Book Journey

It has been three years since the tragic accident that took the lives of Mia’s entire family (If I Stay), the accident that left Mia herself barely clinging to life in a coma.  At that time, high school boyfriend Adam Wilde had been by her side, whispering in her ear, supporting her, calling her back to this world, and Mia did.

Now Mia and Adam live on opposite coasts.  Mia has made a full recovery from the accident and has gone back to playing her cello.  After finishing her schooling at Julliard, she is now playing on stages and touring the country. 

Yet Adam is not faring so well. When Mia recovered and left – she left him behind as well.  Adam never fully understood what happened to them and as he dealt with his anger and loss it came out in his music.  Angry songs that feed teenage angst are a different sound for Adam and his band but these songs that Adam wrote through his deep pain puts Collateral Damage on the top of the charts. 

One night, a very unhappy with his life Adam takes a walk in New York City before hopping on a plane the next day for the Europe leg of the bands tour.  The rest of the band left that day, but Adam did not want to fly on Friday the 13th so opted to join them the next day.  While walking he discovers that Mia is performing at Carnegie Hall.  Having not seen her in the three years since she left, Adam buys a ticket and slumps into the darkened theater to watch her play and planning to slip out as soon as it is over. However, for a highly recognizable guy as the lead singer of Collateral Damage is, the whispers go through the audience and Mia spots him and requests he join her back stage.

Face to face with Mia after all these years is both painful and the things dreams are made of.  Over the course of one evening Mia and Adam walk the streets of New York and relive the past from their days of dating, to the accident, and why she left. 

This is not one of those sequels that I can say, “Oh you do not need the first book, you can just pick up Where She Went,” and you will catch right up.  No, in this case not only do you need the first book, If I Stay – you will want it.  If I Stay holds the love between Adam and Mia and it is a necessary step to get to Where She Went.  If I Stay is the story of a young cellist (Mia) and her rocker boyfriend (Adam) and how they made their different lives work together, until a tragedy of epic proportion puts a whole new direction in both their young lives.

I just finished Where She Went, late last night.  I looked at the clock when I closed the last satisfying page at is was 12:30 in the morning.  Where She went, as described above picks up three years later after both teens have now gone their separate ways.  While Mia’s career is all gorgeous music and seems to be going in the direction she had always planned…. Adam’s is not.

Adam carries the loss of Mia on his shoulder.  While he does have a girlfriend, she can not replace this image of Mia that he has in his mind.  Through pain killers, late nights, and smoking, Adam is not the man he was three years ago.   He is bitter, the band is always fighting and while they tour he does not even stay in the same hotel as they do…. Mia’s absence has left such a big hole in Adam that he keeps trying to fill it with all the wrong things trying to move on but winding up right back at square one. 

This book was told from Adam’s perspective and at first I trudged through the background catch up story of Adam much like someone would trudge through a garbage dump.  Carefully and watch where you are going… Adam’s life was dark and angry and author Gayle Forman reflects that well as she lays out a life for Adam that some on the outside may say is glamorous, (he is famous, girls fall at his feet, he has money…) but as you read into Adam’s life you will clearly see it is not glamorous at all.

It amazes me how I filled my mind with Adam’s world feeling that missing connection probably as much as he did and then how the book changes and flows once you bring Mia into the story.  Mia is balance.  And that is where I started relaxing into the read, curious as to where she really did go… and what that meant.

A satisfying sequel that leaves me with that feeling I have when I know I will think about a book long after that final page is closed.  It touched me in the way that Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall did.  How the paths we choose can lead us far and away and what it takes to find the right path again. 

Amazon Rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map had been updated to include Where She Went

I was uber excited to be offered this book for review after

my book club read If I Stay in February of this year.

It is Berlin 1942.  When 9-year-old Bruno comes home from school one day he finds that the house maid is in his room packing up his belongings.  In short notice he finds out that his father has received a promotion and the family will moving to a new home far away.  Bruno is devastated as his best friends in the world are here and he loves his neighborhood and loves to explore, however there is no changing the plan that has been set in motion.

Along with his mother, and 12-year-old sister Gretel, they make the move.  Their new home is large and creepy.  There are no neighborhood kids to play with and nothing to do.  Out of boredom Bruno decides to go on an adventure and discover what lies beyond the property where his father has forbidden him to go…. and here is where he finds Shmuel, a skinny, dirty, little Jewish boy. 

Shmuel is also 9, in fact he was born on the same day as Bruno!  Bruno is excited and is already planning adventures in his mind of what he and Shmuel can do together.  Yet this seems to be a problem as Shmuel is on the other side of a large sharp wired fence and for some reason is always wearing striped pajamas, much like all the other men and boys behind this fence. 

As Shmuel tells his story of being taken from their home and made to live in a one room area with another family making 11 people living in the room, Bruno feels  Shmuel must be lying, surely that many people in such a small space is impossible! 

Bruno continues to sneak out to see Shmaul and brings him food which he devours, and they talk and talk and become fast friends.  While Bruno does not understand his fathers job, he does know that his father would not approve of this friendship so he keeps his adventures with Shmaul a secret.

Until one day Bruno and Shmaul have an idea… an idea that brings this book to a conclusion that pretty much stopped my heart and put a whole new twist on Holocaust literature. 

I seen the movie, The Boy In The Striped Pajamas before I read this book.  That is usually a taboo thing for me to do, but I had never read the story and one day thought it would be good to see the movie on Netflix.  The movie shocked me.  How can I think I know what a book is about but I really know nothing? 

In short time I had secured the book from my local library as I always appreciate the book more than the movie (well – almost always).  Yes time went by and I renewed the book twice and still had not read it.  In fact this week it was in the car to go back to the library unread…. and then when I was going to the chiropractor this week I needed something to read in the waiting room and guess what the only book was I had in the car?  Yup…. this one.

So – between the three appointments I had this week, I devoured this book to the point of no return…. and I mean that literally…. when I went to the library and turned in an audio I had completed, this book remained in the car.  No return not then anyway…. 😀

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas is a devastating read.  Lets just put that out there now.  I am amazed how we as human beings can treat each other so poorly – be so mislead in what we think is right… it breaks my heart.  Time and time again you can read fictional stories like this (that may as well have been real) as well as true stories that you wish were fiction. 

Hannah at Word Lily has been posting a blurb out of a book called True Grit, every day for lent.  Talk about your frightening statistics and some of them are just what I am talking about here… the things we as people do to other people – some due to race, background, gender, faith, where they live, the list goes on and on…

and so… back to the book.   I give John Boyne so much credit for writing this.  It is a hard story.  It is a maddening story.   I was just as impressed with the book as I was with the movie.  The innocence of Bruno is perfect as he meets daily with his friend and not understanding that Shmaul is in a concentration camp – or even what that would mean.

What this book shows is a friendship that no fences can separate.  It is a heartbreaking innocent story that could not have been told as well if the main character had been an adult.  It had to be a child… the innocence of childhood that makes this work…. and work well. 

The movie shocked me…. the book broke me. 

A POWERFUL read of historical fiction that will knock personal prejudices down to rubble.

AMAZON RATING

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

I borrowed (and borrowed and borrowed) this book from my local library