From the Bookshelf of Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge…

If I Stay (If I Stay, #1)

Gayle Forman

Start date: June 20, 2015

Finish date: June 22, 2015

Discussion: 2015 Weekly checkins

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2015 Weekly checkins

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12/25 Week 51
By Juanita · 7 posts · 65 views

last updated Jan 01, 2016 03:38AM

12/31 Week 52
By Juanita · 3 posts · 54 views

last updated Dec 31, 2015 08:27PM

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What Members Thought

Mar 20, 2015 Sarah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, american-fiction, young-adult-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The idea for this book is good - actually, it's very good, and the book was indeed thought-provoking. Yet I had two problems with the book. First, I don't think it's very well-written. At many points, I didn't believe that teenagers would do or say the things in the book. It's not that they were unbelievably-precocious, as a friend once described John Green's teenagers (and who, even with their precociousness, I find very believable, or am at least able to suspend my disbelief), but rather that ...more

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Dec 29, 2009 Kate McCartney rated it really liked it

Shelves: teen-fiction

Mia plays the Cello, a talent that will probably take her to Julliard, her boyfriend is in an up and coming punk band, a little brother she loves and parents who are just beyond being in arrested development. Her life seems good, until a car crashes that takes almost everything away and leaves her in a coma and her spirit out of her body. She is left with memories that are bittersweet, beautiful, and full of love. She also has a decision should she stay with all that she lost or let go of life a ...more

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Mar 10, 2010 Lydia Presley rated it liked it

Shelves: 2011, fiction, young-adult

Review originally posted here.

I’ve become a lot more choosy with regards to my thoughts on the contemporary YA books being released. Most of the time they seem to be filled with whiny teens who (and this is a pet peeve of mine) refuse responsibility for the choices they make throughout the book. Most of all though, I really dislike the lack of parents/absent parenting that happens a lot of the time.

In If I Stay, again, the parents are gone. Mia has to deal with life without them – that is, if sh ...more

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Mar 24, 2014 Courtney rated it liked it

This was a pretty good, very fast, read. It was a nice juxtaposition of current events and past memories. The description of the initial accident was chilling. There is a moment when she walks towards her dad and notices the ground has become slick and there are pieces of gray cauliflower scattered about - you read that and shiver.

I just noticed that there is now a 2nd book and I'm very curious as to where the author takes the story. I will have to look into getting it. ...more

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Jul 20, 2016 Leanne rated it it was ok

Shelves: audiobooks, 2016

It was okay.

Maybe I am getting a little tired of all the YA clichés with the hip parents or the rocker boyfriend.

I didn't find myself too attached to the characters, but the perspective of the narrator was interesting. I just watched that episode of Grey's Anatomy with Derek's voiceover while he was in the hospital, so listening to this as an audiobook felt very similar.

I'll probably read the second book in the series, but I don't know if this would be my first recommendation for someone who ...more

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Jun 27, 2013 steen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I have to say, I quite liked this book and that is completely unexpected. A lot of books that create a buzz tend to be disappointing but If I Stay just struck a chord with me.

The vignettes sprinkled throughout the book help flesh out Mia's life and her family; her mom and dad aren't just the typical "mom and dad" in young adult books, which is nice, and at the end, you truly understand the pain and misery of the choice that Mia must make. ...more

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Mar 23, 2010 Julie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, teen, thumbs-up

An amazing audiobook! I really embraced that Mia actually came from a great family and was loved tremendously. No dysfunctional family stuff going on. Horribly sad and heartwrenching story of a girl who loses her family in a car accident and must decide if she'll stay or not. One of my favorites! ...more

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