If I Stay

Wow, what a poignant and moving story. I am so incredibily impressed with this book. Although it's dubbed YA fiction, the voice of Mia (17-year-old narrator) is far from young. Gayle Forman did a great job making this book relevant to all ages through the span of characters and mature yet relatable narration. Mia's story is so touching and heartbreaking yet so full of hope at the same time. Anyone can pick up this book and get something from it. I highly recommend it to anyone. I was blown away.Original review posted 5/17/12 on The Book Addict's Guide: Ho. Ly. Cow. This book was phenomenal. First I have to say bravo to Gayle Forman for such beautiful writing - I read a lot of cheesy books and yes, they're fun, but nothing is better than a flat out wonderfully written story. Although this is dubbed YA fiction, Mia's narration throughout the novel does not feel juvenile at all. I feel like any age can read this book and appreciate it in its entirety. Every character in this book has a story and I felt such connection, like this was the story of a real family, real friends, and not just characters on pages. I connected with everything Mia was feeling throughout her struggle to fight to stay alive or decide if it was her time to go. Wow, it just really moved me, as cheesy as that sounds. There's just no other way to put it. So mature, so emotional, so gripping. I laughed, I smiled, and most of all I cried. Just read the book. It's so worth it!Re-read completed 8/11/13: Well since it was a re-read I wasn't as totally knocked out by it (just since there were some surprises and whatnot I already knew) but it's still such a beautiful story and wonderfully written. My original thoughts stand.Re-read review posted 9/4/13 on The Book Addict's Guide: Gayle Forman is one of my all-time favorite authors and also a great writing inspiration. The beauty and emotion captured in her books are the reason I started the Gayle Forman Read Along... Well that and I needed a good excuse to re-read all of them because I've been meaning to do so ever since I finished JUST ONE DAY.Re-reading IF I STAY was an interesting experience. I was really glad I got to share it with the people on the read along because there were some people reading not only IF I STAY for the first time, but any of Gayle Forman's books for the first time! It was just really great to see them experience that. But also, one of my main fears of re-reading was that I wasn't going to like it as much as my first read. While that kind of ended up happening in a way, I also fell in love with the book all over again.It's true that I didn't enjoy IF I STAY as much as when I first read it. On my first read, I was simply blown away. It was the first Gayle Forman book I ever read and of course the beauty of her writing just swept me away, but I also think (and have discussed with other read along-ers!) that part of the reason I wasn't as amazed on the re-read is because I knew exactly what was coming in Mia's story. The initial read has a sort of suspense whether Mia will choose to stay or go, the surprise of the initial accident, and just little moments that a first-time reader isn't expecting. I think all of those elements on a first read really makes the book amazing. It's still gorgeous and heartbreaking and bittersweet the second time around, but those little surprises really make up a sizable chunk of a "wow factor" for this book.Some things that I was able to pick up on my re-read that I hadn't on my first read: a small little hint at SISTERS IN SANITY! Mia makes a mention of a Portland band called Clod which was Brit's band in SISTERS IN SANITY. I absolutely loved that because so much of SISTERS IN SANITY reminded me of IF I STAY. Obviously I had no idea on my first read since I only read SIS a couple months ago so I really, really enjoyed how those two books tied together! Very clever, Gayle!I also think that already knowing the ending of the book helped me slow down and really get into the characters and their relationships. Whenever I get excited about the end of a book, I have this really bad habit where I can't help but rush through what I'm reading to get to the end and see what the future holds in store for our characters. This being a re-read, the ending wasn't a surprise to me so I really got to take my time and cherish the relationships that were blossoming as others ended, revel in Mia's pain and sadness, observe things about characters and the setting that I hadn't noticed before... I just really got to take in a lot more detail!Um, HI -- this also helped me rekindle my love of ADAM WILDE. Gayle....... thank you for Adam. I've already started the re-read of WHERE SHE WENT and I am SO in love with Adam. Of course, that's a discussion for another day, but all of IF I STAY just really helped me remember how much I loved him and what a shame it was that I almost forgot!If you haven't read IF I STAY and WHERE SHE WENT yet, I highly recommend picking them up! They both instantly made me a Gayle Forman fan for life and will always hold a special place in my heart.

What is most impressive about If I Stay is how easily I grew to love the characters, even though the story is told mostly through several flashbacks. We follow Mia through an unexpected and horrible car accident – and not only do we have to see her deal with figuring out who she still has left in her immediate family but we also must watch her decide whether she deems living worthy or if she chooses to pass on. Mia is completely unresponsive and can see everything happening to her body, but she cannot interact with the world, except for one nurse who Mia believes might understand what is happening to her. Interwoven between each scene in the present, readers find themselves learning who Mia is through a series of memories, mostly catered to who is visiting her in the hospital at the time. Mia is completely unresponsive and can see everything happening to her body, but she cannot interact with the world.Forman does an excellent job creating Mia’s family and friends through memories. We barely interact with them in the present day, but thanks to the quality of Forman’s authoring, you know the very heart of the Hall family within a few chapters, as well as how important Mia’s boyfriend, Adam, and her best friend, Kim, are to her. Even the minor characters feel very tangible. Mia explains it well in the sentence where the book’s namesake lies: “What would it be like if I stay? What would it feel like to wake up an orphan? To never smell Dad smoke a pipe? To never stand next to Mom quietly talking as we do the dishes? To never read Teddy a chapter of Harry Potter? To stay without them? I’m not sure this is a world I belong in anymore. I’m not sure that I want to wake up” (Forman 136-7).If I Stay has some remarkable literary techniques in it as well. Near the end of the book, we get a beautifully sad, ironic parallel to the true fate of Mia’s parents. Her mother says, “In my ideal scenario, my bighearted pushover husband and I die quickly and simultaneously when we’re ninety-two years old. I’m not sure how. Maybe we’re on a safari in Africa – ‘cause in the future, we’re rich – and we come down with some exotic sickness and go to sleep one night feeling fine and then never wake up” (Forman 145). Not only is this scenario almost true – her parents do go together, quickly – but it also makes the reader ache for what the Hall family could have been.Additionally, Forman incorporates several allusions to music, bands, and songs. Music is an enormously large part of Mia’s life; Adam is in a band, Mia is a gifted cellist, and her parents were into music during their heyday, a trait that they have brought into their household through the years. Those allusions, to artists like Bob Marley and the like, help to add another layer of depth and grounding to the story. We know what the Hall family knows, and we can see how much it means to their way of life. Adult and young adult readers alike will find these aspects accessible.I strongly suggest reading If I Stay. I found it to be one of the quickest but deepest reads I’ve encountered in quite some time. Though the material is sad, Forman manages to sneak lighthearted moments in, too. It seems cliché, but I was smiling and crying at the same time at one point.In closing, I will leave you with my favorite quote from the novel; it is one of the many beautiful thoughts Forman includes. This one in particular struck me: “The doctors keep coming around and pulling up my eyelids and waving around a flashlight. They are rough and hurried, like the don’t consider eyelids worth of gentleness. It makes you realize how little in life we touch one another’s eyes. Maybe your parents will hold an eyelid up to get out a piece of dirt, or maybe your boyfriend will kiss your eyelids, light as a butterfly, just before you drift off to sleep. But eyelids are not like elbows or knees or shoulders, parts of the body accustomed to being jostled” (Forman 64).

Mia has a choice to make.She has just been in a car accident that has killed her mother and father. Her little brother, Teddy, is struggling in another hospital somewhere, while Mia has been air-lifted to ICU.Her friends and remaining family straggle through the hospital room. Her Gran and Gramps cry. Her best friend, Kim, is trying to stay positive. Her father's band mates and best friends are praying and Mia's first love, Adam, is begging her to stay.Mia knows all of this, because while her body is bruised and battered lying prone in a hospital bed, Mia looks on. She thinks back on her life up to this point, and she sits in the waiting room with the people who love her.But what is keeping her here? When she has nothing left to live for, what's the point in staying?Mia has a choice to make - a life or death decision.`If I Stay' is the smash-hit contemporary young adult novel from Gayle Forman, which recently had a sequel released this year called `Where She Went'.Yes, I have been `reading' under a rock. I knew that `If I Stay' was a best-selling, beloved YA novel released in 2009. I read the rave reviews and knew that there was a furore surrounding this incredible book's sequel . . . still, I didn't read it. I knew that this book packed a punch - that it was sadness through and through and to be honest, I just was never in the right head-space to get stuck into the novel. Until now. Don't ask me what did it - I just decided I was ready to brave the emotional terrain and whip out the Kleenex.Mia's story really does start out sad . . . and get worse from there. The car accident is the plot-trigger, and everything that comes after is Mia weighing up and pros and cons of staying, or letting go. It's a sad start, with plenty of emotional turmoil heaped throughout. But the novel is, surprisingly, not altogether depressing.While Mia's ravaged body repairs itself in a cold hospital room, ghost-like Mia remembers her life to this point. She recalls her punk-rock parents and their dismay when Mia took up the cello and fell for Mozart. She remembers the birth of her little brother, Teddy, and all her brother's funniest moments. She remembers how her best friend, Kim, saved her from herself by prodding her into music camp. But most of all, Mia remembers Adam. Adam, the beautiful and dishevelled older boy played in a rock band and inexplicably loved Mia - and how she loved him back.The novel cuts between present-time and back-tracking memories; as Mia's fetch-like form watches the nurses monitor her vital signs and doctors perform surgeries, she also recounts her memories in vivid detail.I did love the book, as I suspected I would. It's partly because the story is duelling heartbreak, and uplift - as we see Mia come to the slow realization that life is beautiful, regardless of the pain. But also because Forman could have dragged Mia and the story down in a flowery writing style . . . when you're discussing death and the meaning of life, it's very easy to wax poetic and get too caught up in the meaningful, so that life gets lost amidst the prose. But Forman has deliberately shied away from sweeping declarations of life-affirming meaning - the prose is simple and powerful for its subtlety, and the real meaning of life is between the lines, in the flashbacks of Mia's childhood. Perfection in simplicity.

If you’re on the brink of death, do you get to decide which way to go? Is it up to you? Which world pulls you harder? Your life on earth or what awaits beyond? Mia, seventeen, finds herself in this very situation in If I Stay. As the only survivor of a car accident in which her parents and younger brother are killed, Mia is clinging to life in the hospital. A nurse whispers that it’s up to her to decide.If I Stay is a Young Adult teen drama that takes a look at the possibility of making powerful decisions at a person’s weakest mortal moment. Something resembling the spirit of the gravely injured Mia watches over as her grandparents, friends, and boyfriend Adam wait and worry. Gayle Forman uses this spirit-like version of Mia to tell the backstory of Mia and her family and of her teen romance with Adam.I enjoyed reading If I Stay because of this interesting suggestion, of being able to control your destiny. It’s a fast read that focuses on family, friendship and love. Despite the semi-spiritual theme, this is not a deep-thinking book, but I think you have to make a conscious decision, early on, to go with the roll of the book and its plot. The whole story has an exaggerated looseness about it which may irritate some readers.Mia is a gifted cello player, a senior in high school, hoping to be accepted at Julliard. Dad’s an ex-punk rocker and Mom’s a former punk rock groupie. Adam is a modern punk rocker whose band Shooting Star is about to make it big. Teddy’s the little brother. Music holds this group together and there are many references to songs, bands and the punk rock era. This may seem a little unlikely, but you have to commit to all this if you want to finish the book.Certain parts of the book strike me as unrealistic, specifically the characterization of Mia’s parents, who are extremely liberal and loose with rules and don’t act at all like parents. They immediately embrace Mia’s romance with Adam, with no reservations and enthusiastically encourage their daughter to jump right in, giving her all kinds of freedom. I wonder how many parents would allow their teen daughter to have sleepovers with her boyfriend or to stay out all night. In addition, the hospital scene is a little wild, with attempts to sneak into the ICU, including using a singer from the fictitious band Bikini as a decoy. Also unlikely is a family friend who happens to be a nurse at a different hospital and is somehow able to take charge of the entire ICU, allowing unauthorized visits, in the name of love.Smaller details that don’t fit take away from the story. The author makes references to several classic reads, including To Kill a Mockingbird, one of my favorites. This is a book I never would have read or understood as an eleven-year-old, but in this story it marks the beginning of Mia’s friendship with Kim in sixth grade. The two girls argue about whether to focus on racism or people's goodness for their school project on the book. Mia admits in her narration that she was not a particularly good student so it surprises me that this is the book Forman chooses to use. It seems a little contrived. A later reference to Lord of the Flies also seems forced and unnecessary.Although it’s not exactly clear when the story takes place, references to cell phones and the internet make it a modern read. So it doesn’t make sense when one of the cousins sits in the waiting area playing on a Gameboy. It’s a good example of how risky it is to use technology references. That handheld game system was popular in the 80s and 90s and is a dinosaur compared to the game apps kids play now!I did enjoy the book, however, and I think the author raises an interesting question and ties this central theme together with a nice story about teen love. I think the strongest part of the story is near the end, when Mia’s grandparents visit her bedside. With her grandparents and later with Adam, Forman does a nice job imagining how someone who is unconscious may still be able to hear and understand.So if you’re in the mood for a bit of a tear-jerker, and some good emotional bonding scenes, pick this up before you see the movie. The movie looks pretty good to me!

Read this and other reviews at [...].Even though this book came out years ago, I am just now reading it - after reading and falling so DEEPLY IN LOVE with Gayle's Just One Day. I knew after I finished that book, I had to read her others. She has such a gift for words that her ability to pull you into a story and make you inexplicably feel is unreal. This was one-hundred percent the case with If I Stay. Told between the past and present, in a series of back stories, seventeen year old Mia watches as her loved ones come and and go to her bedside in the ICU - her body unconscious, but her mind very present...from the sidelines. And now she apparently has a choice to make. Does she stay? Or go?{{Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.}}I don't want to give away too much about the story, because that's just not fair. What I can say, though, is that the way this story is told is so different from what I've read before and it's just now that I've finished it, that I realize just how different it was. We start in the present, but then there's the accident. And while there's still plenty in the present, it's all told from Mia's POV, and she's currently in a coma in the ICU (in grave condition, the doctors say). We see family, friends and her boyfriend, Adam, all shuffle in and out. We learn about her relationships with them through the stories she tells from her past.Every supporting character that we came across was beautifully crafted. I loved Mia's parents, and her little brother Teddy, but also her best friend, Kim, her boyfriend, Adam, and her parents' friends, Willow and Henry. It was great to get the backstories on these characters and actually experience learning about them, rather than just being told. Life's all about choices, and I so appreciated the way that Gayle connected this to the actual world, as well as this world Mia is currently living in. Before the accident, she had a choice to make - stay in Oregon, or head for NY (to Juilliard); stay with her boyfriend, or risk the breakup to focus on music.There's always a choice. In everything we do. Some are just bigger than others.{{"Life might take you down different roads. But each of you gets to decide which one to take."}}There were many instances where we'd see some one-on-one interaction with a particular supporting character and the hospitalized Mia. Being able to see that through her "in-between" self put such a different spin on the story, but was also so amazing to read. It's something I can't help but wonder about - when you die, or when you might die, for instance, do you have a choice? Do you know what's going on? It's crazy that you can't know for sure, until you're in that place - and at that point, you can't yell back, "hey, yes, I do know what's going on!"{{All this business about medically induced comas is just doctor talk. It's not up to the doctors. It's not up to the absentee angels. It's not even up to God who, if He exists, is nowhere around right now. It's up to me.}}This book was definitely a tear jerker for me. Not necessarily because it was so gut-wrenchingly sad, although it certainly had those moments, but more than that, I cried because it was so powerful. The way that Gayle wrote this story made you feel so much and because of that, I often found myself wiping away tears.I LOVED Mia's boyfriend, Adam, so much, so when I went to pick up the second book, Where She Went, last night, I was super excited to see it told from his POV. I can't wait to get inside his head and see what he thinks of all that's happened...and how's he dealt with it, or as the case may be, how he's NOT dealt with it.This is certainly a 5 star story for me, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a quick, powerful story about love, loss and the choices we make in life. And death.

Note: Review may contain spoilersJust read 'If I Stay' in one sitting then bought and read the sequel 'Where She Went' the next day, reading that all in one go as well. That being the case I'm putting this same review on both.Of the two, I'd say 'If I Stay' is the better story and 'Where She Went' is the better written book. Don't get me wrong, they are both excellent, I think it just shows how the author grew her skills as a writer between creating each of them.Where I felt 'If I Stay' fell down a bit was in the early dialogue, I thought it sounded very unnatural and brought me out of the story a bit. Thankfully that improved markedly as the story progressed and I was left with only my own personal preferences getting in the way. It is rare that I read a piece of fiction written in present tense. I'm not sure why that is but, since much of this book is in present tense, it threw me a bit and I also felt like the constant back and forth with flashbacks was a bit jarring. These were both issues that I got used to and barely noticed by the end of the book, the story was good enough to carry me through.'If I Stay' tells the story of Mia, a seventeen year old girl and a gifted classical musician, with her whole life ahead of her. A life full of choices. That is until a ride in the car with her family ends with a horrific wreck and Mia has an out of body experience. Mia comes to realise that she only has one choice left, live or die, and she has to make it all by herself.Through the use of Mia's (while having her out of body experience) observations of her friends and family around her and the previously mentioned flashbacks we are shown or given hints at all the things Mia has lost, some of the things that Mia has left, and reminded of how life can turn on a dime.The story shows us sweet first love, teenage confusion and heartbreaking choices.'Where She Went' is written in the same style as 'If I Stay', that is to say mostly first person and with a whole lot of flashbacks but the author does it much more smoothly this time (or maybe I was just used to it by this point). Also, just like the first story, the "present day" events all happen in just a little over a single day. This author can pack a lot of emotion into a single day. This story picks up three years after the events of 'If I Stay' and is told from the perspective of Adam, Mia's boyfriend at the time of her accident.Adam was crushed when Mia cut off contact with him and 'Where She Went' tells the story of how he channelled all that pain into his music and his rise into a bonafide rock star. Through present-day events and flashbacks, we see the way Adam remembers the special relationship they had, the simple pure love and his confusion about how it ended. Wandering the streets of New York randomly, he happens across a venue where Mia, now a rising star in classical music, is playing. Telling himself he'll just slip in and listen to her, then leave, he buys a ticket that leads to an awkward reunion between himself and the love of his life. But has life moved on? Have they wandered too far to get home?They wander New York together as the night wears on and old emotions, sweet and bitter, are both stirred in equal measure. The author did a superb job keeping me guessing until so near the very last page. I was up out of my seat, walking away from the screen so I could pace the room, I was laughing, I was crying.I was a bit disgruntled with the price of the kindle editions, but hey, I bought the first one, read it, and then bought the second one, so you won't see me complaining now. I would recommend both of these books if you like romance stories that aren't all sunshine and lollipops, stories with real grit, real heart and love that is hard-earned and well-deserved.

Mia is an accomplished cellist and part of a loving, supportive family. On a normal family car ride, tragedy struck and a large truck hit their car. Now, she is inexplicably standing outside of her body, among the corpses of her parents, watching paramedics tend to her brother and herself. Not knowing if she's alive or dead, she follows her body to the hospital, where it lies comatose. As her friends and family come to visit her and talk to her, she thinks on the past and ponders an important question: should she fight to live or simply die?I love If I Stay. I read it for a read-a-thon and just devoured it in a couple of hours. I didn't expect to like it so much. I heard a lot of rave reviews before I read it, but it didn't seem like something I would like. It seemed like a lame Nicholas Sparks novel whose only purpose is to make me cry. I was totally wrong. I love pretty much everything about this book. The book is told through Mia's eyes. It starts with the day of the accident and then the present interweaves with the past. While she sees her friends and family talk to her and watch them deal with her parents' deaths and her coma, Mia has flashbacks to important events with all her loved ones. The events show a realistic life that's not perfect, but filled with well meaning, loving people. They aren't in any particular order and each one lets the read get to know her and her circle of loved ones better. I think it gives the novel a more natural stream of consciousness feel as opposed to putting them in chronological order.The prose is really beautiful. It's simple and straight forward, but descriptive as well. The story is emotionally driven without being manipulative. I think the writing makes it accessible to readers beyond young adults, younger and older. I was sucked into the story quickly mostly because of the vivid characters. The characters are detailed, realistic, and flawed. Getting to know the characters is heartbreaking because some of them died in the first few pages and you feel more of the pain they are feeling in the present. Mia is someone I would be friends with in real life because her character is so richly imagined and we have a lot in common. Unlike a lot of YA novels, I thought the romance between Mia and Adam is realistic. They aren't fully consumed by their love or super overdramatic or creepily codependent, like so many relationships are in YA. They love each other, but argue, disagree, and fight like real couples do.My absolute favorite part of the novel is the music. Music is what really ties the story and all the characters together. Mia is a classical musician born to a family of rockers and her boyfriend is in an emo rock band. Even though they all enjoy and play different genres, they all share a love and passion for music. The juxtaposition of different opinions and genres allows them to learn to break through their preconception and respect each other. The descriptions of music and the experience playing music is wonderful and really what makes me love this book. I like that Gayle Forman names specific pieces and songs so I can go and listen to them while I read the book.I enjoyed If I Stay because it's not just a depressing story. It's really about life and its complexities. The ending was perfect and beautiful. I cried many times throughout the book, but I also laughed and got frustrated with the characters. I would recommend this to those looking for a complex, emotional book.

"If I Stay" by Gayle FormanI own this book and this review is solely my honest opinion.What an emotional ride! This Young Adult novel was intense on many levels. There was an unlikely teenage romance between a rocker and a cellist, amazingly loyal friends, and an unspeakable tragedy. "If I Stay" had so much going on, and Gayle Forman handled it wonderfully. The writing was so beautiful and strong. The author artfully packed each word with such emotion, and the end result was beyond fabulous. This was one YA novel that is great for both teens and adults. Although the reading age begins at YA, the subjects were real and intense for any age.Due to a dusting of snow, school is cancelled and Mia and her family decide to go for a drive and meet some family friends. Unfortunately, what started as a good natured and innocently fun-filled day, turned into the stuff of nightmares. An intense car accident tore Mia's family apart. Throughout the events unfolding after the accident, Mia was witnessing everything - and not because she was okay and there. Mia suffered tremendous injuries, including a coma...however, she was seeing and hearing everything going on around her, just as if she were standing in the same room as everyone. Mia's real body lay near lifeless in the hospital, while the "other Mia" was able to check on her family and friends and experience their grief. She learned these people really loved her, except the people she really loved the most were gone. How is she going to get through life without her family? She learns it may be her choice whether she lives or dies, and in the moment of Mia's grief she doesn't know what she wants - though she knows what will be easiest. Find out Mia's life or death decision in Gayle Forman's "If I Stay."I could barely fathom the grief in this novel. The very idea of losing my family, especially in such a sudden and horrible way, gives me chills. I cannot imagine what my life would be like, and I don't even want to think about it. Even though "If I Stay" is a work of fiction, situations like this unfortunately happen in real life. I'm not sure if the outer-body experience is real - though I personally believe in it - but what if it was real? Can you imagine how incredibly hard it must have been for Mia knowing she lost her family? Needing to decide whether she should be strong and live, or hope that she reunites with her family if she dies...I don't think I'd have the strength to make such a heavy decision.This is a story that will tug at your heartstrings and remind you to appreciate what you have in life. It makes you want to never take anyone or anything for granted anymore because in a blink of an eye on an ordinary day - it could all be gone. I really try to live by that anyways from my own experiences in my life; I have been without things and people that on an average day I may take advantage of and forget the value in. Sometimes you never know what you have until it is gone...I was fortunate enough to get things back and I don't want to ever let go again.Your emotions will go for a ride during "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman. You'll be smiling and laughing one moment at a memory of Mia's, and crying in the next second. Gayle Forman is a genius and created a novel that will thaw even the coldest of hearts. I definitely recommend buying and reading this 5 STAR tale of love, grief, tragedy, and strength. I will be reading more of Gayle Forman's work, including "Where She Went," the sequel to this book.Brianna Lee Book Reviews[...]

I gave 5/5, It's an amazing book that shows what love really means.The plot is amazing, when I saw it on Amazon, I freaked out, I absolutely bought it.I loved every single chapter of the book, the fact that she knew what was happening even if she was in a coma , was amazing.And the most important thing i liked was the friendship. I saw her friends being preoccuped , hurted for her, but now they are her family, that's all that she has. Unfortunately the last book ruins this beautiful romance. But this book is amazing , BUY IT.

This is actually the second time i have read this book. And again I love it. Gayle Forman has such a great writing style in my opinion and does a great job with her writing subjects.

Ein Autounfall stellt Mia vor die wohl wichtigste Entscheidung ihrer Lebens. Soll sie sterben oder ohne ihre Eltern und ihren Bruder weiterleben?Das Cover dieses Ausgabe ist auch das Cover für den Film und gefällt mir sehr gut. Es zeigt Mia und wer sie ist, was ihr wichtig ist, was sie aussmacht. Ihre Familie, das Cello, ihre Liebe. Einfach nur schön.Die Story fand ich auch unglaublich toll. Sehr emotional und tief. Vor eine so unglaublich wichtige Frage gestellt zu werden, ob man nach so einem schlimmen Schicksalsschlag weiterleben möchte oder einfach das Leben loslassen soll, ist unbegreiflich schwer. Der Wechsel zwischen dem Jetzt und der Vergangenheit von Mia's Leben hat der Story so viel gegeben.Es wird offensichtlich wie wichtig und wie prägend die Personen in ihrem Leben sind und die Entscheidung umso schwerer macht.Ich konnte einfach nicht aufhören zu lesen, musste wissen wie es weitergeht und endet. Der Schreibstil war flüssig und die Sprache einfach und hat das Lesen dieses Buches für mich zu einem Vergnügen gemacht.Die Charaktere sind mir in den knapp über 200 Seiten wirklich ans Herz gewachsen. Jeder ist auf seine Weise besonders und unglaublich menschlich.Mia ist ein normales Mädchen mit einer Passion für ihr Cello und ihre Familie. Es gab Stellen in denen ich sie komplett verstehen konnte, aber auch Stellen an denen das Gegenteil der Fall war.Ihre Eltern und ihr Bruder sind wohl der Traum jedes Teenagers, genauso wie die Freunde der Familie und ihre Großeltern.Adam ist der perfekte Freund und Musiker ;) und Kim, einfach genial.

This book will have you in absolute tear. It is the most heartbreaking story ever. I read it years ago originally and it touched me deep down. Recently bought this copy for a friend.

Existem livros que te prendem, porque a escrita é singular. Outros porque o mantém intrigado durante toda a leitura. Alguns tem uma característica inominável que é simplesmente viciante. Já outros tem aquele caráter particular que o fazem inesquecível. Embora Se eu ficar englobe todos esses elementos, foi a forma como ele foi escrito que fez com que eu me apaixonar por essa estória. Ele é contado sobre o ponto de vista da protagonista e alterna entre o presente e as suas memórias do passado.Se eu ficar é o primeiro romance da série de dois livro. Ele narra a estória de Mia Hall, uma jovem adolescente que ama tocar violoncelo e é apaixonada por música clássica. Ela é extremamente talentosa e tem tudo para ter um futuro brilhante com a música. Ela tem uma melhor amiga adorável e é extremamente unida à sua família. Seus pais são descomplicados, descolados e de mente aberta. Os pais que toda garota quer ter. E o seu irmão, Teddy, é aquela raríssima criança encantadora.Mia namora Adam Wilde. Ele é vocalista e guitarrista de uma banda de rock chamada Shooting Star. Mia e Adam tem um relacionamento que faz pouco sentido para muita gente. Ele é punk-rock e ela é clássica, mas o mútuo amor pela música os tornam iguais.A vida de Mia parece ser perfeita. Ela tem talento musical, um futuro brilhante, uma melhor amiga de verdade, uma família amorosa e um namorado maravilhosa. Até que um acidente muda tudo...Mia está em coma num hospital e percebe que está vendo os visitantes de forma bizarra. Desde que ela acordou, no local do acidente, que ela vem tendo um tipo de experiência fora-do-corpo. Enquanto ela testemunha como seus amigos e familiares lidam com o acidente que efetou a sua família, a mente de Mia começa a recapitular, por meio de memórias, a sua vida. E ela terá que fazer uma escolha: se ela realmente quer ficar...Se eu ficar é uma estória sobre segunda chance que te levará por uma jornal emocional. Ela é lida em uma dicotomia de sentimentos. Os momentos felizes são cercados por uma dor palpável; você irá rir por meio de lágrimas e chorará com um sorriso no rosto. Ele é repleto de alegrias e tristezas, risos e lágrimas, nascimento e morte, amor e perda. Ao escrever um livro cheio de paralelos, Gayle prova que a vida é feita de paradoxos e nos deixa com um pungente sentimento de felicidade e esperança, apesar de todas as lágrimas e dor que somos obrigados a experimentar.Recomendadíssimo!