If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Seventeen year old Mia is a cello virtuoso whose biggest problem, until this morning, was deciding whether to stay home with her family and boyfriend in Oregon or move to New York to attend Juilliard. Her life is changed in an instant when her family is killed in a car crash that leaves Mia both orphaned and in a coma. Now she is faced with a decision bigger than any she has faced before, one more important than any she will ever have to make: does she will herself to live or face death?

Okay, Thirteen Reasons Why, this is how you do melodrama.

Actually, for a book whose premise is so dark and depressing, If I Stay was actually surprisingly light on the melodrama -at least until the second half. Thanks to flashbacks, as Mia is remembering her life, it contains a great deal of humor. I was actually all set to complain about the relative lack of sadness until I finished it and automatically appreciated the subtlety in Forman's writing and the fact that her book tells an actual story and isn't just some overwrought Lurlene McDaniel book whose sole purpose is to make you weep and then become an organ donor. Not once did I feel manipulated, which is something I feel that too many genres are too apt to do these days.

Getting to know Mia's family through her flashbacks is both a blessing and a curse, knowing what happens to them. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed her parents, ex-punk rockers who are much cooler than you or I will ever be. It is from them that Mia has inherited her love of music, even though the dark haired cellist feels out of place amongst her fair haired family. In YA I've noticed that there are typically two kinds of parents: those who are present and those who are not. Of those who are an actual presence in the book, most tend to be window dressing -bland authoritarian figures whose only purpose is to have temporary clashes with their children in order to drive the story along. Too few are actually integral to the story. As you know, I love when characters or stories are different and in with book (I could go on for thousands of words about Mia's best friend, boyfriend, and grandparents, all of whom are absolute gems) I could not be happier in that regard.

Bottom line: If I Stay is just sad enough if you're looking for a good cry, just funny and interesting enough if you've cried enough, short enough to where it's not a huge obligation, yet still just the right length, and different enough to where you won't feel as though you've already read it a dozen times before. Meaningful, but not manipulative; sentimental, but not overly so. It's a must-read.

http://thechickmanifesto.blogspot.com/2009/07/if-i-stay-by-gayle-forman.html