BOOK REVIEW / RECOMMENDATION: IF I STAY

IF I STAY

AUTHOR:  GAYLE FORMAN

PUBLISHER:   DUTTON PENGUIN

PUBLICATION DATE: 2009

GENRE:   YOUNG ADULT FICTION

PAGES COUNT:  210

FORMAT:  PAPERBACK

FOLLOWED BY:  WHERE SHE WENT

  

GOODREADS RATING:  4/5

MY RATING:  3.5/5

OVERVIEW:

                                              A COLD FEBRUARY MORNING. . .

                                       A SNOWY ROAD. . . 

         AND SUDDENLY ALL OF MIA'S CHOICES ARE GONE.

                                  EXCEPT ONE.

         AS ALONE AS SHE'LL EVER BE, MIA MUST

         MAKE THE DIFFICULT CHOICE OF ALL.

PLOT:

                                After my 2nd year exams got over, I was in a dilemma which book should I start next as because, before my exams i was reading all the fantasy fiction books such as "The Hunger Games", "Trylle Trilogy", "Harry Potter" and etc. So one of my friend suggested me that I should read this book and so I read it and now I am here to share it's review.

When I Started Reading!😊

           

                                         The story is about a 17-year-old girl Mia Hall, who is passionate about classical music, a very talented cello player and loves her family a lot. One morning while she and her family was going for a drive to meet her parent's old friends, they met with an accident. Mia's parents died on the spot, while she and her younger brother, critically injured were admitted to a hospital. Mia went into a state of coma, but, however, through this state, she had an out-of-body experience, where she could see all that was happening from the spot of the accident to around the hospital, where she was being treated.

                                    The story is told from Mia's point of view about her past life in a series of flashbacks. In this flashbacks, Mia talks about her best friend Kim, her boyfriend Adam, who lives a very different sort of life from her and plays guitar for a local band 'Shooting Star', about the complications in their relationship, yet how much they love each other and how much she wants to go in the 'Julliard school of music' to fulfill her dreams of becoming a cellist. She was going back and forth thinking about all the happy memories that she had spend with her family and how difficult it would be for her to live without them. Later when, she got to know that her brother Teddy was also no more, she went into a state of dilemma, unable to decide, if she should not live without her family, or if she should live for the love of her grandparents and Adam, because to stay or not to stay would be only her choice.
 

                                                      

MY REVIEW:
                                  If I Stay is a very beautiful story written in a very quirky and cunning way by the author Gayle Forman. The book is like a roller coaster ride comprising of emotions, love, happiness and joy along with sorrow, loss and tears. But I would say i didn't find anything extraordinary and the story was certainly not that overwhelming. I felt it was very slow-paced and cheesy, (for example, a line like this-'He's such a cool guy with his pegged jeans and black low-tops, his effortlessly beat-up punk-rock tees and his subtle tattoos.'). Sometimes I found it little difficult to understand what the author was trying to say and had to re-read the whole line/paragraph  just to understand it better. At times I find it really boring. The climax could have been better. Overall i would say it was just an okay read.
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MY FAVORITE QUOTES FROM THE BOOK:
  1. "I don't care," Adam responds. "I only need a second."
      "Why? I mean what can you do in a second?"
Adam pauses for a second. His eyes, which are normally a kind of mutt's mixture of  gray and brown and green, have gone dark. "So I can show her that I'm here. That someone's still here."
2. "Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you."
3. "Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal."                                                               
                         
                    HOPE YOU ALL LIKE IT!😊