I like to read.

3rd book of 2012: If I Stay by Gayle Forman This book was read in a span of less than 12 hours.  What can I say?  I’m squeezing as much as I can out of winter break.  I may be the last person on earth to read this book that had any interest in it whatsoever.  That being said, in case you haven’t heard of it, here is a synopsis: Mia is a 17-year-old high school senior who is a very talented cello player and has recently applied to Julliard.  Her “alternative” parents grew up in the rock scene; her mother a staunch feminist punk and her father a punk drummer-turned-English teacher.  Her brother, Teddy, is ten years her senior.  Mia’s boyfriend, Adam, plays guitar in an emo-core band who recently signed a record deal.  All of that stops mattering (or does it finally start to matter?) when, one winter morning, the family decides to celebrate a snow day.  The festivities are cut short when they are in a major car collision, leaving Mia the only survivor.  As she sits in the ICU in a coma, her body-less, not-dead-yet spirit wanders around, reminisces about life, tries to figure out what to do, and realizes she has to decide if she should wake up and continue her life or let herself die and be with the rest of her family. I know more than one person who, after reading this book, proclaimed it one of their favorites of all time.  I haven’t had the same reaction, but I did really enjoy it.  I really found it easy to connect with Mia, who often pontificates about feeling like an outsider around her boyfriend and his hipster friends as well as with her cool rock family.  The relationship Mia has with Adam is oftentimes over-the-top, but still slightly swoon-worthy.  My personal disappointment came when this love relationship ends up being the most important plot point, after hundred’s of pages of reminiscing about her family as well.  I don’t fault Forman for taking the storyline this way, however.  In the back of the book is a short “story behind the story” thing she wrote, and she makes it very clear that Mia was an actual person that was borne inside of her head, and Mia made all the decisions about the way her life went.  And who can really blame a 17-year-old girl for putting such serious import on her relationship with her boyfriend? That being said, I am still waiting for the teen fiction book that colors outside the lines and can tell a realistic story about a strong, independent, and intelligent girl that doesn’t make a boy, or boys in general, her main focus. 

3rd book of 2012: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

This book was read in a span of less than 12 hours.  What can I say?  I’m squeezing as much as I can out of winter break.  I may be the last person on earth to read this book that had any interest in it whatsoever.  That being said, in case you haven’t heard of it, here is a synopsis:

Mia is a 17-year-old high school senior who is a very talented cello player and has recently applied to Julliard.  Her “alternative” parents grew up in the rock scene; her mother a staunch feminist punk and her father a punk drummer-turned-English teacher.  Her brother, Teddy, is ten years her senior.  Mia’s boyfriend, Adam, plays guitar in an emo-core band who recently signed a record deal.  All of that stops mattering (or does it finally start to matter?) when, one winter morning, the family decides to celebrate a snow day.  The festivities are cut short when they are in a major car collision, leaving Mia the only survivor.  As she sits in the ICU in a coma, her body-less, not-dead-yet spirit wanders around, reminisces about life, tries to figure out what to do, and realizes she has to decide if she should wake up and continue her life or let herself die and be with the rest of her family.

I know more than one person who, after reading this book, proclaimed it one of their favorites of all time.  I haven’t had the same reaction, but I did really enjoy it.  I really found it easy to connect with Mia, who often pontificates about feeling like an outsider around her boyfriend and his hipster friends as well as with her cool rock family.  The relationship Mia has with Adam is oftentimes over-the-top, but still slightly swoon-worthy.  My personal disappointment came when this love relationship ends up being the most important plot point, after hundred’s of pages of reminiscing about her family as well. 

I don’t fault Forman for taking the storyline this way, however.  In the back of the book is a short “story behind the story” thing she wrote, and she makes it very clear that Mia was an actual person that was borne inside of her head, and Mia made all the decisions about the way her life went.  And who can really blame a 17-year-old girl for putting such serious import on her relationship with her boyfriend?

That being said, I am still waiting for the teen fiction book that colors outside the lines and can tell a realistic story about a strong, independent, and intelligent girl that doesn’t make a boy, or boys in general, her main focus. 

1 month ago
  1. melissaannemay reblogged this from iliketoread and added:
    have ever read
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