Book Review – If I Stay by Gayle Forman
YA Novel With Themes About Family, Belonging and Acceptance
Apr 18, 2009
Former journalist and youth fiction author Gayle Forman’s latest novel, If I Stay (Doubleday, 2009) is a compelling story exploring the speed with which everyday life can develop into tragedy. As Mia deals with her present trauma and reflects on her past, readers will reassess how they define family, belonging and acceptance.
If I Stay Plot Summary
17-year-old Mia has a wonderful family consisting of her quirky ex-punk rocker-now teacher dad, her feisty travel-agent mother and endearing younger brother Teddy. When school is cancelled due to snow, Mia’s mother takes the day off work and they decide to have a family outing.
On the way to visit Mia’s grandparents, their car skids on the road and crashes into another vehicle. Mia is stunned to discover that her parents have died on impact, changing her world forever. If I Stay is an account of the 24 hours from Mia’s breakfast with her family through to the aftermath of the accident.
Mia recounts the events at the scene of the accident and the hospital afterward. Her narrative flows from the present to her memories of significant moments in her life and in her relationship with her family, best friend Kim and boyfriend Adam. Intertwined with these is the story of her love of classical music and her ability as a gifted cellist.
Making Choices and Assessing the Past
Before the accident, Mia stood on the threshold of adulthood, facing decisions about her further education and the future of her relationship with Adam. Her reflections throughout the novel reveal the emotional conflict she had experienced facing these decisions.
Despite Mia’s strong relationship with her parents, she gradually reveals her struggles with feeling that she has always been a disappointment to her parents somehow, with her conservative approach to life and love for classical music compared to her parents’ rebellious punk-rock background.
Throughout If I Stay Mia develops a broader perspective on both her future and her past, reassessing her perceptions of her parents, Adam, Kim and other family and friends. As she assesses her own life and the lives of those she loves with the emotional detachment brought on by the accident, she discovers that she has underestimated both herself and those she loves.
Gayle Forman
If I Stay is the second young adult novel for former journalist Gayle Forman. Her first novel Sisters in Sanity was published in 2007. She has also published a memoir, You Can’t get There from Here, sharing her experiences travelling the world for 12 months, visiting communities on the fringes of what she terms “a shrinking world”.
A possible movie adaptation of If I Stay is currently under discussion.
Finding the Strength to Make a Choice
Mia’s story is compellingly told and beautifully written and even with the constant movement between present and past, the story flows very naturally. Despite the immensity of the issues Mia faces during the timeline of the novel, many readers will relate to the issues that spark her emotional struggles and insecurities.
If I Stay captures readers from the first pages and is difficult to put down once started. Mia is an adept narrator and an extremely likeable and sympathetic central character. A multitude of secondary themes, such as music as a way of connecting and relating to others and the intertwined roles of friends and family, offer a range of class discussion topics for secondary students.
Despite the ever present sense of tragedy, If I Stay is an uplifting and thought-provoking novel sure to appeal to both teens and adults.
If I Stay (ISBN: 978-0-385-61621-8, 210 pages)
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