If I Stay - Gayle Forman

If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Date Released: April 9th 2009
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Pages: 199 pages
Format: Hardcover
Source: Borders

Summary


In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck...


A sophisticated, layered, and heartachingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make—and the ultimate choice Mia commands.

My Review:

If I stay, is one of the most powerful, depth, heartbreaking, moving, and page turning books I’ve ever read, there’s only one word to describe it: Beautiful.

After a terrible accident Mia gets stuck in this limbo face, where she can see how the doctors struggle to keep her body alive, and everything that’s going on around her, with her friends, and the family she has left. Through the story, you walk beside Mia, down the hospital corridors and then you are taken back to the past and memories of Mia. I usually don’t like flashbacks, they seem too tedious for me, but in this book, It was anything but.

In the time she’s in limbo, there’s only one thing she has to do. Choose if she’ll stay, of leave it all behind an go from life. The most difficult decision to make, because of everything she’s lost, and all the things that still wait ahead for her. She changes her mind a few times along the way, and every time she does, you have nothing to do but to agree, and hope for the best. Because you know she’s right.

There were a lot of important characters that simply left a mark with me; her Grandfather, who understands her, and knows the position she’s in, even if he can’t see her, and assures her, that no matter what, he supports her. Her best friend, Kim, who gave a bit of humor to the story and helped lighten the mood, and who let Mia know, that she still had a family, and she wasn’t alone. And Adam, her boyfriend, who loved her more that words could say, and showed her there were still things worth fighting for.

There’s one thing I can guarantee: you will cry, or at least an almost (a friend of mine didn’t, but she’s just cold blooded xD). If I stay is a story that lingers in your heart, long after the story is finished, and the only thing left is to ask yourself, would you stay?

A must read for everyone, no matter age or genre. A story about hard decisions, family, and Love.

''Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you''