Sunday, April 10, 2011

Where She Went by gayle forman



Book Name:
Where She Went
Author/s: Gayle Forman
Source: NetGalley
Publisher, year: Penguin Group, 2011
Page total:208
Date Read:March 26 to 27, 2011
Genre/s: Contemporary Fiction, YA
First line of Book:Every morning I wake up and tell myself this:' It's just one day, one twenty-four-hour period to get yourself through. '

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 futureÑand 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.


After reading If I Stay (okay, I reread it because of WSW, 'cause it sounded so incredibly awesome!!) I immediately got my hands on Where She Went (and I do mean immediately) and started reading it.
In case you've been in space/on a desert/ under the sea/hiding under a rock and living like an eremite, or if you simply have not been on the Internet much, you don't know how much hype this book's been getting. And it is a lot. But it sure is deserved...
Anyway, although the writing style is pretty much like If I Stay, while it was Mia's story, this is all about Adam and I'm really grateful for that. Sure, Mia still appears, but now I got to know Adam a lot better (if you've read my review of IIS, you know I thought Adam was underdeveloped. Well, that's fixed now!) and I LOVED him! I understood what drove him, why he acted the way he did, I understood how his life'd become so empty when he understood it, I felt his anger, his loss, his betrayal, his hurt, his emptiness and his love. And a lot more, because Adam's this lovely messy and tangled emotion ball.
I admit it, I was mad at Mia for leaving Adam, but once I knew why, I couldn't stay mad anymore. And I must say I'm very satisfied with the ending of the book.
Other than that, what I really, really liked in the story was that the characters, as characters and as people, all were very realistic- they didn't stay the same they were in IIS, and there were some awkward moments between A and M because of that. Basically, I could imagine it happening in reality, right here, right now*.

5/5

Needle and thread, flesh and bone
Spit and sinew, heartbreak is home
Your suture lines sparkle like diamonds
Bright stars to light my confinement
"STITCH"
COLLATERAL DAMAGE, TRACK 7

She left for Juilliard the day after Labor Day. i drove her to the airport. She kissed me good-bye. She told me that she loved me more than life itself. then she stepped through security.
She never came back.

My first impulse is not to grab her or kiss her or yell at her. I simply want to touch her cheek, still flushed from the night's performance. I want to cut through the air that separates us, measured in feet—not miles, not continents, not years—and to take a callused finger to her face. I want to touch her to make sure it's really her, not one of those dreams I had so often after she left when I'd see her so clear as day, be ready to kiss her or take her to me only to wake up with Mia just beyond reach.

But I can't touch her. This is a privilege that's been revoked.


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* That was a compliment, by the way

2 comments:

Jen (@ Jens Book Closet) said...

I haven't read If I Stay, mostly just because it seemed really sad and I try to steer clear of those books. Kate said it was excellent though and I should give it a try. I suppose I finally should.

Unknown said...

I love this book!! If I Stay was really good, but Where She Went is amazing.

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