BLOGPOST: If I Stay, book review
Book Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman
If I Stay is about a 17-year-old girl named Mia who has a seemingly close-to-perfect life complete with a loving family, an up-and-coming rock star boyfriend, and a passion for music. But life can change in an instant as Mia soon finds out.
When Mia and her family are involved in a severe car accident, leaving her as the sole survivor, she finds herself blurring the lines between life and death. Mia is critically injured, in a coma, and having an out-of-body experience. As an invisible observer she can’t communicate with anyone, but she can see and hear what’s happening at the site of the car crash and in the hospital. Mia realizes that she has the power to decide her fate and is forced to make a tremendous decision: should she return to her shattered life or should she let go, leaving it all behind?
The entire book follows Mia throughout a span of 24 hours, with every passing hour possibly being her last. Caught in limbo, she spends the time reflecting on her life through a series of vignettes. Through these flashbacks and memories, the reader is able to learn more about Mia and who she is. I usually find books or movies that switch between the past and present to be confusing and distracting to the overall story, but I never faced that problem while reading If I Stay. Author Gayle Foreman provided clarity through her writing and made the time switches comprehensible. Sharing parts of Mia’s history created more depth in the character; the recollections offered a flicker of hope, love, and optimism against her dark, current situation.
If I Stay was a powerful, captivating novel that kept me guessing about Mia’s fate until the very end. I thought the best aspect of If I Stay was how realistic the main character Mia was. In the book she is described as an average, down-to-earth teenage girl aside for her exceptional talent for the cello. Mia seemed authentic and relatable, as she struggled through love and loss.
With the upcoming movie release of If I Stay, I decided to read the book before I see the movie, which is my rule of thumb. I would definitely recommend reading If I Stay, especially as the film adaptation approaches. The novel ended in a gripping cliffhanger so I am looking forward to reading Gayle Forman’s sequel, Where She Went.