If I Stay

Author: Gayle Forman

Series: If I Stay # 1

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Paranormal

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Released: 2 April 2009

Summary: via goodreads.com 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...

My Review: If I Stay, to me, seems like the book that every other book wants to be. And I get it, really I do. But if every book is trying to be If I Stay than what happens to other books? Like, really original books that are just as good, or better than If I Stay? Just wondering…
Anyways, I really enjoyed it (like many) it was both heart wrenching and hopeful and seeing Mia’s memories from the perspective that they’re shown is something really different and incredibly enjoyable when it comes to YA lit. I felt like everything flowed together really nicely, especially considering the fact that not all of her memories are going in chronological order.
I really enjoyed that Forman gave us all a playlist at the end, music plays as much of a role as most of the characters, so I was grateful for that added help (and some of the songs became my favorites!) and thought that was put into this novel. I liked that at the end the choice is still Mia’s.
This book definitely makes you think about what happens after death, do the dead linger with us? Forman explores a lot of these concepts and really makes you think about what it’s like to die, and yet she still has a way of making you not think about death. This novel wasn’t morbid, nor was it incredibly hopeful. It was about a life, and a choice. Sometimes I think that the simplest of plots turn out the simplest of novels, and that’s how If I Stay was for me.