If I Stay - Gayle Forman

Title: If I Stay
Author: Gayle Forman
Genre: YA
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 260
Date read: January, 2012

In the blink of an eye everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall what happened afterwards, watching her own damaged body being taken from the wreck. Little by little she struggles to put together the pieces - to figure out what she has lost, what she has left, and the very difficult choice she must make.

This book ought to come with a warning: "Tear-jerker ahead!", because unlike most books that have made me cry in recent times (e.g. the last book in the "Tomorrow, When the War Began" series), it's not just one passage that triggers the tears - but pretty much the entire book.

Despite this, it's actually not a depressing book - sad, yes; depressing, no. You quickly get to care and feel sympathy for Mia, and for once the outcome is not necessarily given in advance.

Gayle Forman has written a sequel, "Where She Went", but I'm not entirely sure I want to read that one. "If I Stay" is such a powerful stand-alone novel, and I'm afraid a sequel might just cheapen it.