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If I Stay
I'm still waiting to get it from the library. I'm like 120th in line unfortunately.
Aww that sucks - it must be really popular at the moment!
Try to buy it on amazon.
@Becca: Maybe try to request it from another library? Or just go to another library? (That's what I did, since the copies of "If I Stay" from my local library is checked out and there were like 7 holds.)
I was number 90 or so at my library, so I listened to it on audiobook on YouTube. Just finished it, and I thought it was OK.
I read the book a couple weeks ago and I enjoyed it but it wasn't one of my favourite ya. The movie trailer for it looks good though and I'll definitely go see it when it's out.
Also, I liked the second book a lot more!
I thought it was good but I didn't like the ending too much. I felt like the ending was very abrupt, I wasn't expecting it to end so suddenly.
I was having issues with a long wait list as well so I bought it on kindle for only $4.99.
I read the book before it was chosen here and I wasn't impressed either. Like Becca I liked the current action more than the flashbacks. Also, it is almost refreshing to read a book where the love of music keeps one alive.Nevertheless, the plot was often uninteresting and the relationships sometimes feel superficial, although, on the contrary, the author really seems to have put a lot of effort into it.
Becca wrote: "So I was just wandering how people are finding If I Stay - I haven't gotten very far with it yet and I have very mixed feelings.*A few spoilers*
I like the concept - a lot like Lovely Bones - ho..."
Just got it... 50 pages in. I'm with you Becca. The flashbacks kinda mess with the pace of the story.
Haven't started it yet, but I have it, just been a busy week. I'm trying to finish looking for alaska before I dive into something new. I like the concept of it though, I'm looking forward to reading it
i have not gone far in the book. i do find it a bit bland thus far. But who knows? it may get better
I am currently reading this book. I love it so far!
I am still waiting for it from the library. I have it on hold at two libraries but nothing yet.
Done... not bad, but will hold back comments until more people finish.
I had mixed feelings about it as well. I enjoyed the concept and the present-time story. I thought some of the flashbacks were good and helpful, and some were unnecessary. I think I just wanted more from the ending. I don't require everything to be happy and perfect, I would have preferred more resolution than what was given. Does anyone else feel this way?
I thought it was great! I'm almost Afraid to read where she went, isn't the exact same story but from Adams perspective? Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Y.A. NERD wrote: "I thought it was great! I'm almost Afraid to read where she went, isn't the exact same story but from Adams perspective? Please correct me if I'm wrong."no actually where she went is 3 years after the first book ends. I actually liked it better so i definitely suggest it!
So I just reserved a copy at the public library. 15.07. is the date I will probably get it.I am really looking forward reading this book because the trailer is quite fascinating.
Just finished - defiantly gets better towards the end. Most of the flashbacks just interrupted my train of thought but I guess they were necessary in filling the story out. *SPOILERS*
I really didn't have much emotion for Mia's family - I think maybe it's because they had such a little part at the beginning of the novel - I didn't even feel sad about Teddy's death. I like Mia's character and Adam and Kim. I thought her Grandparents were a bit irrelevant to the story - they were mention a bit too much and I never really felt their sadness fully.
I guess I didn't really connect to the deep emotions of all the characters. I loved Mia and Adam's relationship and all their flashbacks and I'm pretty sure I will read 'Where She Went' as most people say it's better.
*SPOILERS*There was no time to connect with the characters before the traumatic events unfolded. You were supposed to learn throughout the book to care for the characters, then be sad that they were gone. It did not work for me. Also, Mia's reactions to the events that unfolded felt more like someone watching an accident happen in a movie, rather than a person watching the people they love die. Her reaction was like "Oh look, my Dad is dead, Well whaddya know". I did not feel her pain at all.
I feel it needed about 50 or so more pages at the beginning of the book to establish the mood of the family and the feeling they shared. The flashbacks should have been more about her thoughts and feeling of the past, rather than just a narration of the past.
Lastly... where is the character arc?!?! I did not feel Mia evolved as a result of the trauma. She was the same character from beginning to end. Nothing in her character changed! We did not see the results of her decision to stay... If she decided to "go", would the end of the book feel any different? I would say no. So the decision itself did not matter.
Was it even a decision she made? It can be said that she did not even "decide" to stay... rather she was compelled to stay. It just happened, Like everything else in her life. Again... nothing changed in her character.
I think you have it, Tom. 50 more pages at the beginning to let us get to know everyone before we lose them would fix the issues that a lot of us had with it. That said, I found this to still be a quick read, in fact I read it all at once. I found it got much better about halfway through, but that again could be fixed by letting us get to know everyone earlier.
I love the parts about how important music is to all the characters.
I enjoyed the book but couldn't get emotionally invested with the loss of her brother and her mother and father because I simply didn't know enough about them. Sure we know the type of parents they were, but we didn't learn nearly enough to get invested for them or to truly feel their loss other than that I had no major issues with the book.
I loved the parts when Mia was in the hospital, when she was walking around, seeing and hearing and feeling, and I loved the reactions of her friends and family (though I didn't feel emotionally invested in them, as a whole). The backstory dragged, and it got in the way. I didn't enjoy reading about her mother and father when they were younger because like I said, I didn't care as much about her parents.
The book needed to be longer, and things that didn't seem to matter to me needed to be fleshed out. Maybe then I would have cared more.
I do want to read the sequel, and I will. I was disappointed with this one, yet still intrigued enough to keep going.
Already on the second :) I love this book!
Y.A. NERD wrote: "I thought it was great! I'm almost Afraid to read where she went, isn't the exact same story but from Adams perspective? Please correct me if I'm wrong."It's actually about what happens after If I Stay is over.
I honestly wasn't into it, I finished the book in a day or so, it was interesting. I liked the idea of it, but it was so focused on her relationship. I want to know a lot more about the family maybe if she was to be in a wreck about 70 pages later sure. I believe it will be a good movie though. It comes out 1 day before my 16th birthday so I might go watch it at the drive in. I think the 2nd book will be better though.
Finished it just today. Overall, I liked it, but I wouldn't say it's one of my favorites. I am looking forward to see the film though! :)
It was pretty good. Not my favorite, but still a good book. I'm interested to see how the movie turns out.
I've just started it and it's pretty good so far. We'll see once I've gotten further in.
I just started this book, and it's quite interesting. I find it a little odd how (view spoiler) I'm excited to continue reading, I've heard great thing about this book.
Finished it this morning and OMG. WAs so AMAZING!!! Totally love this book so much will b reading the sequel. Who's with me?
I finished it today, I really like it and I am going to read the sequel too :)
I'm about a third of the way through now. There's not much plot yet. There's a lot of backstory, though. I hope that the backstory quantity diminishes, but probably not according to some reviews I've seen.
One of my favourite scenes is where her grandfather liberates her of the responsibility of staying alive. This video I found last week speaks about the freedom of love:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbecK...
Spoilers abound.I read the whole book today and I found it refreshing in a way. It was so different from what I've been reading as of late. While some argue that there needs to be additional pages at the start of the book to develop some kind of a relationship with the family, I feel that this would make the whole novel more 'conventional' and less unique then what it currently is.
No one sees an accident coming, is is instantaneous. There is no way to prepare for it, or to know when it is coming. I must admit that it took several re-reads of that page to grasp what had happened. With additional pages at the start of the book it could be argued that the accident would have been drawn out. For those who peeked at the trailer, you knew it was coming just not when. For those who didn't you could probably infer from the synopsis and title that something ominous was about to happen. The point of the story (in my humble opinion) isn't what happens to someone when they go through something as horrific as an accident. (I would like to add that I have witnessed three accidents like this one, the final accident my father had a man die in his arms...) Rather, the point of the story (I am still trying to discern what is ultimately is) could be how one defines a family or how one can choose to continue knowing that their 'normal' will never exist again.
Mia is different. She is not a 'normal' teen and in the YA literature that is out there. She is by no means a 'cookie cutter' protagonist. She was so fragile before her accident. Constantly doubting herself and her actions. It was refreshing to see someone so unsure of themselves. Mia was raw, she was not perfectly polished like so many heroines we see in YA lit (at least the Hollywood YA that has been adapted). Yes, she has had a terrible thing happen to her and yes, she will once again be reunited with her one true love. But at what cost?
The question, brilliantly poised I might add, is that would you choose to live in a world devoid of those you care most about? At what cost is it worth it to continue with such pain knowing that those you care about most will never grow up, revel in your successes or see what you will become? Not to mention the different kinds of love. Love of another person or the love of music? SO MANY CHOICES. Kim and Adam raise the question of what defines a family? Is it those related by blood, by a special bond, what is it that makes a family?
Mia loves (yes, I chose present tense, I can't bear to use past as it is quite clear in the novel that she will never stop loving them) her family at a time in her life when many her age would rather be on their phone then in a car listening to NPR with the whole family. I enjoyed getting to know her family through the flashbacks and while they may have (for some) caused the story to feel disjointed, I feel as though a linear story line would have made it too easy.
It may be my love of a non-linear story line (21 grams being one of my favourite films) that made this novel so appealing. The question I pose to those who disagree is, how else would you tell this story? While Mia is in a comatose state how else can she make her choice of whether or not to stay, without reflection on her life? It is through these reflections and flashbacks that I fell in love with her character and the whole story.
Apologies for the length, it's 1 AM. This will be edited tomorrow I promise.
Colette wrote: "Spoilers abound.I read the whole book today and I found it refreshing in a way. It was so different from what I've been reading as of late. While some argue that there needs to be additional page..."
*Spoilers*
Colette...
1) "The question I pose to those who disagree is, how else would you tell this story?" I would better introduce the family so that the accident had more of an emotional impact on the reader, thus feeling more simpathy for Mia. It needs more character development so the readers feels what Mia is feeling at the accident.
2) "While Mia is in a comatose state how else can she make her choice of whether or not to stay, without reflection on her life?" I don't mind flashbacks, but in this book, they feel a little disjointed. Also, you learn to feel for the family over time, but already know their fate, so, I personally don't feel it has as much of an impact on the overall story. Also... I don't feel Mia made a conscious choice at the end. She was compelled to stay by the music.
My take on the story... Mia loves music and music brought her back... the end.
The question I pose is, how did Mia's character evolve throughout the story? How did the accident change her? What was her character arc? I would argue that the reader never got the opportunity to see Mia change/evolve or see any consequences (good or bad) in any decisions she made.
The biggest problem I have with the format is that it results in way more telling than showing. By which I mean that we are told how close she is with her brother, instead of showing us why he is lovable. She tells us all these backstory things because the exposition us needed for the story, but it's obviously narration as opposed to what a flashback would feel like if we already had established who everyone was. I feel like if we had a chance to get to know more about everyone before the accident, the memories she tells us about would be more related to what's happening currently, and there would be a lot more emotion involved. Now it's a lot of "this happened" and now we sit in the hospital watching people sit around and oh yeah " this also happened".
Overall, if I stay was a decent read through for killing extra time but I can't say it's one of my favorite novels either.
Yeeah, the only way I got a hold from it was becuase we had extra copies that were turning into strips at the Barnes and noble I work at,other wise it would've been kinda a waste to buy this book for me, but maybe it just wasn't my kind of book I guess..
I'm a little bit angry... The book I preordered in my public library was due on the 15th July. It is still not available. I wanted to read it before my holiday because I don't like to bring borrowed books with me (got plenty unread of my own^^)Why are people doing that?
Warning: Rant about not being able to find the book
I want to give away my copy of "If I Stay" to a fellow Nerdfighter! (I posted this in general discussions... probably should have posted here)I do want to make it interesting... so, yes... a contest!
Send me a "private message" explaining why I should send you this book. I will read through them and decide who wins by July,22th! I am the sole judge of who wins, so impress me! :)
Conditions (here it comes)...
1) You are a Nerdfighter. :)
2) You belong to The "Nerdfighters Book Club".
3) You share your thoughts of the book with the club after you read it.
4) You give away the book (after you read it) to someone else, to pass on the love of reading... to family.... to a friend... or leave it at a bus stop! Whatever works!
I will pay for the shipping! :) I will get the winner's mailing address after I decide who won!
As always...kids, please get your parent's permission!
-DFTBA-
I absolutely love this book! I read it about a year ago after I found it at Half-Price books. I re-read it a few weeks before I found out about this book club and that y'all were reading it. It is definitely one of my favorite books!
I loved this book for the thoughts it inspired in me. I didn't find myself falling in love with the characters the way I feel I was supposed to, but I loved the concept. I'm excited to read the sequel, but I'm on a long waitlist.I'd also like to say that, as an Oregonian, it was nice to read a book that takes place here. I felt that her fictional hometown was reminiscent of my own hometown.
I also thought it had a similar feel to The Lovely Bones. I think I may have preferred The Lovely Bones...
This novel makes me think about the people I love more than the characters. I kept tearing up whenever "Gramps" was mentioned.
I found myself wanting to tell my own family that I love them, and it made me think of all the people I have to love and love me in return.
*A few spoilers*
I like the concept - a lot like Lovely Bones - however I am not too keen on her reminiscing about her past and going into old memories with Adam etc. I guess it is quite effective but I am too intrigue on what is happening in the present than to know about her past.
I am not loving it but I will keep going - I think watching the movie trailer kind of ruined the beginning but I'm sure the story will get more depth soon.