If I Stay - YA Bingo

Completed on: November 23rd

# of Pages: 237

Bingo Category: A Book That Became A Movie

Here's a book I've been waiting to read - and write about - for a long time now. I wanted to go and see the movie in theaters but the timing never seemed to work out and I never got the chance before it was taken out of my town. I held off on reading the book until I was a little less busy with school and work, and now that school is winding down a bit, you're getting all of these book reviews from me out of the blue! I'll be finished my reading challenge before you know it!

So let's chat about If I Stay - and keep in mind that, even though the movie was released onto Blu-Ray and DVD recently, I still haven't seen it, but I plan to pick up a copy the next time I run into one. If you've seen the movie trailer than you know that the main premise is that a girl is in a horrific car accident with her family and both of her parents end up dead on the scene, whereas Mia is practically ripped from her body and left to watch the scene unfold, from the moments after the impact to everything that happens to her in the hospital while her body is lying there in a medically-induced coma. In case you haven't seen the trailer yet, here it is:

From the moment I saw the trailer, I was quite excited to start reading this book. Even before the movie buzz had been generated I'd had this book recommended to me, but one of the main reasons I held off was that the paperback copy looked so dismal, the idea of reading it depressed me. That's why I took out the movie tie-in edition as a book loan from my store instead of the original copy, and that's why I've got the movie cover displayed up above. Plus, with this bingo category, it's pretty fitting.

I enjoyed the style in which this book was told, with it being partly present-time events of the accident and what's happening with Mia in this disembodied form in the hospital and then switching every once and a while to flashbacks. I also liked that these flashbacks weren't always told in order of how they occurred in her life; they were determined by what memory was sparked from the events happening in the present time, and that just seems like an amazing way to do it. I did like Mia as a character; she's far from perfect, and as she wrestles with the decision to let herself die or to stay and try and go on living, the reader honestly isn't sure what her decision will be. Take me for example, did I know this book had been made into a movie and Hollywood demands happy endings the majority of the time? Yes. Did I know that there was going to be a sequel? Yes. Even with that information in mind, I honestly wasn't sure what her decision would be, and I will not spoil others to what it was if you haven't read the book or seen the movie. I'm curious whether or not the second book will get its own film adaptation as well, and I can't wait to watch the film now that I've seen the book.

3 More To Go!