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Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why

thirteen-reasons-why-book-cover

Rating: 3 stars

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

I remember being introduced to this book by an old friend of mine when I was in high school. At the time, I remember reading it, becoming so engrossed with Hannah’s character. She was a mysterious girl because when reading, you didn’t really know too much about her. She told you about the things that happened to her during her freshman year of high school and that she wasn’t the type of girl the rumors portrayed her to be. But I also felt a connection to her, having been in high school at the time and understanding the struggles she was going through.

I felt that I could relate to her. Even though I never had rumors like that about me flying around school, I was bullied during my early years of education. So I completely understood where she was coming from and could see how the events that transpired turned her whole world upside down. Even though I’m no longer in high school, reading Thirteen Reasons Why a second time around didn’t change that perception for me.

Hannah Baker is a very sympathetic character. She attends a new high school, trying the best she can to fit in only to find her peers never taking the time to get to know her as a person. They are so busy believing the rumors about her to realize how alone she was and to see that their actions unintentionally lead to her death.

Another reason this story pulls at my heart is because it’s a very sensitive topic. Suicide isn’t something a lot of people feel comfortable talking about, due to people not understanding how the smallest things can have a big impact on a person’s life. Like mental illness, people don’t know how to talk about suicide and don’t understand it as well as people who’ve felt that pain before. Despite how hard suicide as a topic is to discuss about, these discussions need to be had and I appreciate Jay Asher, the author of Thirteen Reasons Why, for writing about it. It makes me hopeful that one day, suicide won’t be such a big stigma.  This book also brought up a lot of other key issues, such as rape and drunk driving, which aren’t heavily talked about either and are just as important to discuss.

I also enjoyed this book because of the way the story is told. The novel is from the perspective of Clay Jensen, who receives cassette tapes one day after school with Hannah’s voice on them explaining why she killed herself, saying the responsibility lies with those who receive the tapes. The people involved also receive a map of their town, marked with stars of locations where the events Hannah mentions take place. I enjoyed reading this book through Clay’s thoughts and actions and Hannah’s voice. It made it seem more in depth and personal. I also liked that Asher used cassette tapes for Hannah’s death note. As a 90s child, I grew up using cassette tapes and a Walkman whenever I wanted to listen to something on the go. It made the story a little nostalgic with those elements, considering how far technology has advanced in today’s day and age.

However, I do have a couple criticisms for Thirteen Reasons Why. While I enjoyed the way this story was told, I felt like Asher had Hannah more telling the story than Clay. Yes, he’s the one who had the tapes and his thoughts about what transpired where pretty clear, but I felt like there was more telling in the story than showing. I also didn’t really see a whole lot of character development in any of the characters in this story. I think part of that is because of hearing from Hannah her thoughts about the people who affected her life made it hard for us to really get a good understanding of the other characters. We knew Hannah didn’t really like them, but I wish we could’ve learned more about them and why they were such terrible people.

I also just didn’t really get how Clay is supposedly a nice guy. He’s included in the tapes and the story is told from his perspective, but you don’t really get to know him as a person outside of him listening to those tapes. Throughout the book, he only interacts with a couple people and even those few interactions didn’t give us a real glimpse of his character. Yes, he did some nice things, helped people out, but that isn’t enough for me to truly believe someone is a nice person. I also didn’t see how this whole thing really changed his life either. I get he had a better understanding of what Hannah was going through after the tapes, but he didn’t seem all that different to me than before. But I did sympathize with him because it was evident in the story how much he cared about Hannah and wanted to help her in any way he could.

I felt like I knew more about where Hannah and the rest of her classmates lived than the characters in this story. Part of that was because of Clay going to some of the locations Hannah mentioned in the tapes and Asher describing those places in perfect detail. While I don’t mind knowing more about the world characters live in, it’s a little frustrating with this story because I wanted to know the characters better other than knowing all the terrible things they did to Hannah.

While I sympathize with Hannah, I sometimes find her character to be very weak. I understand how depression works on a person’s mind, making them feel completely helpless, but I just didn’t always understand some of her actions. For example, the incident with the sign I felt like she could’ve very easily done something about. I know she had called the police, but I felt like she should’ve told them who knocked the stop sign down. I felt this way with some of the other incidents that happened in the book too because they were things she could’ve very easily done something about. Especially all of the things that happened towards the end where she’s still struggling to make up her mind about whether to take her own life. Despite these issues with her character, I understand that she was probably already too far gone at these moments in the story to really do anything about these situations. I feel like that is probably why she didn’t stop certain things from happening and why I feel myself questioning some of her actions.

While I have all of these criticisms for Thirteen Reasons Why, I still enjoyed reading it again. It left me sad knowing the story was over and remembering Hannah being dead, but I still found it as good of a read as the last time I read it. I hope others read it with an open mind and find themselves understanding suicide being a much more complicated issue than it seems. Because even though the reasons Hannah gave seem very small and insignificant, together they created a snowball effect that resulted in her not able to get any help until it was too late.

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Book Review: Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1)

throne-of-glass-book-cover

Rating: 4 stars

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king’s council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her … but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead … quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

I remember the first time I read this book. My sister had come home to visit from college and gave me a copy, telling me a friend of hers from school thought I’d enjoy it. I remember reading it, feeling completely mesmerized by the story within its pages, wanting to find out what happened next to Celaena. Reading Throne of Glass again, I still remember those feelings, which have returned just as deeply.

The first book in a series I have yet to continue reading, Throne of Glass made me wonder what it would be like living as an assassin. An assassin well-known for her abilities, Celaena is more than she appears, which is why I enjoy her character so much. She’s very headstrong, good with any weapon in existence, and knowledgeable about the world she lives in. Even though she’s an assassin, she cares very much about protecting the people around her, despite the circumstances she’s currently dealing with. While at times I could find the way she talked to certain characters annoying, I overall enjoyed seeing such a strong character that I can’t wait to see how she continues to develop in the rest of the series.

I also enjoyed seeing this book from Dorian and Chaol’s point of view. Having their points of view allowed the reader to better understand their characters and how they both changed as the competition continued. While both Dorian and Chaol’s loyalty belongs to the kingdom, it gets tested when Celaena’s life is at stake during the final moments of the competition. I also loved their perspectives because you could see how conflicted both characters could be. As prince of the kingdom, Dorian knew he shouldn’t trust Celaena, but at the same time you could see the relationship he had with his father was pretty rough. This resulted in him being conflicted between doing what was right for the kingdom versus his own happiness, which I believe will continue to play an important role in the series as it continues.

I enjoyed reading this book too because of the competition and how magic came to play in the story with the competitor’s mysterious deaths. Sarah J. Maas did a wonderful job at weaving both these elements together to create a unique story that keeps the reader wondering what happens next. However, I did sometimes find these elements could be a little too much because I felt like there was already a lot going on in the story. But at the same time, Maas does a good job of connecting these two things together in order to allow more possibilities to exist in the world Celaena lives in.

I overall enjoy Throne of Glass because it kept me coming back for more. I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in the series to find out what Celaena does next.

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Book Review: The Sight (The Sight #1)

the-sight-book-cover

Rating: 4 stars

In the shadow of an abandoned castle, a wolf pack seeks shelter. The she-wolf’s pups will not be able to survive the harsh Transylvanian winter. And they are being stalked by a lone wolf, Morgra, possessed of a mysterious and terrifying power known as the Sight. Morgra knows that one of the pups born beneath the castle holds a key to power even stronger than her own power that could give her control of this world and the next. But the pack she hunts will do anything to protect their own, even if it means setting in motion a battle that will involve all of nature, including the creature the wolves fear the most: Man.

I remember the first time I read this novel I was in middle school. I don’t remember how I came upon it. What I do know is that the cover intrigued me and made me interested in reading the story between its pages. And so I did, several times throughout middle school and high school. It’s a story I loved reading back in those days that I felt the need to revisit.

Even though I’ve read The Sight before, I found my love for it is still there. The story is just as beautiful and enchanting as when I last read it. It’s rich in detail about wolves, making it clear David Clement-Davies did his research on the wolf pack hierarchy. As someone who finds wolves to be fascinating and beautiful creatures, the story in this book’s pages whispers to me and reminds me of why I love stories with high elements of fantasy.

I love this book too because of those fantasy elements. The story centers around this mysterious power known as the Sight. This power is rare, wolves are born with it and it allows them the ability to do things like see the future through the water’s reflection or seeing things through a bird’s eyes. This power adds a unique element to this story that intrigues the reader into wanting to find out how this ability plays out in this novel. It’s at the center of the whole universe these characters live in and makes me view wolves in a completely different way.

The storytelling in The Sight is very rich in detail and the characters are deeply developed in their own unique ways. My favorite character development in this story can be seen with Larka’s brother Fell who plays a very important role in this novel and the sequel that follows it. He’s the complete opposite of Larka, both in physical appearance and mentality. While Larka’s fur in color is white, he’s completely black. While Larka is the light of this novel, Fell’s character takes a drastic turn you don’t see coming. But in the end, he’s saved by Larka’s love for him when she realizes who he’s become. He plays an important role in the story that causes his character to shift in unexpected ways but that makes changes in his life for the better, leading up to him being in charge of his own destiny.

In this novel however, there were two things I didn’t like about it. I wasn’t particularly pleased that Clement-Davies had different names for the animals in the story, like the Omega wolves in a pack also being known as Silka. While I understand the author’s need to add some uniqueness to the story, I found that having these names without any real explanation to their origins can cause some confusion to readers like me, but also reduce his research credibility. These names also didn’t add anything to the story so I wasn’t able to really see why they had to be included.

I also have a love-hate relationship with the ending. While I understand why Larka’s sacrifice is necessary to keeping everyone free, it makes it feel like what she did was all for nothing. But at the same time, I understand that it was her destiny and she did what she felt was necessary for the sake of everyone else. It still didn’t make it easier for me though to accept, despite how many times I’ve read this story. It’s the one aspect of the novel I sometimes wish was different, but am also grateful because we wouldn’t have the sequel without it.

Despite these two things, The Sight is a beautifully crafted story, rich in folklore and fantasy that I find myself reading over and over again. It’s one of my favorite stories and I highly recommend it to any fantasy and wolf lover.

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Book Review: The Diviners

the-diviners-book-cover

Rating: 4 stars

Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City—and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.

Evie worries he’ll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer.

As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened.

I forgot how much I enjoyed reading this book for Young Adult Literature class. Reading it again now years later, I find myself feeling reminded of why I enjoyed reading this book so much.

For one, The Diviners is a mixed genre. It’s supernatural, fantasy and young adult literature all mixed into one beautiful package. There’s also some elements of mystery and horror because of all the murders and the way they are described to the reader. But the way these genres are blended together make for a beautiful story waiting to be told. They all work together in a way that makes the reader enjoy these elements of each genre without being overwhelmed by them.

I also enjoy this story because of the time period. Normally whenever I read a story, I don’t pay attention to the time period because it’s not always an important aspect of the story. However, in this book, the time period helps shape the characters. It explains the way the characters respond to certain situations, and gives the reader a better understanding of what’s going on. It helps the reader understand the world they find themselves in and allows them to imagine the character’s part in it. I find myself better able to picture the world around them as the story unfolds.

The Diviners is such a good read because it knows how to enthrall the reader. Rich in detail on every page, this book keeps me coming back for more, wanting to know what’s going to happen to the characters next. I can’t put this book down because I enjoy reading it until the very end.

This book is also a good read because of the characters. I find when I read this book that Bray did a good job of character creation and development. Each character has their own set of quirks and a personality that makes you interested in learning more about them even when there’s nothing more to tell. Each character plays an important role in the story even if that role is yet revealed to the reader.

The one thing I didn’t like with this story is that it ended too fast for me. I enjoyed the story so much I didn’t want it to end. But I also felt like the climax of the story was over before it could really begin. And that bothered me because I wanted there to be a huge struggle with the protagonist and antagonist, but it just felt too simple to me.

Other than that though, The Diviners is a beautifully crafted story that I never seem to get enough of. I can’t wait to read Lair of Dreams because I know it’ll be just as good.

 

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Book Review: Kalahari

Kalahari Book Cover

Rating: 4 stars

Deep in the Kalahari Desert, a Corpus lab protects a dangerous secret…
But what happens when that secret takes on a life of its own?

When an educational safari goes wrong, five teens find themselves stranded in the Kalahari Desert without a guide. It’s up to Sarah, the daughter of zoologists, to keep them alive and lead them to safety, calling on survival know-how from years of growing up in remote and exotic locales. Battling dehydration, starvation and the pangs of first love, she does her best to hold it together, even as their circumstances grow increasingly desperate.

But soon a terrifying encounter makes Sarah question everything she’s ever known about the natural world. A silver lion, as though made of mercury, makes a vicious, unprovoked attack on the group. After a narrow escape, they uncover the chilling truth behind the lion’s silver sheen: a highly contagious and deadly virus that threatens to ravage the entire area—and eliminate life as they know it.

In this breathtaking new novel by the acclaimed author of Origin and Vitro, Sarah and the others must not only outrun the virus, but its creators, who will stop at nothing to wipe every trace of it.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of it when I first picked it up. Not because it didn’t sound like something I’d enjoy, but due to not knowing what all was going to happen.

What I enjoyed about reading Kalahari is that it’s the third book in a series. A series where each book stands on its own without the reader having to read the previous books to get the gist of what’s going on. I really enjoyed it for this reason because it meant I didn’t have to go back and read Origin and Vitro before reading this one, though I’m most likely going to read those two books now because of it.

I also enjoyed reading this book because it takes place in a whole other world than what I’m used to. The setting takes place in the Kalahari Dessert, which is located in South Africa. It’s a place I’ve never been to and probably will never get the chance to see. But I enjoyed reading about it in this story because I felt like I was being taken to that place for a short while. It’s a fictional story, but its centered around a real place teaming with wildlife and nature. Reading a fictional book that takes place in a real world setting is something I rarely experience, but enjoy every time I do. I especially enjoyed it while reading this book.

Another reason I found this story so enjoyable was because the main characters felt so real and relatable. Even though I didn’t like all of the teenagers Sarah was stuck interacting with, I felt as if I was getting a glimpse into the way teenagers in today’s society would react if they were stuck in a dessert with little to no access to cell phones and other technologies. I found them relatable in that way, even when there carrying on and bickering got on my nerves. But I enjoyed seeing everything from Sarah’s perspective who isn’t used to dealing with human interaction because of her daily experiences in the wild.

I found the story in Kalahari to be enjoyable too. I like the idea of a deadly virus existing in the wild dessert where no one suspects it to be and a group of teenagers being the ones to stop it. I also enjoyed the story because throughout, the pacing was very climatic. I felt as if I was thrown into the action of the story, and loved every minute of it.

The one thing with this book I didn’t particularly enjoy was how neat and tight they ended the story. I felt as if everything turned out too perfectly for the characters that it was completely unrealistic. For example, I felt as if the author made the cure for the virus too easy. She made it where Sarah was able to figure out the cure on her own with a very limited amount of information. To me, that didn’t really suit the story because it made the events at the end happen a lot quicker than the rest of the book so that everything could be tied up all nice and neat. I also just didn’t like how they ended the book because I wanted to know what happened with the characters after the cure spread to the other animals that had been infected. I wanted to see more of the relationship between Sam and Sarah and wanted to know how this experience affected the rest of the group.

Despite this one issue however, I found Kalahari as a whole to be an absolute enjoyable read. I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in this series at a later date.

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Book Review: Sinner

Sinner Book Cover

Rating: 5 stars

found.
Cole St. Clair has come to California for one reason: to get Isabel Culpeper back. She fled from his damaged, drained life, and damaged and drained it even more. He doesn’t just want her. He needs her.

lost.
Isabel is trying to build herself a life in Los Angeles. It’s not really working. She can play the game as well as all the other fakes…but what’s the point? What is there to win?

sinner.
Cole and Isabel share a past that never seemed to have a future. They have the power to save each other and the power to tear each other apart. The only thing for certain is that they cannot let go.

After reading the rest of the books in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, I was really excited to get started on reading this one. Not because I didn’t enjoy the rest of the books in the series, but I was looking forward to reading a story that focused just on Isabel and Cole.

And I wasn’t disappointed. Taking place after the events in Forever, Isabel and Cole are in Los Angeles. Isabel lives there because her parents made her and to escape her feelings for Cole. Cole has been to Los Angeles before, but is there this time with the goal of winning Isabel’s heart.

One of the reasons I enjoyed reading Sinner is their love story. It’s very apparent that Isabel and Cole are meant to be. Both of them are the same in the sense that they just don’t give a shit about others. They both don’t wear their hearts on their sleeves and let others see their real selves. But that’s one of the reasons why I love both of them, by themselves and together.

Another reason I enjoyed reading Sinner is getting to see the rock star life through Cole’s eyes. Having been to Los Angeles before in his band NARKOTIKA, he’s already familiar with the world around him. But he’s not the same as the last time he was there. He’s a changed man, doing the best he can to live his life the way he sees fit, despite society’s belief that he’s still the same as before. In Sinner, you see him struggle with putting on his fake persona in front of the crowd when all he needs to do is be himself. Cole struggles throughout Sinner with being himself and it’s very apparent when you juxtapose him with the rock star crowd verses being with Isabel.

But Cole is human and he’s bound to make mistakes. And he makes quite a few, despite doing the best he can to stay human for Isabel’s sake. And so does she. That’s why they are the perfect couple: both are chaos looking for their chance to heal and find peace in the crazy world around them. Both of them are sinners, looking for redemption from the one who loves them the most.

The one aspect to Sinner I wish was there was finding out more about what happened with Grace and Sam following Forever. I know this book’s main purpose was to focus on Isabel and Cole’s relationship. But I felt like Sam and Grace could’ve been more present too. Because I definitely wanted to know what was going on with them while all of this was going on and wanted to find out if a cure had been discovered. So while I enjoyed reading this story from Isabel and Cole’s perspective, I did wish we could’ve seen more of Sam and Grace in the story too.

However, Sinner is a well-crafted masterpiece. I enjoyed reading it because of the storytelling and seeing everything from Cole and Isabel’s eyes and am sad that the series is over.

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Book Review: Forever

Forever Book Cover

Rating: 4 stars

then.
When Sam met Grace, he was a wolf and she was a girl. Eventually he found a way to become a boy, and their loved moved from curious distance to the intense closeness of shared lives.

now.
That should have been the end of their story. But Grace was not meant to stay human. Now she is the wolf. And the wolves of Mercy Falls are about to be killed in one final, spectacular hunt.

forever.
Sam would do anything for Grace. But can one boy and one love really change a hostile, predatory world? The past, the present, and the future are about to collide in one pure moment–a moment of death or life, farewell or forever.

The third book and last book in the Mercy Falls series (minus Sinner, which is more of a standalone novel in the series that focuses on the characters of Cole and Isabel) Forever was everything I hoped it would be. It picks up where Linger left us, with Grace being a wolf and Sam missing her deeply.

What I enjoy about this novel in the series is continuing to see Sam and Grace’s love go on. Their relationship is such a lovely thing that every time I see them together, I’m filled with envy. And despite everything, their love for each other is still stronger than all of the obstacles in their way.

Another aspect of Forever I like is how the plot continues to thicken. The plot in Forever continues to develop, making the story an even more interesting read with each page turned. I found myself continuing to read because I wanted to know what happened and how things were going to end for the wolves. I found myself reading because I wanted to know what happened to everyone. I became invested in all of the character’s lives, which is something every good book should be doing for its readers.

The one aspect of Forever I couldn’t get around was all of the loose ends in the story and how fast Stiefvater moved the novel along. I felt while reading this that there were still so many questions I had left about what was going to happen to the characters. For example, I was hoping that there was going to be a definite cure by the end of the story that they figured out. Instead, there’s nothing definite about the cure at all. I also just didn’t feel like we were given much of an ending for Sam and Grace either. We are told what they are going to do, but there’s no definite guarantee for any of the characters that everything is going to be alright. And then, there’s the pacing of Forever. I felt as if this book moved too fast. I felt as if the writing was rushed with certain events happening and no explanation given.

And while I do enjoy Forever like I do the rest of the books in this series, it isn’t necessarily my favorite book in the series. But overall, I enjoyed Forever and can’t wait to read Sinner next.

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Book Review: Linger

Linger Book Cover

Rating: 5 stars

the longing.

Once Grace and Sam have found each other, they know they must fight to stay together. For Sam, this means a reckoning with his werewolf past. For Grace, it means facing a future that is less and less certain.

the loss.

Into their world comes a new wolf named Cole, whose past is full of hurt and danger. He is wrestling with his own demons, embracing the life of a wolf while denying the ties of being a human.

the linger.

For Grace, Sam, and Cole, life a constant struggle between two forces–wolf and human–with love baring its two sides as well. It is harrowing and euphoric, freeing and entrapping, enticing and alarming. As their world falls apart, love is what lingers. But will it be enough?

Like Shiver, I’ve also read this second book in The Wolves of Mercy Falls series. However, my memory of this book is very limited from my last reading because I don’t remember a lot of the events unfolding, just the characters.

But like Shiver, I couldn’t put Linger down. Every page I read of this weaving tale had me engrossed in these character’s lives, wanting to find out what happened next.

Linger picks up exactly where Shiver left off. After discovering that there is a cure to turning into a wolf, Sam and Grace live their lives happily together. Until a new wolf enters into the story and things begin to change.

One of the aspects to Linger I like is the added point of views of Isabel and Cole. No longer is this series only told from Sam and Grace’s side, but you also get more details of what’s going on from other characters who play an important role in the story. I like seeing more character’s perspective because I feel like it continues to enrich the story, adding more pieces to the puzzle that is beginning to form.

I also love reading Linger because I love seeing Sam and Grace’s relationship continuing to blossom. Now that Sam and Grace don’t have to worry about Sam turning wolf, they can enjoy their lives and plan for their future. And the reader feels happy for them because you get to see how happy they both are to have each other in their lives. To be able to continue their relationship and not have to worry about any of them becoming a wolf. Or so, you think.

I love Linger because I enjoy reading the author’s story. The way Stiefvater writes this story continues to engross me as a reader, wanting to know what’s going to happen next. The words written are so beautiful that I had a hard time putting Linger down, wanting to find out what happens next to Sam, Grace, Isabel and Cole.

Another aspect to Linger that I didn’t notice quite so much in Shiver that I enjoy is character development. Throughout this book, I felt like all of the characters went through their own transformations. Isabel and Cole become more caring towards those around them and Grace gets more sensitive to feeling, even having the courage to stand up to her parent’s bad parenting.

The one thing that bothers me with this book though is the pacing of the story. While I did enjoy reading Linger, I felt some of the pacing was slow. For example, the problems with Grace happened at the beginning of the story and I knew exactly what was wrong with her as soon as it started. But none of the characters acted like anything was seriously wrong with her until it was too late and nothing could be done but the unthinkable. And then once that happened, the rest of the plot unfolded.

Overall though, I enjoyed reading Linger too and can’t wait to read the third book in this series, Forever for the first time and find out what happens next to Grace, Sam, Cole and Isabel.

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Book Review: Where She Went

Where She Went Gayle Forman

Rating: 4 stars

It’s been three years since the devastating accident . . . three years since Mia walked out of Adam’s life forever.

Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard’s rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia’s home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future – and each other.

Told from Adam’s point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

After reading If I Stay, I knew I would be reading Where She Went to see where Adam and Mia’s love story would go. And I was not at all disappointed by what I read.

I enjoyed reading Where She Went because you see how much both Mia and Adam’s lives changed without each other in them. Adam became the rock star he wanted to be only to discover the rock star life wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. And Mia wasn’t left undamaged from the traumatic accident that left her without her family and changed her relationship with Adam forever.

And the changes that occurred throughout their lives during their three years without each other were quite huge. Both had become the musicians they wanted to be only to find something lacking in their lives. And when both of them happen to meet in New York City, their lives are changed once again.

What I enjoyed about reading Where She Went is that you find out what happened that caused their relationship to break. You found out why Mia ended their relationship, even though the reason given is a crappy one.

I also enjoyed reading Where She Went because I felt like their relationship was much stronger than in If I Stay. I felt their love was much stronger after they were apart from each other for so long.

Where She Went was a good read because I felt like I finally understood Mia’s character a little better. I didn’t mention this in my review of If I Stay, but I didn’t really like Mia’s character. I liked her character background, but I just didn’t like her as a person because I felt like she didn’t really care about Adam. And after reading this one, I feel as if I understand some of her actions a little better and understand why she broke Adam’s heart. And in the end, she loves him a whole lot more than I ever realized.

However, there were some things with Where She Went I didn’t like. I enjoyed reading the story from Adam’s perspective but didn’t like the way he handled certain situations. Some conversations need to be had in person and the one final conversation he had with one of the characters was a shitty way to deal with things. Yes, he was honest with her, but I felt like he should’ve had that conversation with her in person to explain why things wouldn’t work between them.

I also enjoyed this novel from Adam’s perspective because I could feel Adam’s love for Mia. As a reader, I could tell that Adam cared a lot about Mia and only wanted to do everything in his power to make her happy. Even if that meant sacrificing his own happiness for her.

In the end, Where She Went is a great young adult love story that I find myself easily able to relate to. It makes me hopeful that things will always work out the way they are supposed to and that true love does exist. I recommend Where She Went for those who read If I Stay and want to know what happens to Adam and Mia and for those who’ve lost hope in love and second chances.

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