REVIEW FOR IF I STAY
By: Gayle Forman
Stars I'll Give:5+
Summary from the Bookflap

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

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

"Stay," he says.

Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones. Stay true to her first love-music-even i fit 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 only one that matters.


My Review:
it? I think that may in fact be true. I could This books summary on the book flap may sound depressing, but the book is really not. If I Stay is not sad until the very last 6 or so pages(my eyes teared up for the first time while reading this book). I love the ending of the book, it's amazing. If I Stay is so beautifully written that the words fly write off the page. Its like having a puppy or something else you want it to be that cute and small forever, but eventually you'll have to let it go. Same thing with this book, you want to read it forever, but it eventually ends. If I Stay is about choices and how we have them everywhere. Some choices are big and some are small. Mia has a big choice: if she should live or die. It was also nice of the author to do flashbacks of Mia's life and the choices she had and others around her too. The details in the book are very descriptive, though maybe the appearance of the characters could have been better, but maybe this book is to amazing that you need to criticizedefinitely see Gayle Forman's If I Stay a classic book.

By the way it was nice, for a change not to have vampires, fairies, and werewolves in this book.
Also this book is only 196 pages(really 208 counting the thanks at the end).

Gayle Forman's Interview with Amazon:
Q: You started your career as a journalist and your first book is a travelogue about going around the world. Is YA literature a departure for you?

Gayle Forman: Actually, it’s more of a homecoming. My first writing job was at Seventeen, where I spent five years on staff and as a contributor reporting the magazine’s social-issues stories. I loved writing for teens then because—contrary to popular opinion—they really care about serious issues (from child soldiers in Africa to kids embroiled in the drug war here) and the engage in their reading with such passion. So, now that I’m writing young-adult literature, it feels like I’ve come full circle.

Q: This book explores some serious themes. Why is this a book for kids and not adults?

GF: It’s a book for kids precisely because it explores serious themes. Teenagers are grappling with choices about life and love as much as adults, so why shouldn’t their reading reflect that? I don’t set out to write YA. It just seems like I’m drawn to stories about young people. That said, I think If I Stay is for adults, too. I love the idea of teens reading this book and then handing it off to their parents.

Q: Many key characters are serious musicians, and songs are referenced throughout the book. Are you a musician?

GF: No. Except for piano lessons when I was a kid and a brief spate of guitar playing in my teens, I’ve never played an instrument. I am, however, a huge music fan. And my husband is a musician; he was playing in a punk band when we met, so I’ve spent a lot of my life ensconced in that scene. I seem drawn to writing about musicians, though I’ve never been all that interested in the cello until Mia popped into my head.

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

GF: Music. Oregon. People I have loved. And unfortunately, the book is inspired by a real-life tragedy that happened several years ago.

Q: This is a book about death, but it’s not depressing. Why is that?

GF: Maybe because it’s really about the power of love—of family, friends, music—and therefore it ultimately affirms life.