Review: Where She Went (If I Stay #2) by Gayle Forman

[Mimi Jazman]

My Ratings: 4.25 out of 5

I just finished a book! My first audiobook and I freaking love it. I was on the verge of tears towards the ending which means, audiobook doesn't lessen any emotional impact at all. Which is good because I barely have time to sit down and read properly.

Okay... Now, let's get to the book.

I read the first book, If I Stay last year. To be honest, I didn't like it as much as I wish. It was okay for me. I also realized that I promised myself to read the second one because I believe it's going to be enjoyable and easy to read. Yet, I couldn't bring myself to read it at all although I have lot of chances to do so. Until this year; where I really need to pick up on my reading pace. Once I saw this book on the list of the audiobooks that I can get, I quickly downloaded it and listened to it.

I supposed that the voice that read the book helped very much in attracting me to listen more to it. The voice belongs to a guy in his twenties I presumed. It sounds very much like the character himself and I love the voice so much. When I listened to him, I swear he was whispering throughout the book. Haha!


Between the two in the duology, I certainly favour this one over If I Stay (the first book) since it has less superstitious element in it and more realistic. Although it is a bit too dreamy to my taste, I find them to be excusable because overall, it makes sense actually.

I personally don't think that this book provides me with new knowledge on anything. The entertainment world potrayed in the book is exactly the same to my understanding all along. School life, depressions are also mentioned and it is what I think it is. So yeah, no new knowledge. But hey, the book is still good, okayy?

Yes, I believe the conflict is well resolved. Adam seems to know what he wants at the end and so does Mia and other people too. I like it the way it is. I believe none of us would like to have another hanging ending. No one will be able to deal with the stress!

Although I didn't write down any of the magnificent quotes from the book that doesn't mean it has none of those. Where She Went has abundance of beautiful and relatable quotes. I know you guys like those wordy stuffs.

In terms of the details, I believe that this book give us just adequate amount of details. Not too much and not too little which helps very much with the pace. I listened to it for 5 hours and 15 minutes and that's a good amount of hours to spend on this book although I believe it can be a bit shorter than it is.

When it comes to the characters, I just can't believe it how much I love the two main characters! I have read the first book but I didn't feel the same way towards them previously. I found them a bit dull in the first book but in this one, I freakin' love them both. The way Adam expresses and tells us his side of story makes me fall in love with him and Mia altogether. Or maybe, it could be that the issues that Adam tries to address is much relatable than Mia's in the first book. Dealing with depression of losing someone seems to be an element that I can relate too. Both of them have developed very well throughout the book. It has been three years after and you can clearly see what happened to these two characters that changed them so much. All the changes are explained loudly.


If you ask me whether it is relatable to my life or not, I'm sincerely gonna say that it is indeed very relatable. It is very personal that I choose not to talk about it here but yes, I totally understand the characters and those little dramas they had within themselves.


Although I didn't find myself thinking about the book every time I wasn't reading it, I couldn't help myself to smile, to give out a little gasp and shriek here and there throughout the period of reading the book. I even tweeted about how I feel regarding the 'plot twist'.

Talking about plot twists, I was surprised that I was surprised actually. Get me? Sure you do. It's not a major plot twists but somehow it tugs at my heart and it hurts me, unexpectedly, which is good because that means I have an emotional connection towards the characters. It barely happens to me these days, so I glad it happened with this book.

Well, since this is my first audiobook, I highly recommend it to readers out there who never yet tried an audiobook. Merely because the book is very simple and extremely easy to understand. And also, it will give you the good impression to try on other audibooks as well. So YEAH! Please listen to this book, everyone!! But well, I believe reading it normally won't lessen the pleasure at all if you like it that way.

[Gravy]

Duplicated topic

Where She Went