Welcome to another edition of FDL Teen Reads, brought to you by the Teen Advisory Board! Today, we have a two for one!
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Reviewed by: Katelyn Kern, Teen Advisory Board
Genre: Realistic fiction
Suggested Age: Teens
What is the book about?: If I Stay is about a girl, Mia, who loses her whole family in one day to a car crash. During the entirety of the book Mia’s body is comatose while her conscience observed the events unfolding around her in the hospital. The book flips between the present and influential pieces of her past. Mia grew up in a family of “rockers”. Her father had had a band of his own that she went to as a baby with mufflers headphones and her younger brother Teddy was just getting into the tradition by playing the drums. But Mia took a different track and chooses to play the cello and applied to Julliard before the accident. Adam, Mia’s boyfriend, is a guitarist and songwriter in his own band Shooting Star. Many of Mia’s flashbacks are centered around Adam. Of them shyly meeting, falling in love, and their fights small to large about their future together. Mia has to decide if she should leave and join those that she lost, or stay with those that are left.
My review: If you love romance and having a book bring you to tears, then you should differently read If I Stay. I personally just didn’t absolutely love this book because sometimes it got too sappy, too predictable. Look, we all know by now that she does stay, but the book makes it seem like she stayed because Adam asks her to. Not because her grandparents were there and would have lost everybody. Not because she still had so much to do, for example Julliard.
Rating: 3/5
Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Reviewed by: Katelyn Kern, Teen Advisory Board
Genre: Realistic fiction
Suggested Age: Teens
What is this book about?: Where She Went is in the point of view of Adam a few years after Mia leaves for Julliard. Adam’s band, Shooting Star, has become almost as famous as The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. With a famous band being known worldwide, being fabulously wealthy, and having a movie star girlfriend, you would think Adam’s life was perfect. But Adam is falling apart in the aftermath of Mia and is barely standing upright. With an upcoming major tour looming over him he wonders how he can go on and thinks about quitting the band. But one night while out walking he spots a poster for a concert scheduled that night for a cellist, Mia. Where She Went tells the after story of the accident and tells what happened from Adam’s view.
My Review: I liked Where She Went much more than I did If I Stay. It has the same set up with the present and flashback lay out. I have a hard time liking romances, which is what I assumed this book was , but I actually really enjoyed this one. It wasn’t too romancy and really just kind of fills in anything that Mia hadn’t seen in her coma and helps you see Mia from the outside. Sometimes in books I can see things unfolding from a mile away, which usually makes me dislike the book, but in Where She Went nothing came too slowly or too fast.
Rating: 4/5
About FDL Reads
Welcome to FDL Reads, weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library. Librarians (and possibly some other guest reviewers) review all types of books, from children’s picture books, young adult favorites, to the latest adult thriller, and share their thoughts each week at fondulaclibrary.org. If the book is owned by Fondulac District Library (or another local library), you’ll see a direct link to the catalog entry and whether or not it is available. If it is checked out or at another local library, you will be able to place a hold as long as you have your library card and PIN numbers. As with any book review, these are our opinions…we disagree amongst ourselves about books frequently. We all have different likes and dislikes, which is what makes the world an interesting place. Please enjoy, and keep on reading!