If I Stay

If I Stay came to my attention through a trailer for the current film adaptation of this young adult novel, around the time that John Green ‘ s The Fault In My Stars was receiving great interest. As regular readers of my reviews will know I hate watching films adapted from books without reading their original book forms first. With this in mind I decided to break away from my recent Outlander obsession and try a little young adult fiction with Gayle Forman's novel.

I was very surprised to find how short this book was, it seemed to be a little way between a short story and a novel. So surprised was I that I actually was checking to see my entire download had transferred to my ereader correctly. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations of a young adults book but I was worried that there was enough content for a book that had been adapted to a movie.

This was the story of Mia, who setting out one unexpectedly snowy day with her family on a car journey finds herself the victim of a serious car crash which leaves her an orphan and fighting for her life in a coma. Through Mia ‘ s out of body experiences we view her thoughts after the accident and her observations of what it's like to have to choose whether to fight for her life or pass over into death. This was beautifully interspersed with flashbacks to her life before the accident and her close knit family life and bright future as a talented cellist.

It was a very touching book exploring the themes not only of choosing whether to stay in life but also whether prior to the accident Mia should stay with her boyfriend Adam and go to college near home or whether she should go to New York and study at Julliard.

The book zipped past, it had only started and it was done but for all that it was thoroughly engaging and beautifully written. Forman has pitched the balance between the emotion of the situation and the pricking of our own sense of how grave Mia ‘ s decisions are perfectly. For young adults I can understand why it achieved such high regard and it would be an ideal text to study with young teens. As an adult I found the characters engaging and the writing excellent. I am certainly looking forward to reading the sequel to this book, entitled ‘Where She Went'.

I love reading young adult fiction on occasion because it allows us to remain aware of where our reading started, the stages we've gone through in life and where our own children will explore as they grow. It also allows me to have books I can recommend to my children as they grow and share because I've read them too but that aren't too dated or out of touch. I'm looking forward to the film adaptation and think it's one I'd share with my daughter as she grows. an excellent book, perhaps worthy of another 100 pages but not detrimentally affected by its length.