WHERE SHE WENT by Elisa Campos

This book is the sequel of the New York Times best seller “If I stay”. 

Although the book “If I stay” was first released in 2009, it was only last summer that it was made into a movie. The movie was a great hit in all the theaters around the USA and UK.

I watched it over the last Christmas break, and even though it made me cry my eyes out, it has become one of my favorite movies. I’ve already watched it five times since then.

I couldn’t believe it was going to be left there with the way it ended. I kept on imagining different outcomes to the story. Everything was possible. I needed to find out more about what happens to Mia and Adam after she wakes up from the coma she was in. The end of the movie was a big cliffhanger!

Mia had woken up but many questions were left unanswered, like: “How did she react to her family´s death?” “Did she go to Julliard?” and many more. So when I found out there was sequel, I ran to the nearest bookstore and bought it. It is called “Where she went”

This book is set 3 years after the accident in which Mia was, and, as surprisingly as it seems “where she went” is narrated from Adam’s point of view. The book also goes back and forth in time with different flashback scenes where we find out about what happened after the accident. One thing I love about the book is that at the beginning of each chapter, the reader can find parts of songs written by Adam during the 3 years without Mia, they are a very good way to empathize with Adam and get to feel what he had been feeling all that time.

3 years later, Adam and Mia have broken up, Mia is now a famous cellist and has finished Julliard and Adam has become a worldwide famous rock star, he also has a very famous actress as his girlfriend.

It looks as if Adam has accomplished everything he had ever dreamed of, but as soon as you start reading you realize that his life became miserable the day Mia left him to head off to Julliard. He is alone now and doesn’t let anyone, not even his closest band friends, to get a grasp of the way he’s been feeling.

Destiny decides to give them once last chance. Adam sneaks into an auditorium in which Mia is performing and afterwards they meet and spend the night together. Mia takes Adam on a secret New York tour to show him the real beauty of what’s now her home city. During the night Mia and Adam revisit the past and open their hearts to each other.

Some downsides of this book are that it’s very dense, it all happens in two days, the book is not very long but in my opinion it’s too descriptive and there is a lot of irrelevant information to the story line. Another downside is that because it goes back and forth in time it can be very confusing, but once you get used to it, it becomes easier to identify the flashbacks from the reality.

All taken into account, I think this is a very good and interesting book, and if you have the chance you should read it!  You can also wait around for another three years until they make a movie of it!

Elisa Campos