Saturday, July 3, 2010

If I Stay by Gayle Forman




Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, adoring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. then, in an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left-the most important decision she'll ever make.
Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting, and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.




This story is breath-taking, beautiful, harsh, and has you on the edge of your seat all rolled in one. I loved how the author took every effort into elaborating on Mia's passion for music and went into extensive detail on her passion for the cello and classical music.

The book slightly reminded me of the movie AWAKE with Hayden Christiansen and Jessica Alba. The similarities with the main character being out of body but not dead, and the repetitive flash backs to show us how the character arrived to this day and what events made them who they are today.Which brings me to the only thing I didn't care for much in the book. The flashbacks. I know that they were necessary to have the reader get to know Mia, and her family and her connection to them, Adam, Kim, and music. It's just that the present day was so intense and the story would pull you right along til you can't get enough than BAM go into a flashback.

This book was a tear jerker for me because of losing a best friend in a car accident and wishing she had the choice. Also because you know whatever choice she makes she loses what matters most so either decision she makes she has to fight like hell to get through it.

What I loved most about the story is everyone's passion for music. Not necessarily that it was music but everyone is so passionate about something and that something happens to be the same thing..which in turn happens to connect them. When I was reading the little commentaries on the book, I kept reading how it was a touching love story. I assumed it was a love story between two teenage love birds. Then when I started reading the book I felt it was probably a love story also between the family that gets broken up. But as I really got into the book and even up until the ending realized it's more than just the formerly mention. but a love story about music. Music was this girl's passion, what she lived for, and in the end what ultimately pushed her to stay. Thank you Gayle Forman, very well written.

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