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A review by gothiclibrarian
Where She Went by Gayle Forman
5.0
I read the first book If I Stay about a month ago (read my review of it here) and it was amazing and super intense. I cried so hard that I couldn't bring myself to read the sequel right away. But once I finally sat down with it I was floored. I haven't been able to get it out of my head for days.
Where She Went is told from the perspective of Adam, and he's a very different person from when we saw him last. My heart broke repeatedly for him. I couldn't believe that it was the same character. I loved Adam in the first book, he was my favorite character. But I just couldn't get over the change. He was so unhappy.
I didn't really know how I felt about Mia in the first novel, but circumstances being what they were, you can't really hate the girl and feel like a good person. Yet, in this novel I hated her. She comes across as incredibly selfish, passive-aggressive and cruel. It takes almost the entire novel before you figure out why she and Adam aren't together anymore, and I'm sorry but those reasons just don't work for me. They're very petulant and frankly, ironic, for a girl complaining about free passes and entitlement. I kind of wanted to smack her and tell her to shut up.
Surprisingly, I did like the novel, and Adam captured my heart yet again. As much as I feel for him and am appalled at what he became, he made the novel worthwhile. The pacing of the novel is great and I suppose you could read it on it's own, without getting lost, although I do believe that reading the pair would be best. Another benefit is that it is a fairly quick read and even though parts of it were sad, I wasn't the sobbing mess that I was when I was in the midst of If I Stay. Which everyone is happy about.
Where She Went is told from the perspective of Adam, and he's a very different person from when we saw him last. My heart broke repeatedly for him. I couldn't believe that it was the same character. I loved Adam in the first book, he was my favorite character. But I just couldn't get over the change. He was so unhappy.
I didn't really know how I felt about Mia in the first novel, but circumstances being what they were, you can't really hate the girl and feel like a good person. Yet, in this novel I hated her. She comes across as incredibly selfish, passive-aggressive and cruel. It takes almost the entire novel before you figure out why she and Adam aren't together anymore, and I'm sorry but those reasons just don't work for me. They're very petulant and frankly, ironic, for a girl complaining about free passes and entitlement. I kind of wanted to smack her and tell her to shut up.
Surprisingly, I did like the novel, and Adam captured my heart yet again. As much as I feel for him and am appalled at what he became, he made the novel worthwhile. The pacing of the novel is great and I suppose you could read it on it's own, without getting lost, although I do believe that reading the pair would be best. Another benefit is that it is a fairly quick read and even though parts of it were sad, I wasn't the sobbing mess that I was when I was in the midst of If I Stay. Which everyone is happy about.