If I Stay, by Gayle Forman Review

For Mia, a seventeen-year-old cellist with Julliard in sight, life is changing. She anxiously awaits her college acceptance letters, holding tight to both her home and her dreams. She knows what she has to lose and to gain by leaving home, and knows that important decisions need to be made soon.

All too soon. A truck, going sixty miles an hour, hits Mia and her family's car while on a winter drive. Found in a state somewhere between life and death, Mia has to make the greatest and most important decision of her life: does she stay?

I was very interested in reading If I Stay, and rapidly finished my last book in order to pick this one up. It was even more emotionally wrenching than I expected, in a good way. Mia's back-and-forth was heartbreaking for me to read, and heart-healing for me to begin to understand. This was an overwhelmingly sorrowful story, but without a doubt memorable.

There was only one aspect of this read that made me twinge, and that was the grieving process. Although it was plain that Mia's family and friends were very sad, only one person broke down and began to cry. Even her grandparents, who lost so much, were not seen crying. Perhaps that says something of their strength, or that they were in shock, but if I were in a similar situation, I would be bawling. Then again, grief is different for everyone.

Rating: 9/10