If I Stay by Gayle Forman - A Review!

Hello everyone!

So how many of you have tickets to go and see the Mortal Instruments today or this week? Are you as excited as I am, don't forget I did a nail art design based on the Shadow Hunter Runes that you can checkout by CLICKING HERE!

On to the topic for today's post.

You may recall me mentioning or rather recognising on Monday that I had't really done a positive review of a book in a long time, that is unless you count monthly favourites (which I don't) so today to mix things up just a little I will be doing a good review.

If I Stay 

by 

Gayle Forman

Tagline : Imagine if all your choices were gone. Except one. And it's the only one that truly matters.

If I Stay is a beautiful book, in both story and writing. Normally no one in my family will ever pick up any of the books I read, but they did with this one, both my mother and sister read it. And both had the same reaction that I did. 

It's about a girl, who on one snowy day in Oregon goes out for a drive with her family, she closes her eyes as she listens to music on the radio and the next thing she knows is seeing her own body being put in an ambulance after a car accident. Aside from the driver of the other vehicle, she is the only survivor, her parents died instantly, and her little brother dies shortly after arriving at hospital. 

Mia the protagonist of the story, is having an out of body experience she see's and hears everything that is happening, and tells the story in both present day and flash backs. She is a talented Cellist with high hopes of attending Julliard, she has a great family and a boyfriend that loves her, Adam. Whose band Shooting Star is on the fast track to stardom. What ensues, is a tale of love and self discovery, Mia must decide if she can face a world without her family, she has to decide if she she has enough left to live for. To decide, if she'll stay. 

You know how I'm always saying that something needs to happen to move the plot on in a book before 100 pages or I can't read it? Well in this book, you get that plot change on page 11. It steals the breath from your lungs, because it's such a normal happy family, and completely out of left field disaster strikes early in the book. 

I found I had to put the book down and take a few deep breaths after I was done reading the description of the accident. It was tough to read, how her parents died, and how she's see's the paramedics battling to keep her heart beating. 

This is most definitely one of those books that makes you think. What would you do in that situation, what would you decide, would you choose to live or die? 

We go through stories of her first Cello recital, getting her first Cello, falling in love with Adam, going to her Julliard interview, times spent with her family and friends. Her best friend Kim is the one who thinks to go and get Adam when Mia is in hospital. 

This is one of those books that you are advised not to read in public because you will most likely cry, but I ignored that advice and found myself as a blubbering wreck in public. I was most definitely not okay. The ending to this book is so fantastic, that it just broke me down into to fits of tears, when I put the book down I couldn't stop thinking about it. I've still to this day not been able to stop thinking about it. I waited a very long time for this book to be released and was so happy when it turned to out to be everything I'd hoped it would be. 

(SPOILER ALERT!! SCROLL DOWN TO THE NEXT CAPITALISED SENTENCE IF YOU WISH TO NOT FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS!!!)

Okay, I didn't need a sequel, I didn't want one but we got one anyway, and I read it. I enjoyed it, I just thought it was unnecessary, I always pictured Adam and Mia staying together in my head and to see how mad, sad and angry she became after she woke up hurt me a little, because Mia was nothing like that in If I Stay she chose to stay because of Adam, but then she just walked away from him, it didn't make any sense to me. 

Obviously they do find each other again years later and they still love each other but I just wish even though I loved seeing more of Adam and Mia together and happy, I just wish the sequel would have never happened. Because it wasn't necessary for there to be one. 

(IT IS NOW SAFE TO CONTINUE READING!!)

This is a fairly short read, and I'm glad the author didn't stretch the length of this book out any longer that it needed. It's a perfect book, it deals with real problems, you get a bit of humour relief from some of the flash backs, it's a truly engaging, uplifting and beautiful story, and I'm so happy that I read it. I would recommend this book the world over until I could no longer speak, because even if you don't cry it will make you feel something, it will make you think. It will trap you and won't let you go until long after your turned that final page. Or at least that's what it did to me. 

This book gets a very thoroughly deserved 5/5 from me. 

That's all for today I hope you enjoyed this post and I shall see you all on Friday!

Don't forget to comment below and tell me your opinion on this book, let me know what you think! I would love to hear from you!

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