Book: Where She Went by Gayle FormanGenre: YA Romance-ish
Rating: ****
For: Fun
From: The Library
I read If I Stay last year and really quite loved it. I truly felt the pain and agony and sadness. My review here. And now spoilers for that book to follow in reviewing its sequel!
This book picks up a few years after the first one ended. Do you remember what Adam told Mia in the first book? He made a promise. Do you remember? This promise comes back to haunt him in this second book.
So, when she woke up she felt the need (which is explained in this book as it goes on) to distance herself from him. So they went their separate ways. Adam is now a famous rock star living the life, which, according to this book, is quite hellish. He is basically falling apart. It's extremely sad.
Mia is a famous cellist and is making her own name in the music world. They've had no contact these many years.
Then, when he is about to take off on tour, they bump into each other, and spend the evening/night/day talking, and remembering. Well, it's all from Adam's point of view this time around, so he is doing the remembering, and it's interesting to see how he perceives things. But the question throughout the whole book is... is there any hope for these two? Will they get back together, or just talk and continue on their separate ways?
The thing I found fascinating about this book is the detail of a what it might be like in the life of a rock star. Did the author go interview guys for research? Seriously, I want to know if it's this "bad" and sad and lonely and exhausting and wow... it does not seem like fun at all. Why would anyone aspire to this career? It's the dream for so many kids it seems and I wonder if when they make it, are they happy?
Anyway, but the book is really about Adam and Mia and for the most part I enjoyed the tension between them and the ever present question mentioned above. It's still a sad story, just like the first one. With hope though. Yes, there's hope.
Bottom line: I enjoyed it a lot.
Other Reviews:
I'm Booking It
That's What She Read
Book Journey
Rhapsody in Books
I have been curious about this author for a while but my library doesn't have her books...
ReplyDeleteOh, sadness. They really are pretty good books, though you must be in the mood for them I think. They are not light and fluffy.
DeleteI DO NOT want to read this book!...Almost you persuade me, though. ;)
ReplyDeleteI did? Almost? What was it? The rocker life talk?
DeleteYou read it! I've been a slacker. I may try to read it before the due date, which is tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was an excellent follow up to If I Stay, and it really helped to round out the story in a really good way. It was sad to see how broken Adam was, but in the end I really loved how it all came together. Can't wait to read more from Gayle Forman.
ReplyDelete