Review: If I Stay (If I Stay #1) by Gayle Forman

I was lucky enough to go to an advance screening of the movie yesterday and it did not disappoint. My sister and I both cried :( I thought today, I would share the review I wrote when I read the book. I decided not to hide the spoilers because they're really very mild ones. 

*Review contains mild spoilers.

If I Stay (If I Stay #1)

by Gayle Forman

April 6, 2010

262 pages

 

Goodreads  Chapters

Goodreads Summary:

On a day that started like any other, Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, admiring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. In an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left. It is the most important decision she'll ever make.

Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting, and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.

 Review

If I Stay was heartbreakingly beautiful. I've heard of this book for a  long time but I finally decided to read it when I  watched the trailer for the movie. It looked so good I knew I had to read the book first. Even though this wasn't a very long book, it was loaded with raw emotions.

I was torn for Mia. On a normal day, to be happy one moment and then have the people you love so dearly ripped from you in the next is truly unbearable. Even more tragic is the fact that she was able to witness every moment after the accident unfold in an out-of-body experience. She knows her parents and Teddy are gone and she doesn't want to live without them. Yet it was extremely difficult for her to let go knowing how much her family, Kim and Adam loved her.

Every memory she revisited kept me turning the pages searching for more. There were good and bad ones but she treasured every one of them. Her relationship with her family was adorable. They were so loving and supportive of her. Even when she was in a coma, her grandfather understood she would not want to wake up to this harsh reality. I was tearing up when he told her it was ok to move on. She was unconscious but he still understood her. How hard it would be for her if she woke up. Cue the tears. I struggled alongside Mia but every moment was worth it.

Gayle Forman's writing was beautiful. It really makes you think. I honestly didn't know what choice Mia would make until the very last few pages. If I Stay is a book with very rich and emotional impact. No words can easily translate those feelings so just go read it!