If I Stay
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| Author | Gayle Forman |
|---|---|
| Country | International |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult fiction |
| Publisher | Dutton Penguin |
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Publication date
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2009 |
| Media type | Print (hard cover, paper back), Audiobook, eBook |
| Pages | 210 |
| ISBN | |
| Followed by | Where She Went |
| Website | gayleforman.com |
If I Stay is a young adult novel by Gayle Forman published in 2009. The story follows 17-year-old Mia Hall as she deals with the aftermath of a catastrophic car accident involving her family. Mia is the only member of her family to survive, and she finds herself in a coma. Through this coma, however, Mia has an out-of-body experience. Through this, she is able to watch the actions around her, as friends and family gather at the hospital where she is being treated. We follow Mia's stories and the unfolding of her life through a series of flashbacks. Mia finds herself stuck between two worlds; the world of the living, and the world of those who have moved on. Mia realizes that she must use her past and her relationships to make a decision for her future. Her options are to stay with her grandparents and the love of her life, Adam, or to move on and avoid the pain of living without her mother, father, and little brother. The novel received positive reviews from the young adult audience, and Summit Entertainment optioned it in December 2010, for a 2014 film adaptation.
A novel continuing Mia's story, Where She Went, was published in April 2011.
On a snowy day, Mia, her mother, her father, and her little brother, Teddy, decide to go for a morning drive. Another car crashes into theirs, causing serious injuries for the entire family. When Mia awakens, she finds herself detached from her body, which is barely holding on. She finds the bodies of her mother and father, who died from the crash. She also finds the body of herself, who is on the brink of death. Mia realizes that she is having an out of body experience, and follows her physical body to the hospital. She watches her extended family rush to take care of her, while her best friend Kim and her boyfriend Adam struggle to reach the hospital. Through her stay at the hospital, Mia reflects on her life, reminiscing about the development of her relationship with Adam, the development of her passion and talent for playing the cello, and the obstacles of being a teenager who feels out of place no matter where she goes. Mia goes back and forth between deciding whether to stay with her remaining family, as well as Adam, or whether to leave to be with her parents and Teddy, who have all passed on. Her decision is almost made up to leave, until Adam finally reaches the room where her body is being held. He begs her to stay, and in that moment, she sees how her whole future would go on if she was to stay. And in that moment, she makes her biggest decision to stay.
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