If I Stay

Semester 1, blog post 1

This review may contain spoilers. Reader discretion is advised. You have been warned...mwahahaha. >:D

The last book I read was If I Stay by Gayle Forman.

Let me say beforehand, though, that I've never been an avid reader of realistic fiction. But after watching the movie, (yeah I know, I watched the movie first, oh the horror...) I became curious about the novel it was based off of, leading me to pick up the book.

And honestly, I didn't enjoy it as much as I had expected to. Don't take this the wrong way; the book wasn't bad or anything. Actually, in my opinion, it was rather average. Shall I explain why? (No? Well too bad; I'll explain it to you guys anyway.)

Basically, in the beginning of the book, the main character, Mia, is introduced (duh) as talented young cellist. Also in the beginning of the book, Mia and her family get into a severe car accident while they're driving in the snow. (Totally didn't see that coming.)

The rest of her family – her mom, dad, and younger brother – is killed in the accident, (which we later learn) while Mia's soul is left trapped between life and death. And so her soul consciously wanders the urgent care facility, where the hospital staff are hard at work trying to save her.

Now, this may sound like an interesting way to start off a book. And it is.

On the other hand, though, as Mia is faced with the challenging decision of choosing whether to stay or to let go, (aha, so that's where the title comes from) the author takes her readers into a large number of flashbacks of events in Mia's life leading up to the car accident. These events mostly consist of memories of Mia with her family, her grandfather, her best friend Kim, and her boyfriend Adam.

Meanwhile, Mia's friends and living family members visit her in turn, offering caring words and shedding tears. Mia's soul would stand or sit by, listening. These scenes were truly quite touching.

The parts of that story that I didn't enjoy were the flashbacks. I mean, yeah, they were a well-executed way to express Mia's internal conflict (as in, should she continue living or not?) A quote that definitely supports this internal conflict is "I now realize that dying is easy. Living is hard," (146). But I thought that they slowed the plot of the story down too much. Moreover, I didn't feel like they were an active way to engage the reader in the story. (So basically, the book is boring.)

This novel is - if you still can't tell by this point - targeted mostly towards the young adult audience. I would imagine that it appeals to a variety of people. You might like this book if you enjoy literature that harbors any or all of the following constituents:

• Romance
• Decision-making
• Realistic fiction (genre)
• First person point of view
• Around 300-ish pages in length

So promptly, (brace yourself for a super long sentence here) before I finally conclude this review, I suppose that you – being the loyal, unwavering reader that you are – are currently being plagued by the question of whether or not our beloved Mia lives.

See, I can read minds.

Anyway, Gayle Forman reveals Mia's choice to the reader at the very end of the novel. And Mia's aforementioned choice was to *dramatic pause accompanied by drumroll* (highlight to view): Find out yourself. You didn't really think I would tell you, right? (Although I bet you could guess the answer anyway...) (^_^)

Okay, I think I'm getting a bit off topic here. My point is, this book can't necessarily be defined as plain old "good" or "bad." It is a New York Times bestseller, after all. Did I feel that it deserved to be one, though? Not really, I suppose. (What I'm trying to say here is that the book is overrated, okay?)

Judging from the fast-paced beginning, the plot should have been exciting and thought-provoking. However, Mia's constant reliving of her past made it a tedious read at times. Nonetheless, I would still recommend this book to anyone looking for a unique, emotionally moving piece of literature.

If you'd like to learn more about this particular book, or Forman's books in general, you can find her website here. You can also find a Wikipedia website about her here.

You have now reached the end of my ramblings. I hope I didn't bore you to death. And now I should probably thank you appropriately for reading. So thanks, I guess.