Book Review: Where She Went, Gayle Forman

Reading Level: Young Adult

Hardcover: 258 Pages

Publisher: Dutton, April 5, 2010

Parasols: 5

Three years ago, Mia Hall was in a serious car accident that killed her family and left her struggling to decide whether there was enough here on earth to keep her here. But that was Mia's story, Where She Went, is Adam's story. Adam was Mia's boyfriend who was there through it all and begging her to stay. But now, she is gone. Off to Julliard to study the cello, while Adam is now a full-fledged rock God.

And with all rock stars comes baggage. Adam is suffering from anxiety, has a temper that would shame the Gallagher brothers and smokes like a chimney stack. He has the typical California movie star girlfriend, but he's not happy.

A chance encounter brings Adam face to face with Mia and what happens to the both of them since she left will leave most readers breathless and in tears.

My review of If I Stay is here. I probably cannot gush enough how much I loved this book. The first book ended with the reader not knowing what decision Mia made, but you know how and why she did what she did. Leaving Adam was probably the hardest thing she could do, and it all but destroyed him. He locked himself away, he wrote music that became the biggest album of his career, but it still wasn't enough to help he get over Mia.

The lyrics that open each chapter made me wish that there really was an album called Collateral Damage. Which is exactly what Adam is feeling. He's become collateral damage to Mia's desire to stay alive. Watching him navigate the roads of NYC and realize how much he didn't know was brilliant. When it comes to Mia, Adam doesn't seem know a lot.

Gayle Forman really made me feel and want to help Adam, and reading the lyrics made me realize how I've felt like that in my lifetime. How sometimes we get so caught up in other people's lives that what eventually happens is we all become collateral damage. I bawled like a baby with the first book, but I was ready for this one. And I still cried. I fell in love with Adam all over again.