Author: Gayle Foreman
Publisher: Black Swan
Blurb: The last thing Mia remembers is the music.
After the accident, she can still hear it. And she can see her damaged body being taken from the wreck of her parents’ car – even though she can’t feel a thing.
All she can do it watch as doctors rush to save her life, as her friends and relatives gather outside her room, as the boy she loves struggles to be near her.
As the next twenty-four hours unfold, Mia must come to terms with what came before the crash – and what could come after. And she knows she must make the most difficult choice of all.
If I Stay follows the life changing 24 hours after Mia and her family get into a devastating car accident. Her parents died at the scene and her little brother Teddy is in critical condition and Mia is floating somewhere inbetween life and death – unable to feel anything but can see everything – including her own body on the operating table. As Mia flashes back through her life – the good, the bad and everything inbetween – she has to make the most important decision of all. To stay or not.
Chances are you’ve either read the book, seen the film or both but as always, I’m 200 years late to the party and only just got around to reading it and truthfully, I wasn’t as blown away as I was expecting to be – considering all the brilliant reviews I’ve read about this book. The storyline was right up my street – I loved the idea and concept of this teenage girl going through the most traumatic experience then having to make the most unspeakably courageous decision but I felt there could have been more substance and unfortunately, felt like it fell a bit flat.
I loved the parts of the story in which Mia was describing what it was like being in the hospital, seeing her own body and her relatives however the flashbacks I did struggle with. Mia is an avid cello player and adores classical music and I erm, well… don’t. Absolutely no offence to anyone who does, but having to read about something which doesn’t interest you at all can get a bit tedious! This unfortunately led me to not feeling connected with the characters as much as I should have and although they were all well developed I found myself not caring that much.
Despite all that though, I can completely see why this book is so popular. It was exceptionally easy to read and I managed to read over 3/4 of it in a day. However, I think my expectations were probably too high which led me to feel a bit deflated by the whole thing by the end. I’m a huge YA fan but I don’t think If I Stay was for me.
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2.5/5 Stars