the spoiler conundrum

SPOILER ALERT FOR IF I STAY VIRGINS. SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT!!!!

Ever since I went public with the existence of WHERE SHE WENT, I have had this dilemma, which as dilemmas go, isn't exactly Sophie's Choice, I'll give you, but is tricky nonetheless.

How do I talk about the existence of WHERE SHE WENT without giving away the ending of IF I STAY and thus robbing readers who have not read the first book of the—I hope—suspense of not knowing Mia's decision until the very last page?

And, this is the point that I should probably reiterate, hey, you, if you haven't read IF I STAY, what are you waiting for? And to warn you to stop reading now, lest your reading experience be sullied by the aforementioned spoilers.

Because of course, the very existence of WHERE SHE WENT is basically a spoiler. Though I tried to fudge it for a while, by saying it was a book that takes place three years later and is from Adam's point of view (I figured that vagueness, plus title, could mean Mia decided to depart this fair world), now there are ARCs and jacket copy floating about. It is pretty darn clear that the book is about Mia and Adam. Not the ghost of Mia and the human Adam, though Adam does spend a fair amount of time battling ghosts. Not an angel Mia. A flesh-and-blood Mia.

And now, it gets even tricker. Because now we have this super-awesome trailer. Have I mentioned the trailer? It makes me swoon? I have a crush on Adam's voice. And I should tell you that this is Dan Bittner, the same actor who did the voice for the audiobook and I cannot tell you how I DIED when I heard the audio version. Okay, I can. I listened to it. Then I needed a cigarette and a cold shower. And I don't smoke. And I'm always freezing so I don't particularly like cold anything. You can download an excerpt here, and read on for a chance to win the audiobook. As for that smokin' trailer, in case you have not seen it, here tis:

Click here to view the embedded video.

So, trailer out. It even premiered on MTV's Hollywood Crush blog. Cat out of bag. Mia almost died. Adam made her a promise. Mia lived. First book is now officially and totally spoiled by second book. But how else can we talk about WHERE SHE WENT without giving this away? When we first started talking about IF I STAY, we had a similar problem. How to talk about the book without giving away the accident. We wanted you all to be shocked when it happened. And we wanted you to be shocked again when you found out about Mia's choice. And again when you found out about Teddy. I did mention that this post would have IF I STAY spoilers, right???

But sometimes you have to give a little away. Initially, we were too coy with the first book and people had no clue what it was about. And with WHERE SHE WENT, we tell people that Mia lived—and dumped Adam.But I feel terrible about ruining the reading experience for people who haven't read IF I STAY. I don't want any collateral damage readers (heh, heh, inside joke that will make sense once you read WHERE SHE WENT).

But then we have this other video, which is a video tour of several of the New York City locations in WHERE SHE WENT, with me as your guide (*waves*). Ideally, this is something you would watch AFTER you read WHERE SHE WENT because not only does it contain spoilers of plotpoints and such that you are just so much better off not knowing, but also because it gives you a visual picture of settings in the book, and I think it's so much better as a reader to imagine what the places look like in your head and then see how they match up. (And you'll notice I didn't embed the video here, though I did kindly provide the link.) For the same reason, I always prefer to read the book BEFORE I watch the movie. But we released the video, and did so before the book, and I know plenty of people will watch it before they read the book—because, umm, we put it out before the book was released, for one, and for two because it's just human nature. I know people who even read the endings of book first, which horrifies me. Truly. Don't ever tell an author you do that, okay?

Sigh! It's a thin line between getting readers interested in books and spoiling a reading experience. I know for many readers, the best experience reading IF I STAY was going in totally blind, having no idea what was going to happen and then just being shocked. I love when books do that to me. I read Emma Donohue's amazing if unbearably suspenseful ROOM in that kind of ignorance and loved it. I read THE HUNGER GAMES before I knew much and was similarly flabbergasted by it. Getting something pre-hype, pre-Twitter, pre-trailer can be an amazing thing. But so can getting something because your best friend told you she just read something and you HAVE TO READ IT RIGHT NOW!

I have seen some of the early blog reviews for WHERE SHE WENT and I am LOVING how reviewers are warning readers not even to read the review if they haven't read IF I STAY and then reviewing WSW so delicately so as to give too much away. This is the sign of a true bibliophile. You bloggers are way more restrained than me. And I'm sorry about the trailer being a spoiler. In its defense, it is so hot!!!

And finally—get to the point already, Gayle!!!—so I will not be alone out here swooning over the voice of Adam, I'm giving away one copy of the audiobook of WHERE SHE WENT. All you have to do is comment on the spoiler thing. And any authors out there reading this, I'd love to hear how you handle this dance. Anyhow once you comment, you're entered. No matter where you live. This contest is worldwide, baby.

One of these days I'll write a book that I can talk about without spoiling it. But having just completed the draft of a new book (and no, it's not about Adam or Mia), I have to say, it's not this one. I have NO CLUE how I'll describe this one without giving away the farm.

Conundrums!