Review: If I Stay

If I Stay
Gayle Forman
Contemporary

On a day that started like any other, Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, admiring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. 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. It is 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.

So. #LastOnTheBandwagon. 

Yeah, it took me awhile to read this, but not because I didn't want to. I just wasn't able to get my hands on it. 

Anyway, I read this on the plane, and boy, it helped make my journey enjoyable. The only reason I DON'T recommend reading this on a flight is because you'll try not to cry. 

If I Stay is a truly a story of breathtaking beauty. The un-romanticized pieces of real-life awkwardness, passion, family and friends make this story real and ironically, romantic. It paints a picture of life ended so abruptly its hits home hard, making it a must read. 

The plot is unique in that it's told over the course of one day: what Mia's seeing now peppered with memories of her life. It's a brilliant strategy- it allows you to experience the tragedy at first in a detached way, like you would if you heard about it in the news. And then, slowly at first but then faster, you began to live and love these people- feel their pain as what happened to them impacts you only after the fact. 

The characters are simple people who are endlessly complex. That's a complicated way of saying REAL. 

The cover is stunning. Looking forward to catching this movie sometime soon.
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