Review #5 If I Stay - Gayle Forman

Imagine you are about to lose everything. Imagine your whole life was about to change forever. Would you go on anyway?




Goodreads summary:

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 heartachingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make -and the ultimate choice Mia commands


I have a feeling I'm going to remember this novel for a very long time. Or more precisely I'm not going to forget it for the rest of my life. Really, it's amazing. I can't even put it into words. But of course I'm going to try anyway.

What amazed me most,I believe was the overall feeling you get while reading the novel. Once you start reading it you just can't put it down. "If I Stay" is one of those books that makes you feel like you have lived in its world all your life, like you were a part of it.

The characters are absolutely relatable. I fell in love with all of them at the very beginning. Mia was a great narrator and protagonist. She had a way of telling her story without exaggerating, she didn't need to use an enumeration of big adjectives to explain her point, everything she said was expressed in simple words which took away every chance for the novel to get boring or dreading.
None of the other characters seemed flat to me, they all had their very own edges and passions and none of them were those stereotypes you often see in novels. None of them were "typical geeks" or "typical mean girls" or something. They were just normal but very individual.

The action started fast in this book but the author,Gayle Forman, took her time describing the different situations and emotions. She never used too many or not enough words. Also, everything just felt so real as if it could happen to anyone anytime. The fact that you don't get any hints on how the story is going to turn out was keeping me on edge and made it almost impossible to put this book down.

I am not a musical person. Not at all. But the musical theme in this book just fit so well and is a huge part of the novel and I loved it. It really inspired me to expand my knowledge of music and it points out how many different kinds of music there are and how important music is in pretty much everyone's life.
Lastly, I would like to mention how this novel also brought me thinking about my life and what's really important in life and how much we should all appreciate the people who we are close with.
All in all this novel really touched my heart and it is just so special that I would tell anyone who hasn't read it yet to do so now. Come on. Go. Get it. Now.

Greetings, the Booksmartie

RATING: 3 out of 3 Smarties