If there is going to be a movie, I should read the book...one of my many rules of thumb about how I choose which YA books I'm going to pick up. So, when I saw that If I Stay by Gayle Forman came out in August, I decided that I should read. After reading the book, I must say that I'm surprised that there hasn't been more of a furor over it, but maybe this quiet and philosophical book wouldn't elicit a furor even as a movie?
Needless to say, if I'm surprised that there's no furor, I liked the book. It is one author's attempt to look at that moment when a life is hanging on by a thread and asks the question, do we get to choose what happens to us?
At the beginning of the novel, seventeen year old Mia and her family are in a devastating car accident. Unconscious, she is somehow separated from her body and watches the first responders try to resuscitate her. As the story unfolds, and her friends and family start to gather at the hospital, Mia reminisces about her relationships with her parents, brother, best friend and boyfriend. All of these people cause Mia to wonder if she should stay in the world or not.
This is one of those rare books when I didn't want to try to guess the ending. The world of If I Stay doesn't get a happy one, but it was touching read about one young girl's thought process as she decides.
Needless to say, if I'm surprised that there's no furor, I liked the book. It is one author's attempt to look at that moment when a life is hanging on by a thread and asks the question, do we get to choose what happens to us?
At the beginning of the novel, seventeen year old Mia and her family are in a devastating car accident. Unconscious, she is somehow separated from her body and watches the first responders try to resuscitate her. As the story unfolds, and her friends and family start to gather at the hospital, Mia reminisces about her relationships with her parents, brother, best friend and boyfriend. All of these people cause Mia to wonder if she should stay in the world or not.
This is one of those rare books when I didn't want to try to guess the ending. The world of If I Stay doesn't get a happy one, but it was touching read about one young girl's thought process as she decides.