Review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Publishing Date: April 9th, 2011
ISBN: 9780525422945
Pages: 264 pgs

Summary from GoodReads:

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 Julliard'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 future - and 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.

My Review:
**** If you have not read If I Stay, this review contains spoilers****
This book is the followup to If I Stay which I really enjoyed. I was excited to get this book from NetGalley as an ARC because I loved the first book so much. This book is written quite differently and is told from Adam's point of view. Adam is Mia's boyfriend who pretty much convinces Mia to stay rather than die after her horrific car accident that killed her entire family. Not long after the accident Mia and Adam break up and this completely destroys Adam as a person. It helps his music career but emotionally Adam has shut down. I am going to admit that I didn't like this book as well as I liked the first novel. I think that it may have something to do with the fact that I had a hard time sypathizing with Adam. I mean I have been through some pretty tough break ups but I did not turn into a complete bitch when this happened. I felt that Adam was a bit of an ass to the people in his life that were just trying to help him out. When he meets up with Mia, his personality changes a bit and he doesn't seem to foster as much hate for the world around him. Just because I didn't like the novel as much as the first one doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it none the less. I applaud Forman for trying to think of a new and different way to tell her followup novel. Many series today, seem to repeat the same plot line with little character development and Forman does not follow suit. Overall, I did enjoy the novel but it takes some time to really feel invested in Adam's character. At times I just wanted to slip into the pages and shake some sense into him. I definitely recommend this book but suggest that you read If I Stay first.