Where She Went

Product Information

It’s fair to say – Although the band got off to a flying start, Adam struggles to cope with his mental instability , triggered by fear and love loss. There she is, corner table, the blonde with the streaks,” Aldous says. “She’s a sweet little number. Not that you have a shortage of sweet little numbers. Shit, don’t tell Bryn I said that. Okay, forget it. I’ll be up here at the bar.” I adore stories with strong women protagonists. Both Maggie and Emma are strong in each their own way. This story uses the device of alternating points of view with both Maggie and Emma. Imagine if parents of boys are different from parents of girls. Imagine how devastated you would feel if after you dropped your only female daughter to college and after she had been settled in you got a visit from the police or a phone call from them saying your daughter appeared to be missing.

Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, lyrical 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. Gripping and fast paced, Where She Went by Kelly Simmons follows Maggie as she pushes for answers in her daughters disappearance. With alternating perspectives, Simmons gives readers a glimpse into Emma's college experiencing leading up to her disappearance and finds Maggie pushing the cops to try harder as she tries to place herself into Emma's shoes. Maggie is the classic, overprotective mom, Emma is the friendly, but naive new college student. They are two peas in a pod, so similar to one another, which I found lent itself to the story. I could see them in one another and believed in Maggie as she followed the few clues she could find. I loved the alternating chapters, it made the book more suspenseful and the anxiety I felt pushed me to keep reading. While I wouldn't call it a thriller, it certainly had all the right elements of a mysterious suspense read.You know what's really weird about my experience with this book? I could literally feel the chaos in my head building along with Adam. And when he finally lets loose on Brooklyn Bridge and goes through his cathartic moment, I felt calm, too. Is it weird that I practically drowned in this book, or is it just the effect of a really, really good storyteller? For the sake of my sanity, I'm going to assume it's the latter.

Gayle uses a variety of rich, descriptive language without seeming ingenuous to the voice of a twenty-one year old musician – at least to the layman. That was very hard. We told her and her little eyes glazed over and she took a sharp intake of breath,” he said. That makes sense,” Vanessa says, nodding. “There’s a vague rumor that you and Mia were a couple in high school. Which was funny because I’d never read about it anywhere and it certainly seems noteworthy.”One for the records: while reading this novel, we were literally dragged into the events of the book, as if we were personally involved. Mia, I adore too. I thought I would be mad with her for breaking Adam's heart. But I understood why Mia choose to make that decision to leave Adam thanks to Forman writing such well crafted and believable characters. If you're looking for a slow-burning, character driven, mother/daughter story...give this a chance. If you're looking for a psychological thriller...venture far, far away.

As he ushers me inside, he preps me. “The reporter is named Vanessa LeGrande. She’s not one of those grizzled types you hate. She’s young. Not younger than you, but early twenties, I think. Used to write for a blog before she got tapped by Shuffle.”

Did we miss something on diversity?

This was less of a book and more of a roller coaster. You know how you sometimes get off a roller coaster, and your legs feel like jelly and your middle feels like someone's wringing you dry?