Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Set three years after the event in her first book, If I Stay, Gayle Forman continues the love story of Adam Wilde and Mia Hall after the accident that changed their lives. This time, the book shows the perspective of Adam on how the event turned his life into.

Characters

• Adam Wilde - The main narrator of the story. The vocalist and lead guitarist of the famous band Shooting Star, Mia's ex-boyfriend and current partner of Bryn
• Mia Hall - Adam's ex-boyfriend, a cellist player from Julliard. She was the only the only survivor from the accident that happened three years ago that took the life of her parents and younger brother.
• Bryn - a famous actress and currently live-in partner of Adam Wilde.

Synopsis

Three years after the accident of the Hall family, Adam Wilde has already gained fame with his band known as Shooting Star. The story opens in his last day of tour in New York. Having some psychological condition after he broke up with Mia, she wanders the city only to find himself at the front of a hall where Mia will be performing now as a rising star.

With destiny playing the game, the two are joined again in a one night tour over the city reminiscing the old times and trying to close the unfinished business that they have started. Given the limited time, Adam finds answers to all the questions that is haunting him for three years.

As the story ended, the two finally decides to close all ties between the two of them.

What I Can Say

As compared from the previous book, this time it was Adam who is telling the story. The book somehow answered the questions left by the first book though the way it was written where almost three-fourth of it is full of flash back is sometimes confusing. To top it all, mixing the flash back with all the drama of Wilde, makes it more annoying.

Maybe it was just me, but it was probably Forman's intention to just go with the flash backs to answer all open-ended issues on If I Stay, like what happens next after she woke up and how will Adam decide on his promise in order for her to stay. Though again, the story ends again to the point where the probably a new chapter might have started (him leaving their new life away from the band\ ).

Overall, I liked this book better than the first one!

Quoted from the Book

First you inspect me
Then you dissect me
Then you reject me
I wait for the day
That you'll resurrect me

- Animate (Collateral Damage Track 1)

"Standing here in the quiet hours where I can hear the birds chirping out back, I think I'm kind of getting the concept of closure. It's no big dramatic before-after. It's more like the melancholy feeling you get at the end of a really good vacation. Something special is ending and you're sad but you can't be that sad because, hey, it was good while it lasted, and there'll be other vacations, other good times"

- Adam Wilde

"It was selfish what I ask her to do even if it wound up being the most unselfish thing I've ever done."

- Adam Wilde

"But I'd do it again. I know that now. I'd make that promise a thousand times over and lose her a thousand times over to have heard her play last night or to see her in the morning sunlight. Or even without that. Just to know that she somewhere out there. Alive."

- Adam Wilde

"You were so busy trying to be my savior that you left me all alone"

- Mia Hall

"Quitting's not hard. Deciding to quit is hard. Once you make that mental leap, the rest is easy"

- Mia Hall

"Fake it till you make it"

- Adam Wilde

Rating

4 out of 5