Sunday 11 January 2015

Where She Went by Gayle Forman



Title: Where She Went
Author: Gayle Forman
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Page Count: 260
Publication Date: April 5th 2011
Obtained: Purchased

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. (~Goodreads)

What I Thought:

I enjoyed reading If I Stay and now I’ve finally gotten round to reading the sequel. I was glad that this book was from the perspective of Adam this time as I felt we didn’t really get to know him very well in the first book.

Adam being a protagonist was definitely helpful to the story and gave me a better understanding of the connection that Mia and Adam have so that I could get more of a background on their relationship. Also, I found the story is more engaging when told from Adams point of view. Sorry, but Mia was kind dull and I felt her character lacked depth. Music, music, music. This is literally all she talks about.

That being said I can’t really say I liked Adam that much. I’d say he had more of a personality than Mia did in the first book but in this he was quite selfish and seemed angry about Mia going to Julliard, amongst other things. It was a bit weird because I imagined him to be quite understandable because, well – her family just died, but Adam tried to turn it around and make seems like it was about him and that she hated him or was punishing him somehow by going to Julliard. This is a shame since Adam seemed like an alright guy in the first book, but he lost his credibility in this one.

The two of them together was at times stressful to read because they clearly want to be together but they’re both so terrible at expressing their feelings, for one another and in general, that they assume that there’s a mutual hatred between them. The second half as the book is better and I’m glad I read it as I always wondered what happened after If I Stay. So all in all, definitely worth a read if you’ve read the first book.

Rating: 3/5
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5 comments :

  1. Jen12 January 2015 at 01:59

    Interesting. I adored this book, and actually named it my second favorite book of 2014 on my blog (I'm posting that tomorrow, which is too late because New Years is way past but that's a different story). Personally, I felt that the plot in this one was much stronger than the first. It just felt like there was more movement in this story than in the first. I loved Where She Went. To each her own I guess!

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    1. Lettora12 January 2015 at 02:20

      I like this much more than the first one and I agree that the plot was much stronger. I think my main issue was that there were a lot of parts where the pace was slow and not much was going on in terms of the story progressing. Although I didn't completely love Adam in this book I felt the story was more interesting when told from his perspective so that was good.

      So far everyone I've spoken to has loved this book so I don't know why I'm not getting the same feeling. Maybe I've just read one too many romance novels! Anyway, as always it's great to read other opinions so thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. :)

      - Lettora

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    2. Unknown12 January 2015 at 04:31

      You're very welcome!
      One too many romances? I don't read very many romances at all, unless they're subplots. I'm a total sucker for romantic subplots! When a story is a straight romance, I have a lot of trouble getting through it. There are exceptions obviously, like this story.
      If you want to check out my post on Where She Went tomorrow here's my blog: www.thebook-nook.weebly.com. Like I said it's a post on my top five books of 2014. Unfortunately by the time I got around to revising it, it's now too late to post but I put too much time into it to discard it :p.

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    3. Lettora12 January 2015 at 11:29

      Haha, I don't really read 'romance' books either but I'd say 95% of the books I read have a romance sub-plot (which I usually like) but a lot of the time the romance kind of takes over the main plot line and distracts from the story (which I don't like). I never read proper romance books because I find them a bit boring. I find this book reads a lot like a romance novel because it seems like there isn't much else to the story apart from the connection that Mia and Adam share.

      I'll be sure to check out your post. :)

      - Lettora

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  2. Anonymous31 January 2015 at 16:11

    Unfortunately I did not like this book. I don't know, I felt like If I stay could have been a perfect standalone adn there was no need to write this.
    Sure, maybe there had to be some closure but Adam's point of view was just boring and heartbroken when it was Mia in the end who suffered the most.

    Ps Ps. I have a blog as well, if you want to stop by I'd appreciate it so much! It's both in Italian and in English :3 -> http://frannieinthepages.blogspot.com/

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