Where She Went by Gayle Forman (April 2011, Doubleday Childrens, ISBN: 0857530283)First Line: Every morning I wake up and tell myself this: It's just one day, one twenty-four-hour period to get yourself through.
Notes: Contains spoilers for If I Stay. Whilst reading Where She Went I switched to and from a UK library book and a US e-copy supplied via Netgalley depending on where I was reading.
Review: Where She Went is the sequel to 2009's If I Stay and picks up three years later; it is narrated solely by Adam, the boyfriend to If I Stay's other main character, Mia.
Three years ago Mia left to go to Juilliard to continue her cello-playing career and after a while she dropped Adam from her life. Three years on, Adam is a rock-star, lives with a famous actress but is struggling and most of all he wants to know why Mia left him. He cannot move on. Dreading an upcoming tour with his estranged band members, which he leaves New York for the next day, he stumbles across Mia giving a recital. She spots him in the audience and summons him afterwards. They have one night before going their separate ways to talk about their past.
The structure of the book, in the way in which Mia takes Adam around New York in the late night/early hours of the morning reminded me slightly of Thirteen Reasons Why - such an intense experience for them over a few hours. Along the journey, Mia gets to see what Adam's life has become plus there are flashbacks from Adam as to how they met and other significant occasions.
Despite being one of the few readers who was not wowed by If I Stay I was eagerly awaiting the sequel. I did want to find out what happened next and I enjoyed Where She Went more. I raced through it, intrigued to find out what the two would do and I enjoyed being in the New York atmosphere. Both Adam and Mia's characters start off as unsympathetic but as more is revealed, their situations become more understandable. Nonetheless I don't think Mia behaved very well and Adam seems to have over-reacted. However, if you enjoyed If I Stay you should enjoy this one too and if you haven't read it already, I recommend reading it before reading Where She Went.
Cover: I like the NYC background but I don't like the model's expression.
Rather then picking up directly where If I Stay left off, Where She Went picks up three years later and this time it is Adam who guides us from his spot in stardom with his band, Shooting Star. Adam was almost unrecognizable at first but that laid the wood work for the emotional roller coaster that was this not-even-sad book. I mean, really, how does one cry when the book isn't really that sad.
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