If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Mia is seventeen, a cello virtuoso living in small town Oregon when the care she is travelling in with her parents and younger brother is involved in a car accident, leaving only her alive. As her body fights for its life, Mia’s spirit watches her boyfriend, her friends and family grieve and travels through her past. It seems the question of whether she lives or dies is up to her.
I cried a lot while reading this book. I am a book crier anyhow – I loves me a good cry! But really, look at that premise. It would take a pretty awful writer to use that premise and not squeeze a few tears out of me. Gayle Forman has created lovely characters – people who are like people we know, are like people we want in our lives – and then put us into a terrible position – do we hang on to them or let them go? I also love an ambiguous ending – although with a sequel, it wasn’t that much of a stretch to see where the story ended up. It’s certainly written of a YA audience, but I know if this book had been around when I was in my early teens, I’d have never stopped reading it!