Young Adult Book Review: “If I Stay” by Gale Forman

Like Susie Salmon, the dead protagonist in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, Mia is the reader’s guide to what is happening in the real world — and the world beyond. But unlike Susie, Mia is not quite dead, but very nearly so, since the horrific car accident that killed her parents and brother. She is in a coma, but a hovering Mia is very aware of the medical team on her case and the many visitors streaming into her room.

The only person she really wants to see is her earnest boyfriend Adam. She and Adam bonded over music, even though he is a punk rocker and she is a classically trained cellist. In If I Stay, author Gale Forman has written a melodrama about a girl facing the painful decision about whether she wants to be with her parents and brother in the next world or face life in this one as an orphan.

Dutton Children’s Books, New York. (2009). Reviewed by Lillian Hecker, Children’s Services Librarian. For ages 14 and up.