Where She Went (Gayle Forman)

EN “Where She Went" is the sequel of the book “If I Stay" by writer Gayle Forman. If the first book of the saga completely overwhelmed me, grabbing my sadness and more of my emotional side, the second book was a lot more soft and less dramatic. To better understand the differences, the first book talks about death and overcoming the grieve, the second book talks about the mourning of a relationship and the ability to forgive. The first book is told through Mia's perspective, and the second is through Adam's perspective.

The synopsis of the book tells us that three years have passed since the accident involving Mia and her family, in which only Mia survived, and three years have passed in which Adam, Mia's boyfriend and love at the time, was left behind without any explanation. However, one night in New York, the two cross paths again and are forced to confront the ghosts of the past that came back to haunt them.

Both books touched me a lot, but for quite different reasons. Adam's suffering and his frustration at not being able to understand the reasons that led Mia to abandon him, are quite palpable emotions that through the author's writing is possible to absorb. I admit that initially, I questioned Mia's attitudes because I could not understand her decision. When we are forced to go through a tragedy like the one she went through, it would be expected for her to want to be around all the people she loves. But that did not happen. And as we read the book, we start to understand the reasons for her decision. As she said: “I needed to hate someone and you were the person I loved the most, so I hated you (…)”. Naturally, there is no normal way to deal with situations like these. Each person ends up following a path that seems better, and although I do not understand, I ended up accepting that Mia needed her time to embrace her life without her family.

As for Adam, I felt immense empathy for his pain and for the fact that he took refuge in music, something that also served as a connection between the two of them. Despite being a much less dramatic book, its outcome was as expected as we can read in the title “Where She Went”. Adam got so caught up in his feelings that he never really let go of Mia, ending up waiting for her, despite the direction that she went.

Between the two books, this one is not my favorite, but it still is a good book. We have the outcome of Mia's story and we have the opportunity to appreciate the author's writing that remains very good and inspiring. The writer manages to hold us from beginning to end, making us long to know more and more about everything that will happen.

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