If I Stay , by Gayle Forman

Paperback, 272 pages

Published April 9th 2009 by Random House Books for Young Readers

original title

If I Stay

url

http://www.ifistay.com/

series

If I Stay #1

characters

Teddy Hall, Kim Schein, Mia Hall, Adam Wilde

setting

United States
Oregon (United States)

literary awards

An ALA/YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (2010), South Carolina Book Award Nominee for Young Adult Book Award (2011), TAYSHAS High School Reading List (2010), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2009), ALA Teens' Top Ten (2010) ALA Teens' Top Ten (2010), Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2010), Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award YA Nominee (2011), Florida Teens Read Nominee (2010), Delaware Blue Hen Award (2011), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2012)

Just listen, Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel. I open my eyes wide now. I sit up as much as I can. And I listen. Stay, he says.

Everybody has to make choices. Some might break you. For seventeen-year-old Mia, surrounded by a wonderful family, friends and a gorgeous boyfriend decisions might seem tough, but they're all about a future full of music and love, a future that's brimming with hope.

But life can change in an instant.

A cold February morning ...a snowy road ...and suddenly all of Mia's choices are gone. Except one. As alone as she'll ever be, Mia must make the most difficult choice of all.

Gripping, heartrending and ultimately life-affirming, If I Stay will make you appreciate all that you have, all that you've lost - and all that might be.

 
 My Review
This was just a beautiful story that really tugged at my heart from the word go. there was just such a strong thought provoking essence here that makes you sit back and want to think about what it is that the book is trying to state, what it is that its showing and what it is that its wanting you to feel. the piece was beautiful and yet sad all rolled into one and I wanted to read it from beginning to end right away again because it was just that touching. It made me think about the way in which I love my own family, and what I would do were we all to be in some sort of accident that meant I lost them all and had the choice to choose whether I too wanted to go or to live. The concept of this story I think is a challenging one because its about looking at what there is to live for still and what it is that you have lost. I honestly could not imagine waking up to find that my family are no longer alive, just the thought of loosing my siz year old brother like how she lost her brother teddy was emotionally grasping in so many ways. There did seem to be something very personal here within the write which just seemed to make it that much more real and perhaps it is this which is going to lace and pull the readers in to make them really connect to it and not just read it.

There was a lot to think about here within this novel and I like the fact that it reflected back on her past and all the things that she has done in her life because it allows you to get a deeper feel for who she is and what it is that she likes to do. Its hard to pick out what my favorite part of the book is because of how passionately strongly it was written. it was just obvious that ther was a lot more than meets the eyes here to the book and I think that perhaps the writer herself has based an experience or emotion around the book, therefore giving it that much more real sense ot it which of course draws the reader in. I felt that the main character was well produced and even the relationship with adam was well done. there was just cliffhangers and edge around this whole novel and it just seemed to draw you in, which of course was annoying when it ended like that.

Yet of course, its also clever how it ended because it means that you want to read on and so you are therefore likely to buy the second book, to read it and to find out the rest of the story. its just an amazing book. if you have not read it already. go and read it, NOW

My rating