If I Stay

It was okay. I didn't like the way the parents are portrayed because it seemed cliche. I really hope teens today get to read some good literature in addition to this fluffy stuff.

This was such a beautiful story. And a fun read. It's hard to call a book about death a "fun" read, but the story of the main characters is mainly told in flashbacks. And the author uses a lot of musical references, which is always a plus for me. She actually goes through all the music at the end of the book (at least in my copy) and gives a little background on each.
There's also a piece in the back about how a tragic event involving close friends of hers actually led her to writing this story.
It says on the front of the book that it will appeal to Twilight fans. I have no idea why because I don't know anything about the Twilight stories. This IS mostly about a teenage girl and her "choice" whether to live or die, so maybe that's where they make the connection?
I picked it up because I heard about it on NPR, where someone was talking about how they TOTALLY judged this book by the cover but it paid off in the end.
I agree.
And now I'm gonna go download all those songs...

If I Stay is the other side of teen fiction. The first side is the brooding, romantic dystopian. This is the other side -- the purportedly gut-wrenching, ultra-real, human story side. Like Thirteen Reasons Why or Luna or even The Fault in Our Stars. And like most of those other books, it was just fine. It wasn't great, but it wasn't really awful, either. It's the kind of book where if you really feel like being played like a fiddle (or, I guess, in this case a cello), then it's perfect. I can see how this would be the perfect emotional release book for teenage girls. And when I was a teenage girl, I also probably would have sobbed. But I'm a grown-ass woman (as her mother calls her at one point in the book -- really?) and the only time my eyes got misty was when I thought about what would happen if my spouse died. Other than that, it was sad but it didn't really break my heart, especially when I knew what she would choose basically from the get-go.

The only thing that bothered me about this book was how the author seemed to be trying to create authentic, edgy characters but they all seemed so cookie-cutter and boring. Her parents are just soooooo cool but she doesn't fit in because she wears sweaters and floor-length skirts (what is she, Amish?). Her boyfriend is the super-cool jock/rocker who is effortlessly so and could care less about popularity. And the author even talks about her best friend being stereotypically Jewish, and the best friend even jokes about how Jewish her mother is. That one bothered me. It was an awkward moment, like the author was trying to force in some ethnic/religious variety but the only kind she knew about from her white-washed childhood was Judaism. Yup. Awkward.

But, altogether, even though this book wasn't great, it wasn't bad either, and I'd much rather read this than wade through another 500-page pile of excrement like the Divergent trilogy. Ugh.

Gayle Forman has a beautiful way of writing that makes you forget the tragedy, focus on the splendid, then circle back around to the devastation.

This one is sad.
Jeeze.