Book Talk 2

“If I stay”- Gayle Forman

This interesting and thought-provoking book makes you question not only the life of the characters in the book but your own life as well. This book is centered on Mia, who is a cello player with the hopes of going to Julliard. However, the hopes and dreams for her future are shattered when she is in a horrible car accident. In this accident her entire family is killed however after much medical attention Mia has “survived” but is in a coma fighting or better yet pondering between life and death.

The story now takes a really interesting turn with Mia being able to have this “experience” where she can “see” the world around her, walking through the hospital. This story is the “road” down which Mia and her family embark from the morning of the accident to the actual tragedy as well as the aftermath. It is a combination of Mia’s thoughts, memories, and flashbacks where we can really see the life she led as well as her family’s life. We learn of her parents, often at times weird, her brother, her friends, and her boyfriend Adam.

It is through this middle ground of life and death that Mia confronts the realization of where she is and the hard decision of whether to stay and hold on to life where her family is gone where she would have horrible injuries or she could let go of her life and die, joining her family in another world. Wondering what to do and where to go the reader follows Mia in her journey through life and death.

•Reality to the writing
•Relatable characters and material with, at times, morbid scenes and expressions
•Deals with making choices between past and future- realizing what matters and does not
•Emotional journey
•Borders two lives- the here and now and the “after”- allowing a transcendence of ordinary thinking of life
•Gruesome scenes and sexual content (with controversial language)
•Mia’s choice: what would you do in her place? What were the most important pieces of your life that you can remember and why?

Activity:
Each one of these is on a note card......
Your Family, Your Friends, Yourself, Your Neighbor, Your Dog, Your Boyfriend/ Girlfriend
- If only one could survive- which one would it be?
Which one did you pick and why?
This activity creates thinking about what is important, your life and who is in it as well as in relation to how you view your own "self". This activity brings into light the difficulty of choices in your life, how you would choose and why.