Where She Went easily makes it on to my list of all-time favorite books. You know, those books that make you feel ALL OF THE EMOTIONS and you can't stop thinking about them for hours, days, weeks after you've read them? All of what Gayle talked about when she spoke in Pittsburgh, about how emotionally honest fiction books can be, all of that could so easily be seen in Where She Went. I'm sure that honesty resonated with people in If I Stay, but having never experienced the death or near-death of anyone close to me, that book didn't impact me as much as a book about the unfair loss of someone who is still alive. I found so many quotations that I could relate to and want permanently etched in my brain. I've been grappling with the idea of "good" writing and "bad" writing and reader preferences and how unfair it is to call a person's piece of writing 'good' or 'bad', because in the end, isn't that up to the reader and how the reader relates to a specific piece? There are rules in writing, sure, but beyond that, it's a matter of personal preference, and while I'm pretty sure most people out there, including Gayle herself, will hail If I Stay as her one big perfect hit, Where She Went is that book for me.
