"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.