Star Rating: 4 out of 5
Title: Where She Went
Author: Gayle Foreman
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Edition: Hardcover, 264
Release Date: April 5th, 2011
Source: Vancouver Public Library
Synopsis: 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 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.
Review: Okay. So, I liked this book better than the first one. But still, found the plot somewhat lacking, bland. A book needs more than a romance to carry it, IMHO. I like the way the story was told, though, from Adam POV and using flashbacks to bring the reader up to speed on the past three years. I found myself able to sympathize with Adam more in this book than I sympathized with Mia in book 1. Being inside Adam's head, seeing how broken and grief-stricken he felt, I could identify with him, and his need for answers and relief.
Still, this book seems like a story strung together by recollections and memories. What plot there is, seems all too predicable. As such, there wasn't tension enough to really make this book a page-turner. Despite al this, I'll admit that I was rooting for Adam and Mia to get back together, more for Adam's sake though. It did seem like a foregone conclusion, though, and I suppose that at some point I kept on reading just to confirm my suspicions. That said, the ending is indeed pretty flaky.
As for other characters, I don't really understand the point of Bryn's character. She seemed sort of like an after thought. Mia seemed like some sort of caricature of stoicism. I could not really relate to her. Perhaps that's part of the story, that if the reader can identify with Adam, then s/he cannot identify with Mia. And the band, why did they have to behave like such assholes? After all, didn't Adam make them all famous with his angst-inspired song writing and composing?
Here are a few of my favourite lines:
Karma's not like a bank. Make a deposit, make a withdrawal.
I'd held onto the clipping for a few days, occasionally taking it out to glance over it. Having the thing in my wallet felt a bit like carrying around a vial of plutonium.
When the lights come up after the concert, I feel drained, lugubrious, as though my blood has been secreted out of me and replaced with tar.
Collateral Damage was written with Mia's blood on my hands, and that was the record that launched me.
Because I suddenly want to hear her bones rattle. I want to feel the softness of her flesh give, to hear her gasp as my hip bone jams into her. I want to yank her head back until her neck is exposed. I want to rip my hands through her hair until her breath is laboured. I want to make her cry and then lick up the tears. And then I want to take my mouth to hers, to devour her alive, to transmit all the things she can't understand.
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