AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Title: If I Stay
Author: Gayle Forman
Narrator: Kirsten Potter
Series: If I Stay (#1)
Length: 5 hrs, 2 min
Format: Audio
Source: Bought


In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck...

A sophisticated, layered, and heart-achingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make, and the ultimate choice Mia commands.

The Story:

Mia has the perfect life:  an amazing family, a younger brother that doesn't usually drive her too crazy, a best friend that will be a lifelong friend and an amazing boyfriend, Adam, who loves music just as much as she does.  There is also the very real possibility that she could be going to NYC to Julliard.  But in the blink of an eye Mia's life is changed forever. One minute she's on a road trip with her family, and then suddenly she's standing by the side of the road witnessing as her own broken body is removed from the wreckage. She spends most of the novel wandering around the hospital watching her friends as they learn that she is critically injured and in a coma. The doctors tell them that it's up to Mia now.  It doesn't take long for her to realize that she has a very difficult decision to make. Does she stay or does she go? Does she have anything left to live for?  Her friends, unwilling to let her go, try to prove to her that she does by reminding her about the things she loves.  What they don't know is that they're competing with Mia as she re-lives flashbacks of the life she knows she will never have again.  This is the kind of book that you can't actually enjoy. It's so passionately heartbreaking, so tender and raw, so devistating and beautiful all at the same time. I cried like a baby throughout this entire book, yet I could pick it up and listen to it all over again right now. I don't often find a book that I know will remain with me forever, but this is one of them.

The Narration:

"If IStay" is such an emotional story, and Ms. Potter does an amazing job capturing that emotion in her narration.  She flawlessly moves from one character to another and does very welll with the male characters.  This was a great audiobook!

Favorite Quote:

"If you stay, I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll quit the band; go with you to New York. But if you need me to go away, I’ll do that too. .. And that would suck, but I’ll do it. I can lose you like that, if I don’t lose you today. I’ll let you go. If you stay."

5 Stars * * * * *