If I Stay by Gayle Forman

If I Stay is Gayle Forman's first novel. I first read a review about it in BookPage a while ago. Then I was at a book sale over the summer and was surprised to find it there because it was such a recent release. It was the find of that particular book sale (which was not really impressive as far as book sales go). I finally got around to reading it recently. It's a short, fast read.

Seventeen year old Mia has a perfect life: she loves her family, her best friend and her boyfriend. Her music studies as a talented and gifted cellist are going so well that it's probable she'll be accepted at Juilliard to further her studies in music.

One day while out for a drive with her parents and younger brother, their car is broadsided by a truck. The crash is horrific and gruesome and her parents are killed instantly while the fate of her brother is unknown. Mia is hanging on to life by a thread. By now she has realized she's having an out of body experience and once she gets to the hospital she realizes that her life and her death are up to her. She can stay or she can go, but before she makes her decision she must witness the effects her parents' deaths and her precarious health have wrought on the rest of the family and friends that she'll leave behind.

As Mia struggles through a final decision, the reader sees the hospital through Mia's eyes as Mia observes the doctor's, nurses, and her family and friends fight to save her. Mia looks back on the important moments and people in her life as she comes to terms with every she's lost and how easy it is to give up.

This book is coming soon to the library. I recommend you pick this book up the next time you come to the library.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

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