Review: Where She Went (If I Stay #2)

Reviewer: Kelsey
Author: Gayle Forman
Format: ebook
Pages: 264
Rating: 8 out of 10

** This is the second to If I Stay. Read the review HERE**

Summary (Where Goodreads went): 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.

What I thought: It's been a while so bare with me. I really liked this novel, like a lot. I thought it was amazingly well-written. It took If I Stay and made it something so much more. If I Stay really leaves the audience wondering where they will go from here and this explains just that. I've got to be honest with you, I didn't see all these twists and turns coming. I don't think that anyone who read If I Stay really saw exactly where the author would be dragging these two main characters. It was heart-breaking.

No, you know what was heart-breaking? Adam. Adam destroyed me in this novel. I could feel everything he was feeling. I have anxiety and I can attest to the fact that it was written properly in this story. The poor guy is so broken, so screwed up after the events of the last novel. It only makes sense that he would be suffering now. He was written perfectly. I felt his pain. I understood everything behind it. I also wanted to punch him in the face at times. Anyway, I actually cried while reading this novel and that counts for a lot to me.

I don't know what I was expecting at the end but this novel is full of twists that keep your interest and keep you guessing right up until the very end. I'm okay with how it all turned out. I was both surprised and not. I'm not sure how to explain it to you so you should just read it.

This author is fantastic. You become part of the stories. You need to know what happens. You feel what the characters are feeling. These things are the most important things to me. These novels are authentic. They are real. They also rip your heart out and stomp on it until it dissolves into minuscule pieces but that's okay because by that point you want it, all of it. These novels really give you it all.

So: I recommend this novel. To everyone. If you read If I Stay, you should read this novel. You don't really need to but I found that it didn't continue on how I thought it was going to. I think Adam's point of view does the story perfect justice. Read it.

Read Kristen's take here: Where She Went