If I Stay

If I Stay

By Gayle Forman

208 pages

5 hours 2 minutes listening time

Grade C

I am only giving this book a C because it is terribly depressing. I mean sobbing kinda of depressing. In the first 5 minutes of this book 17 year old Mia, the main character is involved in a car accident with her parents and 7 year old brother. The accident kills her parents at the scene and Mia is rushed to the hospital and taken by flight for life to a bigger city hospital to get the treatments that she needs.

She is a soul, or a spirit, or a ghost wandering around the hospital watching her loved ones as they wait to see if she will make it. One of the nurses tells her grandpa that it is Mia's decision if she will stay with them, or decide to pass on. The rest of the book is her journey on her decision to say to go.

It is a very compelling book. I am glad now that I read it, however while I was reading it, I was questioning why I kept listening, since I swore I was going to stay away from sad books for a while.

If you are looking for a sappy book, go for it. It is NOT a sappy book like Nicholas Sparks though. It is just terribly plain depressing.

So there you have it. I depressingly depressing book, that may or may not make you feel good or happy in the end. It might just very well leave you wondering why you read it to begin with.