If I Stay (If I Stay, #1)

by Gayle Forman

Heart-wrenchingly raw and heartbreakingly romantic, Gayle Forman’s international bestseller asks the ultimate question: What would you do if you had to choose?

“Beautifully written.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Every moment I spent reading Forman’s masterpiece drew me in more.”—NPR.com

Everything can change in an instant. For Mia, the day started like any other, surrounded by a loving family, an adoring boyfriend, and a bright future filled with music and infinite possibilities. What she never expected is the choice before her now. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an uncertain future, Mia has to contemplate everything she holds dear and make a choice: to go or to stay. 

Adapted into a major motion picture starring Chloe Grace Moretz, Mia's story will stay with you for a long, long time.

• ISBN10: 014241543X
• ISBN13: 9780142415436
• Publish Date: 6 April 2010 (first published 1 April 2009)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Penguin USA
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780142415436

Reviews

[anastasia]

Full Review on my blog!

After a disastrous car accident, Mia finds herself looking down at her own battered body, barely alive. This is one case where, immediately, you get a feel of who these people are, their realness, the love they have for each other. With only a few minutes of getting to know them before the accident, I already felt a connection with Mia and her whole family, turning an already emotional novel into a gutting one. Mia’s loss and grief is tangible through Gayle’s effortless writing style. It’s a tragic tale of unimaginable life changing loss that will make you thankful for everything and everyone you have in life.

I really did love reading If I Stay, but for the most part I felt like I was forcing myself to get through to the ending. There were certain aspects of it that drew me to continue reading, but really I was expecting more. I think the back and forth from the present to the past was what threw me off. I definitely was more interested in reading about what was currently going on rather then anything from the past.

The ending is also something that makes me want to rate this book higher than I did. For some reason it just hit me in a way that I needed to buy the second book to this series right away, which I didn’t think I was going to because of how I felt during the majority of this book.If I Stay shows us the importance of family and friends that, together, make up our lives. I recommend it!

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"Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you." (Denny Hall)

If I Stay is an amazing title that describes the whole entire book! This might be a random and abrupt way to start this review, but it was the first thing I noticed when I finished reading it.

The concept of this book is quite interesting. Mia, the main character, and her family are in a car accident on a snowy day. Mia is critically injured. As a "ghost" she takes us on a journey showing the flashbacks of her life in order to make a choice: Will she stay or will she go?

I always enjoy a book that:
a)delves into characters psyche's
b)delves into an amazingly fast-paced plot or
c)delves into the questions surrounding life and death.

I enjoyed If I Stay because it did the latter. This book solidly dives into what it means to lose everything, what it means to hold onto something, what it means to experience life, what it means to let go and most importantly, how do our choices in life define us.

If I Stay is told through a series of flashbacks explaining important events and memories in Mia's life and it builds the story of who Mia was before the accident and what her life was like. These flashbacks are also used to show Mia's relationship with Adam (more on that later). Usually, I find flashbacks boring and I skim through them because most of the time, they add nothing to the story. However, I was extremely interested in reading the flashbacks of Mia's life. The flashback pieces are gripping and add originality and depth to the story.

Another thing that adds originality and depth to If I Stay is that music becomes something real, tangible and beautiful. This is where I confess that I'm not a musical person. I don't know my Mozart from my Eminem (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating A LOT, but you get the picture).If I Stay made me feel as though I knew my music. Mia is a cellist and her music and musical family play a huge role in her life and her flashbacks. The extremely important role that music plays in If I Stay is quite cool!

Unfortunately, If I Stay didn't bring out any of my emotions. Don't get me wrong! I enjoyed this book and connected with its concept and plot, but I didn't really care about the characters and their lives. I'm a "character-reader" and characters have the potential to make-or-break a book for me. I can think of many reasons for my lack of care towards the characters, but here are some of the main ones:

♬ If I Stay is extremely melodramatic, cheesy and predictable at times. These are three combinations that leave a horrible taste in my mouth.
♬ Mia's parents are extremely cool, past-punk-rockers who act like their children's best friends instead of their parents. I understand that there are extremely cool, past-punk-rocker best friend parents in real life, but Mia's parents personalities are too unrealistic to be cool. This was especially seen Adam and Mia's relationship starts. When Adam comes over to Mia's house, Mia closes her bedroom door when Adam is in the room with her. Her parents have a general idea about what's going on and they are totally fine about it.
♬ Mia is a too good to be true character. She's a goody-two-shoes, talented cellist, who always does the right thing. It got to a point where she scarily started to resemble my boring personality and life. However, even I have flaws and I make mistakes. Mia didn't have any flaws, nor did she make any mistakes.
♬ Adam is also too good to be human. Adam is the swoon worthy, punk-rocker boyfriend who's gorgeous, sweet and vulnerable, but I didn't see the appeal. Adam has no known flaws that made him seem human and relatable.
♬ Perfect Adam + Perfect Mia = Perfect Romance. However, due to my lack of emotion, the melodrama and cheesy predictability, I didn't find the romance perfect or swoony. Instead, it seems too good to be true.

It might seem as though I had more negative than positive views about If I Stay, but this isn't the case. The negatives and positives balance each other out and make one solid and satisfying read.

[Baroness Book Trove]

OMG!! This book is a tear-jerky. I started reading this book today and I didn’t except myself to finish it but when I did I was all “Oh my god. I feel so bad for Mia and I hope that she will be okay.” Since the book ends with her waking up finally from just being in a limbo type of place throughout the book. Well after the car accident that is.

But wow! If I was in Mia’s shoes I don’t know how I would be able to wake up with knowing that my mom, dad, and little brother are all dead. I mean I knew that I would have other family members wanting me to live but the ones that I would care about wouldn’t be there.

I guess I can kind of connect to Mia in a way. I mean not in the musical sense. Granted I do sing and dance on occasion but I sometimes draw and that right there is something that I don’t like to share with people and in that way I think that we have the same way of thinking of what we do as a solitary point.

Granted my drawing does suck. But I also don’t really get to practice all that much. This book goes right up there in my mind with John Green and Nicholas Sparks. Those writers paired with Gayle Forman would make anyone set on their couch, or in bed, or anywhere with their book and a box of tissues right next to them just in case they would need it. I am hoping though that Mia and Adam will get over this bump in their relationship like they have done throughout their story in If I Stay.

To anyone wanting to read this book is that I give it a five stars and that this book is the most excellent one written. I am quite proud with the way that Gayle Forman was able to move from the present day of Mia being in the limbo type of place at the hospital to her past memories of certain things. That right there worked really well.

I am now off to find myself a good book that won’t make me cry to read a little bit. I need something happy after this ordeal of crying. Some people don’t get that but other people do. When you cry during a book it is a good thing for the author because that is what they wanted the reader, us, to feel when reading the book. Especially since that meant that you were able to connect with the characters in the book to feel with what they are feeling. I am quite glad that I read this book and I might be doing a movie review on the movie…. Once you know I convince my mom into paying it for me!

Anyways until next time enjoy this book review brought to you by

Baroness’ Book Trove.

To read more of my reviews please come to my site: baronessbooktrove

[Linda]

I just re-read If I Stay because I am having my students read it before the end of the year, and we'll watch the movie as well.
Even if I knew everything that could happen, the gripping writing, the strong emotions and the music touched me just as much this time! And I cried. I think I may have cried even harder this second time around, actually...
So, now I just have to come up with some study-questions, and I'm all set with lesson plans for the rest of the school-year.

[Kim Deister]

If I Stay There are certain books that just emotionally drain you, and this was one of them.  There are moments of sadness, moments of happiness, moments of pain, and moments of sweetness.  It is a book whose story just stays with you.
 
I love the way the story of If I Stay is constructed.  It is told from Mia's point of view, but it isn't just her version of the present.  Instead, it travels back and forth through her history and those of the people she loves.  This gives the entire book a bit of a bittersweet quality, as you experience loss with Mia.  You are a part of her world after the fact and it makes the present all the sadder.  It is a story of. a girl with an incredibly quirky and fun family, a snarky best friend, and rocker boyfriend who represents everything she herself is not.
 
Mia's family is built on music and love.  Her dad was a former punk rocker and her mom his biggest fan.  Mia's boyfriend Adam was a rocker whose career is growing even before he finishes high school.  And then there is Mia, the classical music loving cellist who is on her way to great things.  But, in a single moment, everything changes for her and for her family.
 
The author doesn't shy away from the tough situations or questions that arise from Mia's personal tragedy.  Instead, she makes Mia and the reader question themselves about fanily and choices.  What is a family?  How do you choose when faced with such diverse choices?
 
This is a book about family and tragedy and unthinkable choices, but it is also a story of beauty.  It speaks of the bonds between those we love.  And with these themes, there is also the love between Adam and Mia.  Their romance was beautiful, sweet and passionate.  It was music that brought them together, no matter how different the two expressed it.  And it was their differing musical genres that often threatened their relationship as their music took them in very different directions.  I liked that their relationship was portrayed realistically.  Instead of painting everything as perfect, it touched on problems and dischord.  
 
The interesting thing, however, was in how I related to Adam and Mia.  If I Stay was Mia's story, but it was Adam that I identified with the most.  There were moments during flashbacks where I felt like Mia was unfair or too demanding and it was Adam who was the sympathetic quality.  And Adam's pain and anguish and selfless love was beautiful to watch.  I watched the movie shortly after finishing the novel and I felt the same way for most of it, as well.
 
My Recommendation
 
If you like a good, emotional read that isn't all perfect happy endings, then this is an excellent read.  The story is beautiful and sweet, even as it is tragic and sad at times.

[Stephanie]

This review was originally posted on Once Upon a Chapter



If I Stay was my first Gayle Forman book and I can see why she's got such a following. If I Stay has been sitting in my TBR pile for quite some time. I'm doing this new thing where I read the books that I want to read when I want to read them. I thought I'd pick this one up because everyone loves Gayle Forman and because the movie trailer really made me want to pick this one up.

Folks this one got real fast. I think about page 16 and we were right in the thick of it. I think one of the most surprising things for me is that If I Stay is such a slim novel. I didn't expect such an emotional impact. In 200 pages, there was quite a bit of history for Mia. It was sort of fascinating because Mia has an uncertain future. What Forman does is throws you into the story at the middle point and then alternately show you glimpses of the past and then bits of the present. This form of storytelling made it all the more gut wrenchingly awful and yet so bittersweet.

I really enjoyed Mia's character. I felt that she knew what she wanted and for the most part followed through to get it. Mia is a down to earth girl who was realistic and is the type of girl I'd want for a role model if I had a daughter. I have to admit that I really didn't care for Adam. Until that one part when I fell in love with him a little bit because he was swoony. If you've read the book you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't I'm not telling!

Personally the best way to describe If I Stay is you're wrapped in a cozy cocoon of shock until the band aid is ripped off viciously and the tears and snot run freely. In a sick and twisted way I loved it. I'll definitely be catching up with Forman's back list!

[lindsey]

Review coming soon.

[Berls]

Review first appeared on Fantasy is More Fun

My Initial Reaction...

If I Stay is such a devastating story! I never did actually cry - but my eyes watered several times. I think I expected the sadness, so it didn't hit me quite as hard.

The Narration...

The narration was really good - Kirsten Potter did a fantastic job with the voice. What I really liked about the audio, though, was the integration of music. Music has a big role in If I Stay and they did an excellent job with the timing and feel with their selections. I've seen music added that has a pretty corny effect, but this was not that at all.

The Good...

I think what makes If I Stay so powerful is that it's so incredibly REAL. A car accident that changes you and your family's life forever is more than possible, it happens all the time. And when it's so believable, it's so easy to put yourself in the character's place and think about how you would feel and respond. I think that was what made me almost cry each time - I saw my own parents and most especially, my own little brother - and it was devastating.

And as much as I could substitute my own family - these characters are complete and complex. They have their quirks and I loved getting to know them through Mia's flashbacks. I was surprised by how many characters - not just family members but best friend and grandparents and so on that we got to know and care for from Mia's perspective.

The Bad...

My only complaint probably isn't a fair one and probably wouldn't bother most people. I got frustrated by how uncertain Mia was about what she wanted to do. I guess for me, the decision would have been simple and I know exactly what it would have depended on. But I'm older than Mia and at her age, I probably would have been less certain too.

Concluding Sentiments...

I read this super fast and was really happy that I already had Where She Went waiting for me, because there's no way you can wait!

[catiebug]

Read this in a matter of a few hours. So good! I can't wait to see the movie!

[boghunden]

Imagine waking up, finding your family dead. What do you do? Get up? Stay in bed, hoping never to wake up again? Now that is some of the things that Mia has to decide.

I listened to this as an audiobook a couple of years ago, and have found myself thinking about the book every now and then. It's so well written! One moment, you're crying your eyes out, and the next you're laughing out loud. It's such a heartwarming story in every way, and even though sad things happen, you still get somewhat happy from reading this book. This book just has a certain feel to it.

There's a lot of love in this book; falling in love, music, family, life. And [a:Gayle Forman|295178|Gayle Forman|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1383395848p2/295178.jpg] still manages to write a book that's not sugarly sweet, but has that extra touch of bitterness to it. This book makes you think. You can't help but wonder: "What would I choose?"

Throughout this book, you're rooting for Mia. I have to admit though, I'm not sure what the happy ending to this story would be. Is it life? Death? I think death could be the "happy ending" - I mean, that way she'll get reunited with her family. I think it could. What Mia chooses, you'll have to decide for yourself.