SYNOPSIS: It was a regular road trip for talented cello player Mia and family but tragedy strikes when they figure into a road accident that kills her mom, dad and little brother Teddy. Mia wakes up to find herself detached from her physical body and observing her loved ones as they wait for her to wake up from her stupor. As she debates whether to give up and be with her parents and brother, she is torn by the thought of leaving her boyfriend Adam, her best friend Kim and the rest of the people who are pulling for her to survive.

The events of If I Stay takes place in the space of 24 hours, from the morning before the accident until the following day and throughout the book, Mia is like a ghost observing her loved ones, on the precipice of choosing death or life, reliving her memories with her family, and Adam and Kim and pondering her future if she survives.

At the beginning, I didn’t quite like the book as much because I didn’t quite feel as connected to Mia’s family as I should but as Mia gets more and more flashbacks about her early life, I slowly understood where they were coming from, what type of people they were and what kind of family they had. I liked the fact that Mia, despite being different from the rest of her family, was embraced for what she was. She did not have any teen conflicts of rebelliousness so it was pretty clear what she had on the other side of the equation.

Her relationship with Adam, on the other hand, was very sweet. It was simple because they both loved each other, but complicated, because of where their musical journeys were bound to lead them, but it was Adam’s sincerity that truly spoke to me. He definitely would have teenage girls swoon if he were a real guy. And the extent that Kim went to encourage her friend to stay, it really tugged at my heart. I would like to think that my friends would do the same for me.

If I Stay had a pretty retrospective tone that makes readers want to help Mia make the choice, but the flashbacks were delivered and explained so well that each person would likely have a different opinion. And this is what makes the book so interesting to read. The only giveaway would have to be that there’s a next book so readers would have an idea what Mia decided in the end.

I, for one, finished the book in just three hours (thanks to my new Kobo reader for keeping track) and overall, I felt like it was actually a short book about the magnitude of the subject (death or life). What I liked about author Gayle Forman’s writing was that it did not dwell too much on the depressing subject but rather focused on Mia’s life, and the love surrounding her, which sort of balances out all the sadness that is bound to crop up when death and loss is on the menu. It would be pretty interesting to see how the movie turns out but I have high hopes because music plays a big part of it.

All in all, a touching read that I will have no issues recommending.