structure of `If I Stay', with varying results. In the first book Mia's narrative flipped between watching her present-time battered body in a hospital room, and remembering moments of great import from her past. In the sequel, Adam is wandering around the Big Apple with Mia in present day, while also remembering his crash course of stardom and his crash and burn love with Mia after her accident. I thought the present-day Mia and Adam storyline was sublime. Pitch-perfect between heartbreak and redemption, hope and hurt. But the flashbacks didn't work so much for me this time . . . they were crucial to `If I Stay' - both for readers to understand the severity of Mia's loss (and how hard it would be for her to stay) but also for her to realize all the reasons she has to hold on, and who she has to hold on to. By contrast, Adam's flashbacks in `Went' are squirm-inducing as he remembers countless one-night-stands with groupies and his first meeting Bryn at the MTV awards.These flashbacks, while important to understanding Adam's stardom, were just plain uncomfortable. Mostly because of Mia and Adam's epic love story, set up beautifully in `If I Stay'. It's hard to read Adam's recounts and how much they sully what was so pure and perfect in the first novel - so that, as a reader, you feel somewhat betrayed to read of Adam's heartless hook-ups with girls he can't remember the names of. And especially his tabloid-followed relationship with movie star Bryn. It's spine-shiveringly awkward to read these, and I was just happy that Forman balanced the awkward with Mia and Adam's present-time romance.In present-time we read how Mia has rebuilt her life in the wake of tragedy. It ignites readers with a certain chest-swelling pride to read how much Mia has progressed and overcome. We fell in love and heartache with her in `If I Stay' - so it's like proud parents that we read of her achievements in spite of heartache. And it's with equally loving affection that we read Mia and Adam patch their past and heal old wounds . . .I will say that I would have liked more focus on the setting of New York in this sequel. I think the city could have been a character unto itself in this book, but it felt a bit like a photo-shoot backdrop. Nothing especially unique or igniting about it. But, honestly, Mia and Adam's rekindled romance kind of steals the show.I'll put a worry to rest for a few of you, and say that `Where She Went' is romantic (*hint, hint, nudge, nudge*). I went into this with a wincing heart - concerned that I'd come out with more bruises inflicted by Forman. Fear not. This is a story of reconnection and forgiveness. It's about the myriad of grief and how we deal, and don't cope, with its ramifications. It's the story of Mia and Adam, who had to go there to come back to each other.There is a part of me that thinks `If I Stay' should have been left untouched. It was literary perfection and didn't need a sequel. I think of that old writing idiom, that says `leave the reader cold' - leave them with a little bit of wanting, a smidge of read between the lines and make up your own mind. `Where She Went' doesn't do that - the sequel ties up loose ends and puts a definitive ending on Mia's story . . . and I don't necessarily think we needed that. That's not to say I didn't thoroughly enjoy `Where She Went' (or appreciate Forman's closure to Adam and Mia's story). But there's also a (fairly large) part of me that thinks `If I Stay' was all the more powerful for being left on the precipice.