Review of If I Stay by Gayle Forman

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Rating: 4.5 stars
Genres & themes: YA, contemporary, love, death, family.
Received: bought

Blurb:

Just listen, Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.

I open my eyes wide now.
I sit up as much as I can.
And I listen.

Stay, he says.
Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make.

Review:

There is something comforting in that. To go down as a family. No one left behind.

I'm not.

I'm not crying.

Why would I? If I stay is only one of the most endearing stories I've ever read...

No reason to sob quitely while writing a review...
 
                                                ❤                        ❤                      ❤

You probably all know what happens. A car accident. A car accident that took Mia, her brother and her parents' lives away. Only... Mia stayed as a ghost, a lifeless body. She's hurt. She's weak. She doesn't want to leave everyone she cares about, but how much easier it'd be for her to just... let go.

I edge closer and now I know that it's not Teddy lying there. It's me. The blood from my chest has seeped through my shirt, skirt, and sweater, and is now pooling like paint drops on the virgin snow.

This book is beyond beautiful. It's heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. You'll laugh, you'll smile but you will cry or drop a tear now and then. Tears because you won't be able to believe your eyes at how poignant this is. And how it is a story you'll cherish forever. In my heart, If I Stay will always have a special place.

It makes you wish you'd played the cello as our Mia exquisitely does. That's at least true for me, and that is how much these characters and story had an influence on me. What I know for sure is that, after reading this book, you'll take a moment to think everything through. To think about your life and how it isn't easy but that, when you're surrounded by people you love, it's, somehow, easier to cross over all those obstacles life puts you through.

Mia sure is constantly sharing wonderful memories with us, but what is so impressive is that the author subtly included a message in each of them. A message to think about. This is the kind of book I wished everyone with a soul would read and see its irrevocably originality and very pleasant and peaceful atmosphere.

I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard.

What I unfortunately didn't like as much as I hoped to is the author's writing style. I read raving reviews saying how amazing the writing is but, I didn't quite see its amazingness as most people have I guess. It is well-written, of course, with a perfect atmosphere fitting the story and all the emotions of the characters, but so are many many other books I've read. Nothing special on that part for me, sadly. That is the reason I couldn't give this book five stars, but it is the one and only. Everything else was perfect.