Book Review: Where She Went

TITLE: Where She Went
Mia Hall Book 2
AUTHOR: Gayle Forman
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: drama
PREMISE: Adam and Mia meet up years after her accident and a rough break up.
MY REVIEW: Okay I was not as enthralled with If I Stay as everyone else seems to be but this book I'm definitely giving kudos to the author. Granted, it still has that Lifetime Movie feel and I feel it was a little cliche that (spoiler) they found each other again in the end and that made everything worth it. But still this was a lot better for me then If I Stay.
For one, I bet no one was expecting Forman to go this route when they asked her for a sequel. They probably wanted happyness and roses after the accident and I love that Forman wasn't afraid to not give them that. Accidents leave scars and Mia's accident in particular was rough because of all she lost, it would have been unrealistic if she had moved on so easily. I'm glad the author gave everyone flaws and issues and had them work through it in a way that was believable and thoughtful at the same time. For me these books are really interesting character studys and lets face it, we don't get much of that in YA. Plus as a bonus, her writing is really good.
So I give these books a thumbs up even I do find parts of it a bit contrived and cliche the writing and character stuff more then make up for that.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of If I Stay, contemporary book fans, fans of Piccoult
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five cellos