Where She Went - my book review

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Where She Went is in the same vein as its predecessor, If I Stay, but yet...there are some obvious differences between the two.



Let me begin from the beginning. Firstly, I didn't really like the first book in the series all that much. Many, many people have enthusiastically raved on and on about it, but I was just like: "Are we talking about the same book here?" Main reasons why I didn't enjoy it was: 1) It was so slow-paced, and involved next to nil amount of action, 2) Too many flash-backs!! 3) The concept of the story isn't all that amazing.



Now let's move back to the present. Where She Went is more adventurous. I like Adam's perspective more than Mia's. He is more skeptical, less guileless and oh-so straightforward. This novel actually does accompany nicely with If I Stay though... I didn't mention it before, but Gayle Forman is absolutely talented at character build-up. I know the main characters about as much as I know about my classmates (which is quite well...pretty good for a book,anyway).



Anyway, here it is 3 years later, but knowing the characters personalities helps us understand the novel more in-depth. There are also much less characters, which gives us more meat to focus on, and I like that. Mia is the same, and yes, Adam is pretty much a different person, but knowing his background information truly lets you know that his appearance and attitude on the outside is much harder than the his bittersweet core on the inside. Like a 'Starburst GummiBurst' (that's a lolly by the way, for those who don't know)!



Onto Adam Wilde and Mia Hall's rocky relationship... well, I can really only describe it in one way. 'To forgive and to forget'. I wasn't very pleased with the outcome of their love life. I mean, after all Mia did to Adam. He deserves better, doesn't he?? I guess in the end though, it's a happily-ever-after. And I was pleased with that. The ending was sweet and girly, but so was the 'tour' around New York. It was nice and it made me feel happy. In fact,

Where She Went could easily fit into a 'pick-me-up-when-I'm-sad' book.



It is utterly amazing how Gayle Forman can write about one whole day in a young adult novel. How? How? I'd like to know that secret. I don't know whether that 'amazing' is good or bad, but it is spectacular. For those who like Where She Went, the author did a good job on keeping their brains satisfied. Unfortunately, that formula did not work for me.



Finally, let me ask you... What really happened in this book? Can you tell me anything exciting that happened in it? Can you really identify something dramatic; something thrilling that happened in this book? Well, these are all rhetorical questions, as I can safely answer them myself. 'No.' I totally understand that this book is strictly romance and drama, and I've just gotta admit that they're not my type.


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