if The Smiths read Where She Went

Where She Went, Gayle Forman (Doubleday)
spoilerish!
three years earlier:

Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know - it's serious. Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know - it's really serious.

now:

Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package! Re-evaluate the songs. Double-pack with a photograph, extra track (and a tacky badge). A-list, playlist, "Please them, please them!" "Please them!" (sadly, THIS was your life). But you could have said no, if you'd wanted to. You could have said no, if you'd wanted to.


Stop me oh oh oh stop me, stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before. [thought I for a moment as I read, but then got into the swing of the story]

Fifteen minutes with you, well, I wouldn't say no. Oh, people said that you were virtually dead and they were so wrong.

Nothing’s changed, I still love you. Oh I still love you only slightly, only slightly less than I used to, my love.

Everybody's got to live their life, and god knows I've got to live mine.

Tried living in the real world, instead of a shell, but before I began ... I was bored before I even began.

Two icy-cold hands conducting the way, it's the Eskimo blood in my veins. Amid concrete and clay and general decay, nature must still find a way. So ignore all the codes of the day, let your juvenile influences sway. This way and that way, this way, that way.

Hand in glove, the sun shines out of our behinds. No, it's not like any other love, this one is different, because it's us.

Taking lyrics from: Girlfriend in a Coma, Hand in Glove, Paint A Vulgar Picture, Reel Around the Fountain, Shoplifters of the World, Stop Me If You Think That You’ve Heard This One Before, Stretch out and Wait, William, it was really Nothing

If you'd like a slightly more conventional reaction to this book, try this review. Or this one. Or this one. They say pretty much what I'd say.