If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Imagine one moment you are driving down the road and the next moment you are standing outside of your own body watching emergency crews clean up the horrific crash you were involved in. This is how If I Stay by Gayle Forman begins. Seventeen-year-old Mia, on track for Julliard school, has no recollection of the accident itself but watches in horror as her own body is pulled from the wreckage and rushed to the hospital. Mia is caught between life and death. And what of her parents and little brother? It’s a question that Mia isn’t sure she wants to know the answer to.
In a coma at the hospital, Mia is able to watch everything that goes on around her including the emotionally charged visits from her grandparents, best friend, and boyfriend. Mia has a very important decision to make. Knowing that her life and her family is changed forever from the accident does she fight her way back to reality and the sorrows (and ultimately joy) that will surely follow? Or does she choose to pass on? To leave it all behind? It’s a fascinating premise that had me completely engrossed.
Gayle Forman is able to pack in a wallop of a storyline and character development in just a few short pages. One thing that I loved about Mia as a character was that she LOVED her parents. They actually liked to hang out together and TALK to each other. It’s refreshing to find a family like this in a YA book. I was impressed with how Forman was able to make me care and know so much about Mia and her family in just the few opening pages of the book.
If I Stay is a very beautiful novel that is well worth reading. Gayle Forman’s writing was simply fantastic. In the end, I really really liked it but didn’t LOVE it, if that makes any sense. There is going to be a sequel and I will definitely read it. A story well worth following.
Links of interest: Gayle Forman website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile. April 2, 2009.
Hardcover, 208 pages. ISBN 0525421033
Copy Source: ARC given to me from Kings English Bookshop.
If I Stay is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.
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Tags: E-H Author, female author, Fiction, I-L Title, published 2009, Publisher: Dutton Juvenile, review copy
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I loved this book. I read it last year. I was very disappointed in the comparisons to Twilight. I felt the character was more strong than Bella and had a better sense of self and family and her boyfriend wasn’t creepy either.
on April 23rd, 2010 at 11:14 amSounds very interesting. I’m glad to here that there are books out there where parents and teenage children can spend time together and show love for one another. That is a rare thing in YA fiction.
on April 23rd, 2010 at 11:28 amI loved this book and second your recommendation. The character was such a strong character my 13 year old read the book and really enjoyed it also.
on April 23rd, 2010 at 11:34 amI also loved this book, Natasha. Isn’t it interesting how different the paperback cover is from the hardcover?
I also liked that Mia was so close to her family.
on April 23rd, 2010 at 11:39 amWow, that sounds like such a tearjerker.
on April 23rd, 2010 at 12:19 pmnice review. i just read this recently and adored it.
this is the first that i’d heard of a sequel, though. i’ll definitely be looking out for it.
on April 23rd, 2010 at 12:44 pmI’ve read countless reviews on this book, but yours grabbed me like no other. I love how you opened this review! Thanks.
on April 23rd, 2010 at 12:53 pmThis one has been on my radar for awhile now, but I’ve just not taken the leap and I’m not sure why. Kids and death and accidents spook me. I don’t remember hearing that the kids and the parents actually get along, but that is so nice to hear. There is such disrespect in the YA books and it is refreshing to see an author taking a stand on that.
on April 23rd, 2010 at 2:46 pmOne comment mentioned a connection to Twilight. Why is that? Also, I am always on the lookout for good YA books. Does this book have anything offensive in it?
on April 23rd, 2010 at 4:03 pmThanks!
Hi Natasha
(thanks for visiting my little blog and leaving a reply).
If I Stay is a book that I’ve heard so much about from so many different places (Books on the Nightstand Podcast, for example).
I was wondering how it compares to something like The Lovely Bones in content and narrative, and The Book Thief in writing style.
I love The Book Thief, but for the life of me can’t believe it’s considered YA fiction in the US! It’s certainly not marketed as YA in Australia -and the author, Markus Zusak, is Australian- so I guess I was wondering whether If I Stay is similar?
on April 23rd, 2010 at 4:53 pmI have this book here and needed a nudge to read it. Thanks for the nudge!
Always nice to see a post from you, Natasha!
on April 23rd, 2010 at 6:12 pmPam – I haven’t seen any comparisons to Twilight. That’s interesting.
Kim – It is becoming a rare thing in YA fiction for families to be fully functional and the parents and kids love and respect each other.
Krissi – I’m glad your daughter enjoyed it!
Amy – I haven’t even seen the paperback cover. Off to look at it.
Kathy – I’m not prone to tears, but I suppose it could!
the little reader – I’m looking forward to the sequel as well.
A Bookshelf Monstrosity – Thank you!
Sandy – It is refreshing. I think you’d like it.
Jen – I’m not sure why the Twilight reference. The book has paranormal aspects in regards to the hovering between death and life thing. She does have a boyfriend but he’s really awesome and non-controlling. And nope. Nothing offensive that I can remember in the book. I remember it being clean.
Desert Book Chick – It has been years and years since I read The Lovely Bones. The Lovely Bones is more gruesome and gritty. It does, after all, open with a very violent rape. The subject matter is much more adult (it is after all an adult novel whereas this one is YA). If I Stay doesn’t have any of that grittiness or harshness to it. In regards to The Book Thief, If I Stay is written much more simpler and I didn’t find myself reading passages over again to savor the beauty of them. I would actually find it hard to compare the both of them together as in my head, they both seem so different.
on April 23rd, 2010 at 7:11 pmThis is one I’ve been itching to get my hands on.
on April 23rd, 2010 at 8:11 pmSounds like it might be a tough read in the beginning, but I’m glad to see so many people love it.
I’m not familiar with Gayle Forman. I do love the idea of this story. Sounds like my kind of read. Kinda interesting how you bring up families today vs. the families we read about growing up. I for one loved hanging out with my family. Still do.
It does sound like a nice change of pace from the angsty (?) YA reads today.
on April 24th, 2010 at 12:06 amYour review really makes me want to read it even though you liked it but didn’t “love it.” I can relate to that feeling.
on April 24th, 2010 at 12:08 pmI just bought the paperback of this last week!! I can’t wait to read it. Do you know when the sequel is coming out?
on April 24th, 2010 at 7:45 pmI’ve been on the fence with this — but your enthusiasm has increased my curiosity.
on April 25th, 2010 at 5:30 amThere’s going to be a sequel?! I didn’t know that. (I *loved* If I Stay!)
on April 26th, 2010 at 2:05 amcool. thats cool. yup. totally
on June 2nd, 2010 at 9:05 am[...] IF I STAY, by Gayle Forman. (Penguin, $8.99.) A young cellist falls into a coma after she suffers an accident. (Ages 14 and up) [...]
on June 6th, 2010 at 11:05 pmI referenced this review on my blog. Check it out!
on July 29th, 2010 at 5:15 pmHeather
I finally read this one. It’s definitely powerful!
on August 18th, 2011 at 8:03 pm