Review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Where She Went (If I Stay #2) by Gayle Forman
Synopsis (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 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.

My Thoughts: I have been struck low by this series. It's true. It started with when If I Stay snuck in like a thief in the night and reduced me to tears. I probably would have been perfectly happy to leave Mia and Adam as they were at the end of that book. But the reality of them three years later, the heartache and realizations they've both had to come to made their journey so much more poignant.

One thing that struck me in book 1 was that Mia felt like a hanger-on at Adam's concerts. She enjoyed his music and she loved seeing him lose himself when he played but she never felt like she fit in. It's an admittedly little thing, but he went out of his way to support her and she tried but never quite embraced that side of him. I think Mia needed a chance to grow a little. The three years that have passed gave her time to face her grief and her pain. It gave her time to do a lot of things. Not all of them were good. But, then, the way she walked away from Adam also put him on a path, musically speaking, that gave him a chance to achieve something that he otherwise wouldn't have been able to achieve. She shattered him and he was able to take those little pieces of himself and turn it into something that touched others.

Adam is a wreck. He's reached a point where the music that used to be his escape can't fill the emptiness inside him. His emotions and heartache bled across every page. It was hard reading it at times. It was hard to see him so manic and swamped by depression and fear. Then he sees Mia again and things get both a little bit better in that moment and a little bit worse.

It's beautiful and terrible and heartbreaking all at once.

This book brings the closure that both Mia and Adam needed. It wraps the two of them up together and forces them to face the things that have happened. It pulls them and pushes them and makes them stronger when they come out on the other side. Adam was so alive here, even when he was spiraling downward. His story deserved to be told and I'm so, SO glad I read it.

Books in this series
1. If I Stay
2. Where She Went - Paperback | Kindle

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