Review Detail

This one was definitely a sad one. And a serious one. Throughout the whole book, it really made me think about life and what really matters.

We know the story: a tragic accident, lives hanging in the balance, emotions flying all over the place. The story is told through the eyes of Mia, who is basically having an out-of-body experience while her body is desperately fighting for her life. There are a ton of flashbacks as Mia recounts how she and her best friend came to be, memories of her parents and her little brother, and of course, the wonderful love that is Adam Wilde.

Even though this was a sad story, Gayle kept it light at times and brought good memories of Mia’s life which I loved. There were a lot of real issues addressed in here and in the end it really makes you appreciate the life you have and the people in it. It made me think about how uncertain life can be, how things can change in the blink of an eye, and although I wouldn’t recommend reading books like this all the time because that can seriously mess with your head, I love reading stuff like this every now and then to take some perspective in life.

Gayle’s writing is superb and very heartfelt. She can make you feel happy one minute, sad the next. She knows exactly how to get to your heart and in your head and does so flawlessly in this story. Probably the only complaint I have is that there wasn’t enough of Adam. You get a nice backstory of his and Mia’s relationship, how they fall in love and all, but there wasn’t enough of him in the story overall to really do it for me. I suppose it kind of works out and builds to the big climax at the end of the story, but I still think he could’ve been in there a bit more, it didn’t seem like he was that big of a figure.

And the ending?! Talk about a cliffhanger! Sure, the story is about Mia’s choice, but the ending wasn’t what I expected and after reading the synopsis for Where She Went, I’m a bit disappointed in how things ended up. Their love seemed to be such a big and overpowering entity in If I Stay, I was a bit disappointed on that part. I’m hoping Where She Went focuses more on their relationship and how epic their love is supposed to be.