Book Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Yep, Another Teen Fiction Lured Me In. . .

. . . and I'm glad it did

So maybe I'm a little skeptical now when I start reading a book but I was actually reading Where She Went by this author when I had an inkling that maybe this was not the first in a series? I consulted Amazon and figured out that Where She Went was indeed the second companion book to this one, and I stopped reading and began this instead. While you can read Book 2, without one, you do miss some of the background so I have to recommend reading this first (although I liked the second one even better).

I read this in one evening. I think part of it was my desire to get to Book 2 and finish it, since I was about halfway done. As soon as I began this one I realized that I had seen previews for this a one of those teen movies but I soldiered on.

The story is told through the eyes of Mia, a seventeen year old cellist with a bright future, who lays in the balance between life and death after a horrible car accidents takes away the rest of her immediate family. As she watches the struggle to keep her alive in an out of body experience, she must decide if she will return to her life, despite the losses she faces.

While I really enjoy Book 2, which takes place three years after this one, I think it's imperative to read this one first so you have the background. This is told in Mia's voice while the next book focuses on Adam's story.