If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Title: If I Stay
Author: Gayle Forman
Publisher: Penguin
Reading Level: Young Adult
Publication Date: April 2, 2009
Pages: 208

Rating: A-
Plot - 17/20
Characters - 18/20
Writing - 19/20
Originality - 17/20
Entertainment - 10/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 91/100

Summary:
Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love— music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind? Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it’s the only one that matters.

Review:
Normally I don't post reviews this early for ARC's but I haven't seen a review around for it, so here it is. I read this book so quickly. It was fast-paced, heart-breaking, and so sweet and terrible sad. Mia is a wise and amazing main character who is strong and had to deal with so much. The whole idea of the novel is completely amazing.

Gayle Forman gives a ring of events leading up to the big climax and when it happens, it's so gorgeously written. Her imagery is fantastic and I saw a movie playing throughout the novel, I could just imagine Mia up there looking down, and I imagined me looking up from where her family and friends were at her. Forman is an amazing writer.

I know we've seen a lot of novel where teen girl gets in car crash, her family dies, and something dramatic happens. And yes, that happens, but it is totally different in this story, with how it was written to how their were flashbacks of her life before.

This novel was a fantastic new book in the YA world that one will pick up but not let go of until the 200+ pages are read. Mia is a character your heart will break for, and the story is one to remember. You will not forget it, nor will I.