If I Stay by Gayle Forman is easily one of the best books I have read this year. It's an intensely personal story about the struggle of a young girl whose world is changed in the blink of an eye.
Mia's life is full. She's been very blessed. She has a wonderful boyfriend, is an incredibly talented Cellist and she has a wonderful close family who gets her. She is close to her parents and younger brother, in a way that few people are really able to experience, especially as a teenager. We are given just enough time in the beginning of the book to meet Mia's family and in those few pages, we are able to see the connection this family shares.
Her family is involved in a horrible accident, and Mia is rushed to the hospital in a coma. She watches everything around her trying to understand the changes to her life, and where to go from there. Because she realizes it's her choice. She can choose to live or die. And what would you decide?
The book is Mia's struggle to make that all important choice. The story is told in flashed between then and now. We switch between scenes with Mia and her family and friends in the hospital, and her memories of the important people in her life. We are introduced to everyone through Mia's memories as she lays in a coma in the hospital, in limbo between life and death. It's heart wrenching to watch as each loved one comes to her bedside to talk. They give her words of hope, love, encouragement, understanding, and peace. They plead for her to remain, even while understanding why it's so hard. Every page teams with emotion and every memory tears at your heart.
I won't go into detail about the complete impact and effect music has to this story other than to say it is essential to almost every character. Music is a way of life for these people and it's changed each of them. Mia's boyfriend Adam is in a band that might be about to make it big, Mia's been playing the Cello for years, her father used to be in a band and on and on.
The writing in this book is incredibly powerful. There is a genuine connection to each character and a realness that makes you believe in them. I would say that Forman is a genuinely gifted writer. I can't remember the last time I believed in people so much, felt so much like the people I was reading about were real. I had tears streaming down my face for the vast majority of the book, and I was unable to put it down. It's a short book, and I read it in one sitting, but that in no way takes away from its impact. This book is beyond a doubt powerful, emotional, and compelling. Never doubt that its important.