Series: If I Stay #2
Author: Gayle Forman
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Pages: Hardcover, 264 pages
Goodreads Summary
It's been three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life.
And three years he's spent wondering why.
When their paths cross again in New York City, Adam and Mia are brought back together for one life-changing night.
Adam finally has the opportunity to ask Mia the questions that have been haunting him. But will a few hours in this magical city be enough to lay their past to rest, for good - or can you really have a second chance at first love?
I read If I Stay last year and absolutely loved!!! When I finished it I immediately went and bought this one. I had to know how Adam and Mia's story continues. I am sad to say It wasn't until this month that I actually read this one, about a year after I read the first one. I was just so scared to read it and I knew I would feel all the emotions when I read it. So, I put it off, until now and boy am I glad that I read this one! This was such a rewarding ending for this dioalague!! It put me on such a rollercoaster ride of emotions and it was just so good!!
This book starts off three years after the events in If I Stay and while If I Stay ends with a ray of hope this one starts with total despair. This is told from Adam's POV and his life seems to be on the brink of disaster. Adam seemed to have gotten all that he wanted, except for one thing, but he himself seems to have been on self-distract mode. I won't tell why this is, because for the first half of this book it's up to the readers to piece together what happened to Adam through the flashbacks, but I will say Adam just isn't in a good place at the beginning of this book. This broke my heart. I, like most other who've read If I Stay image Mia and Adam moving past it together as a couple and then you start to read this one and realize how very wrong that assumption was.
This book made me feel all of the emotions. I got so invested in Mia and Adam as characters in the first one and it hurt to see how bad Adam's life is and realize how much pain they both went through. Gayle Forman just knows how to write contemporaries that make you feel all of the emotions, from pain to joy to sorrow in one chapter. Even though reading this broke my heart it was still great to all of the characters. It was also good to get answers. The first half of this makes you piece together, with the help of flashbacks, of what happened between Adam and Mia and the last half answer your questions of why what happened happened. And while it hurt to read the answers, it was still good to understand them and know them.
The character development in this book was great. We got to see Adam crawl out of the pit by himself and into a place where he can breath and live. Even though this had to do, somewhat with Mia, I still credit to Adam himself. And speaking of Mia, that is one of the problems I had with this book. The first half, as you see what she did to Adam, you kind of hate Mia. Before you understand why she did it, you resent her for putting Adam through that and you just hate her for the pain she caused Adam. However, after I got all the answers I liked her once more, maybe not as much as before, but I still liked her.
The other small problem I had with this book was the flashbacks, or rather how many there were. Unlike in If I Stay where the flashbacks were used a bit randomly and heavily, the flashbacks in this one told a continues story. The flashbacks told the story of what happened between Adam and Mia three years ago and while the flashbacks had a rhythm to them, I still think she over did it with the flashbacks. At least 25% of the flashbacks, maybe a bit more, could have been cut. There were just to many flashbacks and they messed with the flow of the book. A chapter would end in little cliffhanger and surprisingly the next chapter would be a flashback. This both messed with the ongoing flow of the book and was just plain frustrating to read. Don't get me wrong, some flashbacks were needed to explain what happened to Adam and Mia, but some just weren't needed and those were the ones I got frustrated with. However, the flashback usage in this one was a lot better then in the first one were it seemed the flashbacks were placed randomly.
Besides those two problems I had, this book was just so freaking amazing!! It was a great ending to this story. I gave the readers answers and reasons for everything and it was really satisfying to read that. This book also broke my heart and while the flashbacks hindered the reading experience, it was still amazing to read.
This book got..
4.5 Butterflies
Beautiful, this is a great book.
Recommended if you like The Fault in Our Stars, Darker Contemporaries, and If I Stay.
Ha ha, so Where She Went still has that flashback problem huh. :P
ReplyDeleteOhh, Where She Went made you feel all of the emotions? Well, I did hear people say that Where She Went was a lot better than If I Stay.
And hmm, you've gotten me REALLY curious on what Mia did to Adam. I may have to read this one just to get some answers now...