If I Stay - Review

If I Stay (If I Stay, # 1)

By: Gayle Forman

Published: January 1st 2009 by Dutton Juvenile

201 pages

Genre: YA, Contemporary

Source: Borrowed from my local library

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Goodreads description--In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck...

A sophisticated, layered, and heart-achingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make, and the ultimate choice Mia commands.

I've seen If I Stay on many people's top lists for various Top 10 Tuesday topics so I knew that I wanted to read it. However, I was browsing my local library's ebook catalog and came across book 2, Where She Went and decided to search to see if they had book 1. Well they did. But in audiobook version. I like audiobooks because I can listen when doing other things. Specifically while I work. However, I find that the story doesn't sink in as much as if I had read it myself. I also find that the narrator doesn't always add emphasis where I would read it--or sarcasm or any other emotion. But I didn't find the narrator of this book, Kirsten Potter, lacking at all. She does a great job infusing emotion into this narration. I almost felt like she might have enhanced the story for me.

I knew that this book was about a girl whose life changes due to a car accident from reading the description above, but I didn't realize what all that would involve. If I Stay is a story about a girl who's having an out of body experience trying to decide if she should stay and live or let go. She watches the events after the accident from the outside of her body. These events mixed with flashbacks from her past help her to make this ultimate of all decisions.

If I Stay is a different kind of book that brought out some deep emotions from within me. I didn't cry throughout the whole thing, but I definitely teared up, and I got chills a couple of times. If I Stay will make you stop to think about what's important in your own life and what you can no longer afford to take for granted. And I love books like that...books that make an impact on how I live my life. I don't want to go into more detail because this book needs to be experienced.

If I Stay lived up to the hype it's received. I highly recommend this book and I can't wait to start Where She Went--will be borrowing that from the library ASAP. If I Stay gets 4.5 Stars. Have you read If I Stay? What did you think? Let me know!