Book Review:

***Opinion pieces reflect the opinion of the writer only, and not the opinion of the newspaper staff, student body, administration or school faculty.***

If  I Stay is an amazing book. The plot, characters, writing and the development is great. I’ve read a lot of books, and this is one that will stick with me.

The way Gayle Forman combines punk rock music and classical styles, and styles of people surprised me. I’ve never seen the way a punk rock feminist mom, energetic drum kid, hipster rocker turned teacher, and a classical cellist daughter get along together so fluidly as they do here. Forman does it so smoothly that it fit’s snug together. How she made such a close, yet wide range of characters astounds me.

Each character had their own development throughout the story; Mia with deciding if she should stay, Adam and his struggle to see Mia, Kim trying to keep her mother under check while she comforts herself over her best friend being in a coma, and the family wanting her to stay with them but know that she may want to go with her parents and Teddy.

Also, Forman writes Mia as her soul or spirit, where she is in a coma but can see and hear everything that is going on around her. It is the majority of the book, which I would’ve preferred to have more than the main characters point-of-view, like Adam’s, Kim’s, or any of the family members’ that were recurring in the book, and maybe even the head nurses.

With the amount of detail that Forman has put into this book it’s no surprise that it is getting so much attention. She describes tiny details in such a huge manner, and I think this is what makes her prosper with this book more than anything.

Other than the point-of-view being mainly Mia the book was amazing. It had action, drama, comedy and flashbacks, mixing these categories into a wonderful book.