Malin’s #CBR5 Review #118: Where She Went by Gayle Forman

This is the sequel to If I Stay, and both this book and this review unavoidably contain spoilers about the ending. So if you want to avoid spoilers, or haven’t read the first book in the series yet, skip this review.

Three years ago Adam Wilde’s girlfriend Mia was in a car accident and lost her entire family. She nearly died as well. While she was in a coma, Adam pleaded with her to wake up, and said he’d even live with her leaving him, if she would just stay alive. Mia woke up from the coma, left Oregon for New York and is now a lauded prodigy having graduated Julliard early.

After dropping out of college and caring about nothing for quite some time after their breakup, Adam then poured all his emotions about the loss of Mia (and her family) into song lyrics, and his band went from being Indie darlings played at college radio stations to a platinum selling sensation touring stadiums world wide. Now dating a talented actress/producer, Adam lives in LA and is constant tabloid fodder. He barely speaks to the other members of the band, copes with the stress of fame with pills and alcohol and has a reputation as a real bad boy. When he’s spending one night alone in New York, before heading off to London for another tour, Adam meets Mia again for the first time since they broke up. She’s about to go on tour as well, starting in Japan. She invites him to come along as she says goodbye to all her favourite New York haunts.

Full review on my blog.

Malin’s #CBR5 Review #117: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Mia has everything a girl could want. Loving, supportive parents, a little brother who’s more funny and clever than annoying, a likely admission to Julliard, and a romantic and talented boyfriend. Then her family are in a car accident, and her parents are killed instantly. Mia watches herself and her brother being transported to the hospital, and spends the next twenty four hours out of her own body, watching her relatives, friends of the family, her boyfriend Adam and her best friend Kim as they huddle in the hospital waiting room for news about her.

With her body being kept alive by machines while she’s in a coma, Mia suddenly only has one thing left – she has to decide whether she’s going to choose to live, and go on without her immediate family, or whether she should let go. Is there enough left for her to make staying worth it?

More on my blog.

Scootsa1000’s #CBR5 Review 18: Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Sometimes I’ll discover a new writer and devour as much of their work as I can really quickly. And while I usually enjoy the books, I do find that some authors have a tendency to repeat certain important themes that are relevant to them. Jennifer Weiner usually writes about a girl who used to be fat, who became less fat by swimming, and does not have a father figure in her life. Sarah Dessen really likes the beach, seems to dislike parents of all kinds, and usually has a non-reported date rape show up at some point in her books. And I guess Gayle Forman really likes the idea that every story has two sides.

Her first set of “he said/she said” books were If I Stay and Where She Went, which told the same story from different perspectives. One book I liked much more than the other, but still a refreshing way to tell a love story.

Forman is in the midst of repeating herself with her new characters from Just One Day. In this book, we meet Allyson, a “good girl” who has had her entire life planned out for her by her parents, and who has never gone astray from these plans. Until she meets a handsome actor while she’s touring Europe with a teen tour group, and she suddenly runs off to Paris with him.

They spend a single day together, and for Allyson, her entire life changes.

While I didn’t completely buy that Allyson would trek halfway around the world to try and find a boy that she spent 24 hours with, I did like the way that Allyson was written. I felt bad for her when she couldn’t acclimate to life in college, and I loved her friend Dee. I was relieved when she and her mom finally re-evaluated their status as mother and daughter, which ended up strengthening — and ultimately saving — their relationship.

And I’m sure Willem was super cute and fun, and I”m glad he made her realize all of these hidden things about herself. But still. I’m not sure that the last 50 pages needed to happen. An independent trip to Paris to replay the night they shared? Sure. But her impromptu visit over to Amsterdam seemed more like stalking to me.

In any event, I’m curious to see how Forman presents Willem’s side of the story in her next book. And Forman’s writing makes the story worthwhile, even if I don’t necessarily believe the plot (a problem I also had with Where She Went). And it really, really made me want to go back to Paris.

You can read more of my reviews on my blog.