Book Review: Where She Went by Gail Forman

Title: Where She Went
Author: Gail Forman
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Kindle
Content Alert: sex, language, and drug use

I finished If I Stay, and immediately purchased Where She Went (what can I say-- the Kindle makes it so easy-- it was recommended right there in the screen that pops up once you finish the book. In fact, ordering on the Kindle is so easy that my toddlers have ordered three Elmo movies and a $500 printer in the last week). I started reading the book right away, because I was so captivated by the first book. The story picks up three years after If I Stay leaves off.

Adam's band has hit it big. They have several platinum records under their belts and are in New York for one day before heading off to tour in Europe. But ever since Mia left for Julliard and wrote him out of her life, he's been reeling. He doesn't like the person he's become, and things are so tense with the band that they can't even stay at the same hotel. He's taking drugs for his anxiety and not sleeping, and he's pretty much just a jerk. Then, on the day he's supposed to leave, he walks by Carnegie Hall and sees that Mia is playing a cello concert there that night. So he buys a ticket, and that changes everything.

While Where She Went is another interesting novel, and I read it quickly and with gusto, I didn't enjoy it as much as its predecessor. This is Adam's story in the way that If I Stay was Mia's story, but I really appreciated the structure of If I Stay, with its flashbacks and removed point of view (with Mia sort of hovering above everything), and Where She Went was much more forward momentum. It was a satisfying conclusion to the story, just not quite as satisfying or inventive as If I Stay.