If I stay
By Gayle Forman
Summary
17 year old Mia was a shy, inexperienced girl who spent all of her time practicing cello. One day she met Adam, a secretive boy who was part of a band. They fell madly in love. All Mia ever dreamed about was getting in to Julliard, but Adam taught her that their is more to life than that. One morning it was a snow day, so Mia and her family decided to make the most of it. They decide to take a trip to spend the day with their family friends. In the car, Mia, her little brother Teddy and their parents are fighting about what kind of music to put on the radio. Mia wants Beethoven, Teddy wants sponge bob, and their parents want old school music to fulfill their old school minds. Mia wins the radio station fight and they end up playing classic Beethoven.
Minutes go by of endless conversations, unstoppable laughter and stupid bickering of a normal family. Mia closes her eyes to take in just how perfect the day is and when she opens her eyes she sees bright headlights. She closes her eyes again and when she opens them again she is standing in the middle of the road. she glances around and sees her family's car decimated. She then sees her dead parents bodies and what she thinks is her brother. She goes to look to see if he is still alive but what she sees is her body.
Mia then deals with whether or not she wants to come back to life with Adam as an orphan or if she want to stay with her parents.
Minutes go by of endless conversations, unstoppable laughter and stupid bickering of a normal family. Mia closes her eyes to take in just how perfect the day is and when she opens her eyes she sees bright headlights. She closes her eyes again and when she opens them again she is standing in the middle of the road. she glances around and sees her family's car decimated. She then sees her dead parents bodies and what she thinks is her brother. She goes to look to see if he is still alive but what she sees is her body.
Mia then deals with whether or not she wants to come back to life with Adam as an orphan or if she want to stay with her parents.
Character Analysis
Mia only has to deal with the thought of whether or not she will get in to Julliard or her relationship with Adam, but when one short moment put her life in question, she doesn't even know what she wants anymore. She was once just a girl who practiced her Cello all the time and didn't even have to think about boys. Now she has to deal with the thought of losing her parents forever or losing the love of her life forever. If Adam wasn't in the picture or if they didn't get in the car that day to go spend the day together, or even if they didn't have a snow day Mia wouldn't have this heavy weight pushing down on her. As Mia lays in the ICU with doctor desperately trying to fix her shattered body she watches her loved ones cry outside hoping she will come back to life. She wonders if it is worth struggling to re-enter life to every person in her life but her parents. The mind boggling thought that keeps coming back to her that puts everything she stands for in question; should she stay or should she go?
Recommendation
I highly recommend you to read this book. This novel was beautifully written and it has an amazing plot with very well written characters. This book is very sad, it may make you cry but it was a great read with some funny parts. The realistic parts of this book are also great. For example, the relationship between Mia and Adam was an amazing part of the book. There is also a movie that just came out for this book, but I recommend you read the book first, because in my opinion the book was much better.