‘If I Stay’ by Gayle Forman is the story of a seventeen year old cellist, Mia Hall, who was gravely injured in a car accident that took both her parents along with her baby brother, Teddy. While in a coma, Mia’s soul gets to wander around and is completely aware of the events that are unfolding around her. She’s aware of her loss, aware of the friends and family members visiting her, and more importantly, she’s fully aware of the choice she has to make. Does she stay? Or does she pass on and join her family? In the process of making such a decision, she takes us on a trip down memory lane in an attempt to imagine how life would go, or not, once she does decide.
It was not an easy task reviewing this book. I really don’t know how I feel about this one. It certainly was a light, entertaining read. And yes, I said light because somehow I just didn’t get all those intense feelings people were talking about. From all the hype this book (and its movie) got, I expected a highly immersing and heartbreaking story. While I did feel my heart go out for Mia, I wouldn’t say the book was the emotional roller-coaster people claim it to be, I did like it though. I liked contemplating the idea of choosing whether to leave your life behind and be with your loved ones, or stay and have to face life without them. I loved how well developed the characters were, right down to the most minor ones. How real and unique each character felt, and how relatable their feelings were. And I absolutely loved how radiantly passionate Mia was and how her love for anything classical music related was evident in every word written in the book, almost like Mia herself was the one writing it.
Having read an excerpt from ‘Where She Went’ though, I think it would be safe to say that the sequel would have much more substance than ‘If I Stay’. I am actually looking forward to reading that one. It’s like ‘If I Stay’ was written for the sole purpose of providing the reader with adequate acquaintance with the characters in ‘Where She Went’ and offering an insight into their lives, what made them who they are, and how they got there. Kind of like a 304 pages long back-story. A good one, but a back-story nonetheless.
“How am I supposed to decide this? How can I possibly stay without mom and dad? How can I leave without Teddy? Or Adam? This is too much. I don’t even understand how it all works, why I’m here in the state that I’m in or how to get out of it if I wanted to. If I were to say, I want to wake up, would I wake up right now? I’ve already tried snapping my heels to find Teddy and tried to beam myself to Hawaii, and that didn’t work. This seems a whole lot more complicated.
But in spite of that, I believe it’s true. I hear the nurse’s words again. I am running the show. Everyone’s waiting on me.
I decide. I know this now.
And this terrifies me more than anything else that has happened today.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay
A Bookworm's Ramblings 