The book If I Stay written by Gayle Forman takes place in a small town just outside of Portland, Oregon. The main character, Mia Hall, is in a tragic car accident with the rest of her family. Her mother and father died on impact, and her brother died due to complications. She is the only one left. About a quarter of the way through the book she realizes that she is the one controlling the stability of her condition, so if she becomes flustered or overwhelmed her machines start making loud sounds. Every chapter is marked by time stamps, but every chapter flips between her memories and her reality. The entire book is her internal conflict of whether she is going to die or stay and live.
In my opinion, for the time that it was written, it was different from anything else I had read in a long time. Every other love story was of forbidden love, but this one wasn't. Mia becomes so conflicted with herself whether she should stay or not. As she filters through her choices and the pros and cons, her grandparents are talking to her. The words that hit me the most were from her grandpa. He said "It's okay if you want to go. I understand." That gave me a sense of relief. The way this book was written made me feel like I was connected with her. There were parts where I was worried for her, or when she described the hospital room I could picture it. What I love about the structure of it all was that it was like she was talking to me. It felt very familiar, almost comforting. The best part about this book was that is wasn't centered around the love story, it was focused around her and her life experiences.(or lack there of)
There were many parts where I knew what was happening because I had already seen the movie. However, a few scenes played out differently, but it was good. I liked the book a lot better than the movie because I feel there was so much more depth and development in each character than there was in the movie. Overall, I would read this book again and definitely recommend it to people wo want to read a different type of romance story.
I love the book "If I stay" it has a lot of emotions throughout the book. All the times in the hospitals is so upsetting because so many bad things happen to her. I love hoe she has some people to be with when it is all over.
ReplyDeleteI sadly have just seen the movie which I still really enjoyed. I enjoy how it jumps from her memories to reality. Also, the love story is different which I like.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading "If I Stay" before it became popularized. I cried throughout the book and loved the development of Mia as the story continues on. With each chapter the suspense and tension would continuously build up, until the very end of the novel where everything finally reached a closure. The The book is overall written very well and it's definitely better than the movie by far.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading "If I Stay" and it was a really good book. When reading the book I was always interested and never got bored. The book also had emotion which really made the book as a whole even better.
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