Module 7: If I Stay

Book Summary:  Mia's family is very close, lots of good memories.  At the beginning of the book the family is traveling to some family friends' house and there is an extremely tragic wreck killing the parents, the brother and leaving Mia in a coma.  Mia realizes she is in a coma and has to decide if she wants to continue to live or if her time is up and she should die.  The story is told through sequences of flashbacks to memories Mia has.  She is remembering her life, grieving over the loss of her family, questioning what life would be like with out them.  Friends and family members are visiting Mia in the hospital and she is aware of all of them- almost like an out of body experience.  With each new visitor comes a whole other set of memories.  In the end she decides that she does want to live life and chooses to come out of her coma.

APA Reference:  Forman, Gayle.  (2010).  If i stay.  New York: NY:  Speak.

Impressions:  I had seen a movie preview for this book and was excited to see it on our class book list.  I'm the kind of person who has to read the book before the movie and I was glad I did with this book.  I don't have any desire to see this movie now that I've read it.  That was fairly blunt but I was not impressed with this book at all.  I thought that the writing was great, the structure with the flashbacks and the memories were a unique concept but I never felt like the plot reached it's full potential.  When the story ended I felt cheated, and then Amazon of course was more than willing to try to get me to read the rest of the series on my Kindle, which I happily declined.

Professional Review:  The last normal moment that Mia, a talented cellist, can remember is being in the car with her family. Then she is standing outside her body beside their mangled Buick and her parents' corpses, watching herself and her little brother being tended by paramedics. As she ponders her state (Am I dead? I actually have to ask myself this), Mia is whisked away to a hospital, where, her body in a coma, she reflects on the past and tries to decide whether to fight to live. Via Mia's thoughts and flashbacks, Forman (Sisters in Sanity) expertly explores the teenager's life, her passion for classical music and her strong relationships with her family, friends and boyfriend, Adam. Mia's singular perspective (which will recall Alice Sebold's adult novel, The Lovely Bones) also allows for powerful portraits of her friends and family as they cope: Please don't die. If you die, there's going to be one of those cheesy Princess Diana memorials at school, prays Mia's friend Kim. I know you'd hate that kind of thing. Intensely moving, the novel will force readers to take stock of their lives and the people and things that make them worth living. Ages 14–up.

[Review of If i stay].  Publisher's Weekly.  Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/If-I-Stay-Gayle-Forman/dp/014241543X

Library Uses:  Well, this book does make you take note of the important memories you have and the loved ones that are in your life.  This could be used with a book club to discuss the importance of life.