Where She Went

But I'd do it again. I know that now. I'd make that promise a thousand times over and lose her a thousand times over to have heard her play last night or to see her in the morning sunlight. Or even without that. Just to know that she's somewhere out there. Alive.

Boy. This book really took me by surprise. So many of the things Forman does here are massive pet peeves of mine, and she somehow turns them on their heads and makes it all work just beautifully. Here are some of the things I hate when they happen in all books but this one:

SEQUELS TO GIMMICKY FIRST BOOKS: If I Stay wasn't my favorite. The whole thing with Mia having such a cool, perfect, dead family and then her spirit is floating around observing the interactions of people in show more the hospital while her brain remembers the past just...I don't know. It's not my thing. And I feel pretty strongly that episodic sequels should feel almost like echoes of the books that precede them, which I didn't think could be done without another character nearly dying. And I guess in a way Adam is dying, but his is a metaphorical death, and the lowered stakes of his situation here lend the story a poignancy (and a relatability) that I felt was lacking in the previous novel.

ORIGINAL SONG LYRICS: This is always a disaster. When I see lyrics to original songs in novels, I almost always feel extreme empathic humiliation for the author, who obviously wants desperately to be a cool poet. But the lyrics really, really worked for me here, maybe partially because Blind Pilot's "Three Rounds and a Sound" came on my iPod just as I read, "Bullets of the gun, rounds one two three/She says I have to pick: choose you, or choose me," which, I know, seem like terrible lyrics when taken out of context, but the rest of the verse is good, as are the rest of the songs in the book.

RICH PEOPLE COMPLAINING ABOUT THEIR FANCY LIVES: Forman is really, really good at making me give a shit about wealthy characters who are having feelings problems, and I'm not quite sure how she does it. This shocked me in Just One Day, too. I mean, Where She Went is about a famous 21-year-old rock star who is still hung up on the high school girlfriend who dumped him. There is absolutely no reason, aside from Forman's gorgeous character work, that this should be even remotely interesting.

YOUNG MALE FIRST-PERSON NARRATION WRITTEN BY A WOMAN: This, like my previous point, comes back to Forman's deftness with character. I actually prefer Adam's voice in this novel to Mia's in the previous one. (Side note: this gives me hope for Just One Year)

TREATING A HIGH SCHOOL RELATIONSHIP LIKE IT MATTERS AT ALL AFTER SCHOOL ENDS: This one is pretty self-explanatory, and it, too, comes down to the characters and the extreme circumstances of their lives.

PORTRAYAL OF PROFESSIONAL ACTORS AND MUSICIANS WHO LIVE IN LOS ANGELES: Most of my friends and I work in the entertainment industry, and I become irate when authors get lazy with their research in this area. So many books with entertainment-focused elements rely on an old school, almost Sweet Valley High-esque version of the world I live and work in, and it's pretty insulting. But everything about Adam and his interactions with his actress girlfriend ring true for me. It's really heartening.


This novel is just impossibly lovely, especially when you take into account all the ways it really should have gone wrong. I read Where She Went very late at night. And then I had to read it a second time, while bawling like a tiny baby boy, before I was able to fall asleep. That's about as good as it gets for me. show less

I admit, in spite of everything I'd heard, I really didn't think Where She Went would live up to [b:If I Stay|4374400|If I Stay (If I Stay, #1)|Gayle Forman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1221604709s/4374400.jpg|4422413]. It did.Where She Went sets up another unusual situation, following up on the events of If I Stay.Mia has moved on with her life. To the outside world, it looks like Adam has as well, but he hasn't. He's outwardly successful (rock-star successful, literally), but he's really having trouble with, well, everything.Where She Went has one important thing in common with If I Stay-- an incredible character portrait. I have a hard time with young men in books, and I didn't really think I would find Adam sympathetic, let show more alone compelling, even though I did like him when I first met him.His character was compelling, and his story interesting, and yet he was completely believable. He was bewildered by the path he'd been sent down. He channeled his anger into rock songs, and followed them to success with a band that didn't end up being the tight knit family he'd naively expected.There was enough obnoxious rock star behavior to be realistic, and enough of what what going on in his head to understand why. And, channeling the male member of my book club, his thoughts weren't detailed meta analysis of his life and that of everyone around him, but rather a continuing pit of emotion and questions about why.Any fan of If I Stay should read this book immediately. If you haven't read If I Stay, fix that immediately. These books are both that good. show less

I loved "If I Stay". LOVED IT. It was one of those books that made my heart and soul ache. It moved me and surprised me and lingered... So much so that I kept mentally comparing the way I felt reading the two books, and I admit to being a bit disappointed by this follow-up.

This is Adam's story. I loved Adam in "If I Stay". He was this incredibly supportive and sensitive and wonderful guy who loved a girl so much that he would do anything for her, who accepted and honored her for being the unique and oddball opposite to him, rather than wanting her to be something she wasn't, who loved her family so much that their deaths were as painful to him as his own family's deaths would be. I liked Adam so much, that I didn't even talk about him show more in my "If I Stay" review, because nothing would have really done justice to how perfect I thought he was. I don't mean literally perfect, he had flaws, but just perfect in the situations he was in.

Unfortunately, I barely even liked Adam in "Where She Went". I get that Mia leaving him left him heartbroken. I get that. Even taking into account the unusual aspect of the end of their relationship (meaning him supporting her through the accident and the recovery), I just find being heartbroken, anxiety-ridden, depressed and self-destructive for 3 years (with no end in sight) a bit... tiresome. That's longer than they were even together. And yet, after three years, a meteoric musical career, fame and fortune and success, all Adam can do is blame Mia for walking out on him and leaving him cold, and take that bitterness and anger out on others.

I don't mean to sound insensitive. I know that many, many people will find just this thing I found so tiresome to be rather romantic. We all want to be the center of someone's world. Someone's soul mate. I understand what she meant to him, and what their potential meant to him. But with every outburst and cynical thought, I just got more and more tired of it.

I also missed the music that was so much a part of what brought "If I Stay" to life. I know that there was a lot of musical references in "Where She Went", but it wasn't the same. I have no interest in where each of Shooting Star's songs debuted on the charts, or other details of their rise. It's enough to know they made it, for me. What I missed was the way that music mattered, the way they LIVED through music, not just lived by it, or with it, if that makes sense.

All of this is not to say that I disliked the book. I didn't. I liked it, overall. Some parts quite a bit more than others. The writing is still fantastically emotive and brutal in a way. It pulls no punches and makes sure that the reader feels everything (to a fault - see above). I WAS sad and hurt for Adam's loss, and I did want him to find a measure of happiness again... and if not happiness, then closure and acceptance. It's hard to lose those we love. It's even harder to lose those we love after we've helped them through their own lost loved ones. Who's there to help pick up those kind of pieces? I grieved for him for that.

I liked the way that the story came kind of full circle, and Adam did get his closure, even though it came through finding out things that certainly hurt. I liked that he was able to understand and appreciate the decision that Mia made in leaving, even though he was shattered by it. I liked the way he found new reserves of self-respect in himself because of this revelation.

This book didn't live up to "If I Stay" for me, but it is by no means a bad book. I like themes of lasting love, and I think that many people will love this book for that reason, but I just didn't think that this one had the same heart that "If I Stay" had, and for that, I can only give it 2 stars. show less

I haven’t got lost like this in a book in a long time. I picked it up off my shelf on a whim, thinking I’d read the first chapter- see if this sequel could live up to the first. Four hours later I was turning the final pages, not knowing how the words and time had slipped past so quickly.

Forman’s storytelling is heart-achingly beautiful. I had no idea going in that this would be Adam’s narrative, but that proved to be essential in the continued telling of this story about grief, guilt, and love. The pacing is wonderfully done and I shared Adam’s anger and confusion while simultaneously understanding how unfair to Mia that really was.

I was surprised how much I loved “If I Stay” but I’m even more surprised by how much show more more I loved this sequel. The story can just expand so much without Mia being confined to her coma-narrative. Additionally, getting the other side of Mia and Adam’s love story strengthens what we knew of it in book one.

Ultimately, “Where She Went” allows the readers to truly understand what it meant for Mia to stay- the reality of living her life and living with her loss. show less

I've been waiting for this to come ever since I won it in the November ER batch and it decided to finally arrive at the worst possible time. I haven't been busy at all for most of this term until this week, when I am suddenly overrun. And then this book arrives last night... I couldn't help but crack it open... and then I couldn't help but spend two hours reading the whole thing... I can only be thankful that it wasn't longer. Despite my misgivings about the arrival time, it was entirely excellent and for me a fulfilling sequel to If I Stay. Where She Went deals with a wholly different kind of sorrow and pain than If I Stay which, in a way, hit home harder. I think the lack of a supernatural element and the grittier, more realistic show more narration of Adam made everything seem much more plausible and closer to home. I also kept getting hints of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, which for me is always a good thing. If I Stay and Where She Went are books that normally I would never pick up off the shelf. The summaries, the covers, the general plotlines don't appeal to me at first glance. The fact that I love these books is an extremely strong testament to the power of Gayle Forman's writing and the stories she tells. Definitely recommended. show less

The danger with any sequel, especially one as powerful as If I Stay, is that it will never live up to its predecessor and consequently diminish the impact of the entire series. Where She Went not only lives up to the first novel, it surpasses it, and that is a difficult thing to do with such an amazing first novel. Told from Adam's point of view, we get a glimpse into the tortured soul that had begged Mia to stay. It has all of the anguish and raw emotion as the first one without its poignancy that helped temper the emotional strain on the reader. The result is a gut-punching story that leaves the reader completely wrecked at the end. This is a very good thing.

In If I Stay, the reader knows that Adam's and Mia's relationship is special show more and one of those meant to last forever. Yet, in Where She Went, Ms. Forman does not take the easy approach and chooses to show the aftermath of Mia's decision and its far-reaching consequences. If Mia was vulnerable in the first novel, it is nothing to Adam's fragility in his new role as rock star. Because of the relationship built between the reader and Adam in the first novel, Adam's teeter on the edge of self-destruction is all the more horrifying. The warning signs are all there, and the reader is left fervently praying that he will not implode as so many other rock stars have before him.

Taking the perfect relationship and rending it apart is going to come with emotional baggage, and Where She Went does just that. Mia, after everything she has already had to face in her life, deserves happiness, but the reader also understands that Adam does too. Finding that balance between what is good for either character makes for one amazing roller coaster of a novel. Adam does not shy away from sharing his mistakes and faults, and the reader loves him all the more for his honesty. He is not perfect, and the reader loves him for his imperfections. Just like the reader wanted Mia to choose the path in which she would be the happiest, the reader also wants Adam to find solace and happiness after everything he has faced.

While If I Stay approaches the consequences of one tragic accident for the person in the accident, Where She Went explores the consequences of the accident on those left on the sidelines. Can someone ever truly understand how it feels to lose one's entire family in a matter of seconds? To have faced the precipice of death versus life? How does something like this impact how you treat the survivor? What happens next? Ms. Forman addresses all of these questions with the same starkness and forthrightness as in the first novel. She pulls no punches and never deviates from the more difficult, but more honest, path. Where She Went confirms that Ms. Forman is an author to watch, as she tackled the demon of sequels and succeeded in creating a novel that is just as good, if not better, than the first. show less

If I stay had such a perfect ending. In a way, we were left hanging. Did she go to Julliard? Does Adam quit the band and go with Mia to New York? The best part about the book was that the answers were open ended. We could make our own ending out of it. The problem with Where She Went is that it takes away our ability to actually think for ourselves. In the sequel, we are given a reason not to strain ourselves to imagine our own ending; everything is handed to us. If I Stay was an absolutely perfect standalone novel with a beautiful ending, and I think that adding a sequel ruined it.

The entire second book ruined the series for me. Mia and Adam's love was supposed to be so strong that it pulled her out of a coma: It gave her a reason to show more stay! Then, like it was nothing, she just stops talking to him? That just doesn't seem like something Mia would do or something that Adam would just let go. I mean, he gets the lead singer of Bikini to create a diversion so that he can just see Mia for a few moments, so he can just let her know that he's there. Are we supposed to just accept the fact that Adam rolled over and let Mia make him her b****h, that he made no effort whatsoever to win her back, that he gets another girlfriend just to emotionally damage her, too? In one simple act of doing nothing at all, Mia completely destroys the emotional connection we had to the couple through the entire first book. To me, the ease in which Mia just kicked Adam to the curb completely invalidates the supposed unbreakable bond they had in the first book.

Really, if Gayle Foreman wanted to have an ending to the book, the entire thing could have been summed up in a short epilogue: "After going through rehabilitation with help from Adam and her grandparents, Mia leaves Adam behind and goes to New York to attend Julliard. Slowly, she fades out of Adam's life until one day three years later, Adam goes to one of her shows in New York out of a completely unexplained impulse. Mia acts like she didn't just completely destroy Adam, and Adam pretends that he didn't go on a completely self-destructive tirade for three years, and they fall back in love the end.

For something that could have been summarized in a few sentences, the whole second book went so slowly, and I felt like I knew the ending the whole time. Gayle Foreman could have ended the series after the first book and the ending still would have been the same. Adam and Mia end up together. Mia graduates from Julliard and Adam becomes a popular guitarist/lead singer. They travel the world together.

I guess that I was just too disappointed in this book. I'm not really sure what I even expected, but I surely expected something with at least the same emotional depth as its predecessor. I felt so connected to the first book. The grief and hope and sadness were so overwhelming that they hit me all at once. How, then, am I supposed to connect to a book that has only anger, depression, self-destruction, and extreme jealousy? The feelings evoked from the two books are so different that they could simply not connect to the same person. Going through the reviews, I've noticed a trend. Most of the people saying that they loved this book said that they only liked If I stay. This seems to me that the books are just too different from one another. You either like the first book or you like the second, because they have completely different premises. One's about the unbreakable bond of two people that saves the life of a girl going through extreme emotional distress, and one is about a self-destructive rock star that is angry because he lost the only woman he's ever really loved. They would be fine novels on their own, but to me, they shouldn't be associated with each other. Perhaps if I had waited just a bit longer after reading the first one to read this one, I would have liked it more. I wish I could, because If I stay was amazing. show less