REVIEW: I Was Here by Gayle Forman

Title: I Was Here
Author: Gayle Forman
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary.
Publication Date: February 1st 2015
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Australia
Format: Paperback/ARC
Pages: 288
Rating: 4/5

From the bestselling author of If I Stay - this summer's YA blockbuster film.

This characteristically powerful novel follows eighteen-year-old Cody Reynolds in the months following her best friend's shocking suicide.

As Cody numbly searches for answers as to why Meg took her own life, she begins a journey of self-discovery which takes her to a terrifying precipice, and forces her to question not only her relationship with the Meg she thought she knew, but her own understanding of life, love, death and forgiveness.

A phenomenally moving story, I Was Here explores the sadly all-too-familiar issue of suicide and self-harm, addressing it in an authentic way with sensitivity and honesty.

This book was provided to me by the publisher, but this is no way alters my review.

There’s something about seeing Gayle Forman’s name on a book cover that reminds me that I’ll never be prepared for the feels that I’m about to experience. For me, I Was Here was no different. As a whole, I really enjoyed this book but there was one aspect that held it back from being a five star book for me. This is the story of a girl coming to terms with her grief after her best friend, Meg, commits suicide.  I felt like I’d read this before. Meg and Cody are those typical best friends you read about – Meg is the more popular one, the one that’s going places, has a good life etc. and Cody is the one that’s more in the shadows. Typically, Meg is the one that commits suicide. I know that depression can hit anyone and it effects different people in different ways, but just once I’d like to read a book about how the popular one deals with the loss of her quieter friend. Sort of off topic, but if anyone knows of a book like that please let me know.

Apart from that, I really liked the book. I’m going through the process of grieving right now, so I kind of understood where Cody was coming from. I know some people found her annoying but she was sort of exactly what I needed right now. Our situations are very different, but there were aspects of her grief that I’ve felt myself recently so I really appreciated the authenticity of her voice. I admit that I didn’t actually cry in this one so it didn’t tear me apart quite as much as If I Stay did.

I think, all in all, this was a really beautiful story. There were a few parts that I wasn’t exactly keen on, but I still understood why (most of) those things happened. I think one of the most important messages this book has is that life does go on, it might not seem like it at the time but eventually, the pain eases.

Thank you the wonderful mods of the Australian YA Blogger group for organising the review copies and to Simon and Schuster Australia for sending me an extra copy after my original was lost in the mail. 

REVIEW: Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Title: Where She Went (If I Stay #2)

Author: Gayle Forman

Publication Date: April 28^th 2011

Publisher: Doubleday Childrens

Format: Paperback

Pages: 264

Rating: 5/5
Blurb: If you had a second chance at first love . . . would you take it?

It's been three years since Adam's love saved Mia after the accident that annihilated life as she knew it . . . and three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever.

Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Julliard'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, powerful 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.

Review: Earlier this week, I read ‘If I Stay’ which almost instantly became one of my new favourite YA contemporaries (admittedly, it’s not my usual genre) so Where She Went seemed like a sure-fire hit for me, and it was.

I don’t know what I was really expecting from the sequel. I knew it was probably going to cause me pain, because well...the first one managed to do that rather well. I knew that it was from Adam’s point of view, which isn’t usually a thing I like (both the change of perspective of the entire book and the fact that I would be reading from a male’s point of view) but I found in this book that it written so beautifully that I actually really enjoyed it. It felt like Adam was a friend who I was watching go through a pretty difficult time in his life rather than reading the troubles of a fictional male character. I loved Adam in the first book so my love for him just grew in this one and I especially enjoyed reading his thoughts of the accident in the first book and also learning more about the time before the accident and the things he remembered and focused on in comparison to what Mia remembered.

I loved how the book was set over such a short period of time- the actual action of the book takes place in roughly a day with parts of the parts added in throughout. One of my very favourite parts is how Adam’s understanding of the situation with Mia develops as the book moves on and how that makes him feel despite the three years that passed in between. Another thing I really liked, which doesn’t really have much to do with anything else I’ve talked about, was the lyrics at the beginning of each chapter. I liked how the songs (written by Adam) were references within the book but were also part of the chapters, which meant it was easier to see the connections between the lyrics and the story.

All in all, there is absolutely no doubt that I seriously loved this book and that it become another of my favourites, as well as Gayle Forman as an author. I hope to be able to read some more of stuff really soon.

REVIEW: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Title: If I Stay (If I Stay #1)

Author: Gayle Forman

Publication Date: May 2010

Publisher: Definitions

Format: Paperback

Pages: 199

Rating: 4/5
Blurb: The last thing Mia remembers is the music. After the accident, she can still hear it. And she can see her damaged body being taken from the wreck of her parents' car - even though she doesn't feel a thing.

All she can do is watch as doctors rush to save her life, as her friends and relatives gather outside her room, as the boy she loves struggles to be near her.

As the next twenty-four hours unfold, Mia must come to terms with what came before the crash - and what would come after. And she knows she must make the most difficult choice of all. If she stays...

Review: If I Stay is one of those books that I’ve only ever heard good things about and in a similar fashion, Gayle Forman is one of those authors that I’ve never heard a bad review of. This book has won so many awards that I felt like it was about time that I finally read it, especially after I’d picked it up and put it down again so many times.

I knew next to nothing about this book. I knew it was contemporary teenage romance and that it had a sequel and that was literally where my knowledge of this book ended. I’d seen it so many times on Goodreads- as recommendations, in the ‘readers also enjoyed similar books’ section and in so many different lists and I’d added to my ‘to-read’ list but I didn’t really know what it was about.

I was expecting a little bit of story setting- the usual life before the big event sort of thing, but it pretty much gets into the main issue of the book straight away. I loved how quickly everything happened and how it was written as it made everything work really well. For a while, the main character Mia (and therefore, you as a reader) is a little bit unsure about exactly what has happened which adds to the tone of the book perfectly. I loved how you weren’t told everything that happened in one go, but how the past and present mixed together to paint a clearer picture.

I loved reading from Mia’s point of view and I especially enjoyed reading about her love of music and how that all related to her family and her relationship with Adam. I loved Adam as well- I was worried that he was going to turn out to be a horrible boyfriend or something but he didn’t. He was honestly the sweetest human being alive and I loved how it was clear to see how much he cared about Mia and how far he was willing to go for her.

I think one of my absolute favourite things was definitely the ending. It just- wow, it broke my heart and had me sobbing. I can’t wait until I can read the sequel- I really hope I enjoy it just as much.