Author: Gayle Forman
Pages: 210
Genre: Young Adult
Book Description:
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.
My Opinion:
I prefer to read the books before I watch the films and I have been wanting to watch the movie adaption of this novel for so long now that I finally decided to just pick up the book and read it. I can happily say I enjoyed it!
I think the beginning was really well written and I was hooked straight away. I always find books where the protagonist is in between worlds really fascinating because it gives us a sense of what it's like beyond death and during unconsciousness. (The Lovely Bones is a similar book like this, also very good, I must add!)
I also liked the flashbacks as Mia began thinking about previous moments in her life and how certain things triggered certain memories.
Another interesting factor of the book was that there weren't any set chapters. The author used times to separate scenes and I think this was a nice touch as it added to the realness of the situation. These were also quite short which meant I could read short sections when I had little time to kill.
I thought the ending was very creative. I don't want to spoil it for anyone but I really enjoyed Gayle's take on switching bodies and resurrection. All authors have a different perspective on this and it was interesting to see how Gayle would portray this in his writing.
The only thing I disliked was the pace. I thought this book was quite slow since not much happened but there were a lot of descriptions which added to the length. I understand it was mainly about Mia's internal monologue and her flashbacks but I felt like the book could have ended sooner...
Altogether this was a lovely and easy YA novel which is perfect for all young adult fans and reader. I look forward to watching the film and I'll certainly be picking up the sequel, Where She Went!
Favourite Quotes:
I'm not sure this is a world I belong in anymore. I'm not sure that I want to wake up
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Is that what death would feel like? The nicest, warmest, heaviest never-ending nap? If that's what it's like, I wouldn't mind
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It's quiet now. So quiet you can almost hear other people's dreams.
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When you feel sad, you look sad
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We are like Humpty Dumpty and all these king's horses and all these king's men cannot put us back together again
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Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you
Rating
★★★★
4 out of 5 stars
Next book I'm going to review:
Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
I've had this book on my shelf since August and I haven't picked it up yet lol. I really want to watch the movie soon, so I'll probably read the book now since I'm pretty much free. Have you started your christmas break yet? Me, Mal and Blessie are thinking about having a read-along for another book!
ReplyDeleteI only read the book because I wanted to see the film and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I was going to :)
DeleteI'm on Christmas break for 2 weeks so I'd love to do a read-a-long with you guys now that I have some free time!
I am also more a fan of reading the book before I watch the movie! I really want to see this because they main character is also played by one of my favourite actresses. I need to get reading this ;)
ReplyDeleteI saw the film the other week and it was really good! They did their casting really well because Chloe portrayed Mia perfectly :) I still preferred the book!
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