Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

I've got to tell you guys, I was kind of terrified to read this book, because I knew it was going to be sad. If you've known me a while, you know I tend to avoid sad books. I'm a worrier by nature, so it doesn't do me any good to read books about people who have terminal diseases or get kidnapped or something. But I'd heard so many good things about this book, I had to give it a shot.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman 

In the blink of an eye everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall what happened afterwards, watching her own damaged body being taken from the wreck. Little by little she struggles to put together the pieces - to figure out what she has lost, what she has left, and the very difficult choice she must make. Heart-wrenchingly beautiful, Mia's story will stay with you for a long, long time. 

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One second Mia's hanging out with her family, looking forward to dinner with her grandparents and spending time with her boyfriend. The next she's hanging between life and death.

She can see her body from the outside as it's taken from the wreckage of the horrible crash to the hospital, where doctors and nurses fight to keep her alive. She can see her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in the waiting room, tensely waiting for any news. And slowly, bit by bit, she begins to realize that the choice of whether she'll live or die rests solely in her hands.

I can't even begin to imagine how horrible a choice that would be. How can you stay without some people, or go without others? How can you decide which is more important? That's the root of Mia's problem. 

But beyond that choice, there were two major parts of If I Stay that I absolutely adored: Adam and Kim. Those two were incredible. Their loyalty and devotion to Mia was beautiful, especially Adam's. I absolutely loved Adam. I would have loved him even if the whole book had taken place in the days surrounding the accident. As it was, the flashbacks only made me love him infinitely more.

The flashbacks were, in a word, interesting. I've heard some people talk about flashbacks in general being annoying in books, but I've never minded them, especially when they tie so flawlessly into what's going on in the present of the book, which was certainly the case in If I Stay. 

This book made me happy, sad, and scared. It made me hold my breath and hope that everything would work out in the end for Mia  and the people who love her. And it made me desperately want to read Where She Went, which is (luckily) next on my TBR list.

Altogether, this book gets <*><*><*><*>

(:D)

~Mag