BOOK REVIEW
If I Stay: what would you do if you had to choose?
Inspired by the new movie,
directed by R.J. Cutler
and starring Chloë Grace
Moretz (have you guessed
it yet?!), this month I will
review If I Stay, a young
adult novel written by
Gayle Forman and one that
really should make us all
a little more thankful for all
that we have in life.
If I Stay, tells the tragic
tale of Mia Hall, a 17
year-old girl who loses
her family in a violent car
accident. When she
wakes up after impact,
she is aghast to find that
she is in a coma. Mia
truly has an out-of-body
experience, while watching
her best friend, family,
and boyfriend, attempting
to deal with the loss of
Mia’s parents and younger
brother, Teddy, as well as
her own pending death.
This book focuses on the
idea of controlling one’s
own destiny; what would
you do if you could decide
whether to live or die?
Would you live a life with
no family? Or die and
leave the boy you love
behind?
The most interesting
feature of Gayle Forman’s
style of writing and overall
theme would be how much
much it absorbs readers
who can truly identify with
various aspects of the
book; a quirky girl who isn’t
the most confident, the
heartthrob boyfriend who
provides a classic love
story, but also- and most
important- the ease with
which readers can swap
places with the heroine. I
applaud Forman for her
fluidity and storytelling
technique, paired with a
fascinating ability to keep
Mia abstract enough so
that any teenager could fill
her shoes and take on her
uphill battle.
That being said, there were
some issues I had with the
structure of Mia’s ghostlike
state. The most obvious of
these flaws was that Mia
couldn’t feel anything while
in between life and death.
Obviously eliminating the
physical pain while she
wasn’t inside her body was
a no-brainer, but I didn’t
understand why the author
chose to make her heroine
void of any emotions at
all. I think it would have
greatly added to the story
to have her process the
accident along with the
reader, but instead I just
felt like Mia was cold and
one dimensional, as out
of the two of us, I was the
only one who felt the loss
of her family.
This novel ended with a
cliffhanger that I found
myself anxious over. When
I found out that there was a
second book in the series,
I was thrilled! Though
this book wasn’t one of
my favorite recent-reads,
it is definitely a novel
that I would recommend
to any reader out there
who enjoys a love story,
intriguing main character,
and plotline that asks deep
questions.
Mady, 15
10th Grade
International School of Indiana
Indianapolis, IN
www.readinspiredmag.org
Express Yourself 39