If I Stay Review: Keep A Box Of Tissues Handy While Reading This One
What seems like a nightmare for most people is Mia Hall’s reality. ‘If I Stay’ is the story of loss and grief. Of love and life. It is the story of a girl named Mia whose life comes to a standstill after she loses her parents and younger brother in an accident. Being the lone survivor and now struggling for life, Mia is stunned to see her badly battered body after the accident as her soul steps out of her body and she sees the world from a different perspective. After learning about her family’s demise she loses motivation to fight for life. But something keeps her from departing. Something brings her back to the mortal world. Something offers her a reason to live.
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Publisher: Dutton Books
Just listen, Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.
I open my eyes wide now.
I sit up as much as I can.
And I listen.
Stay, he says.
Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?
Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it’s the only one that matters.
(Description as on Goodreads.com)
I LIKE If I Stay Because,
…writer Gayle Forman has written the book well. I liked the narration as we slip back and forth between Mia’s past and present. Though it does disrupt the flow it does give you a break from the sorrowful parts of the book. The language is easy and the book is a quick read.
I Do NOT Like If I Stay Because,
…it is too gloomy for my liking. Mia is in a coma and the narration keeps shifting from her past to the present day. We get to know her background, her relationship with her family and friends, her passion for music and her love for Adam. She leads a normal life of a regular teenager till her life is alerted beyond repair. Pain, loss, melancholy are the major feelings addressed in this book and if you do not like books with a sad storyline then you will not like this one. For me, I just tried something different for a change and learnt that I do not like reading depressing stories. Who does? I can take grief in a book but not as the central plot. I am too sensitive for that.
Favourite Quotes in If I Stay
Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.
But the you who you are tonight is the same you I was in love with yesterday, the same you I’ll be in love with tomorrow.
Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal
Don’t be scared…Women can handle the worst kind of pain. You’ll find out one day.
Fake it ’till you make it.
It’s quiet now. So quiet that can almost hear other people’s dreams.
All I can think about is how fucked up it would be for your life to end here, now. I mean I know that your life if fucked up no matter what now, forever. And I’m not dumb enough to think that I can undo that, that anyone can. But I can’t wrap my mind around the notion of you not getting old, having kids, going to Juilliard, getting to play that cello in front of a huge audience, so that they can get the chills the way I do every time I see you pick up your bow, every time I see you smile at me.
Final View: If I Stay is a part of a duology and since I have already finished the second book and loved it I am glad to have read this book. If you like romance novels then you might like this duology if not this book. If you are a fan of Gayle Forman’s writing then you can surely try this one. Lastly, if you do not mind a sad storyline then do pick this one.
Also Read:
You must be logged in to post a comment.