Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

The wonderful Lenore loved this book, and the cover and title are simply irresistible to me. In fact, this may be my favorite book cover in a long time.

Mia's life is going well and her future looks bright. She has a steady boyfriend she is crazy in love with, incredibly cool and supportive parents she actually likes to spend time with, and a very strong possibility of getting into Julliard. Then one day, her family takes a day trip to visit some friends, and in a second everything changes.

Now Mia is somewhere between life and death and she must decide...will she choose life?

If I Stay is the story of a girl's life. It's a story told in the strands of each significant relationship woven around her fight to survive. It's about life and love and it's tender fragile nature, about the beautiful moments that make us human, and the people that give our lives meaning.

There were lots of little reasons for me to like this book. I liked that Mia plays the cello since I also had a brief stint with the cello and still love the way it sounds. I loved the passion for music on every page and I liked the sometimes Brit speak.

And I cried. I started crying almost right away even though the book isn't necessarily about sorrow or sadness. Truly this book is a celebration of life. It's beautifully written, you want to turn the pages, because you want to know Mia and the people who filled her life. You want to know if this serious gifted girl will choose to fight for what she has left, if she'll choose to stay.

I think there was recently an article in some big newspaper or online news source that lumped this book together with some other YA books as being dark, but this book isn't dark it's a ray of hope and light in the darkness.

Rating: 4.75/5
Things You Might Want to Know: um some teen sex though tastefully done and a bit of strong language.

If I Stay is published by Dutton Children's and available everywhere now.