If I Stay
- 272
- Pages
- about 5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“If I Stay” is a short, moving book about what makes a life worth staying for, and its premise is its strength. After a car accident leaves seventeen-year-old Mia in a coma, she watches from outside her body as family and friends gather at the hospital, while flashbacks fill in the life she might return to. Some readers dislike how the story is told and find the frequent swearing at odds with the tender scenes.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
If I Stay is a young adult novel by Gayle Forman published in 2009. The story follows 17-year-old Mia Hall as she deals with the aftermath of a catastrophic car accident involving her family. Mia is the only member of her family to survive, and she finds herself in a coma. Through this coma, however, Mia has an out-of-body experience. Through this, she is able to watch the actions around her, as close friends and family gather at the hospital where she is being treated. The book follows Mia's stories and the unfolding of her life through a series of flashbacks. Mia finds herself stuck between two worlds: the world of the living, and the world of those who have moved on. Mia realizes that she must use her past and her relationships to make a decision for her future. Her options are to stay with her grandparents and Adam, her boyfriend, and cope with the grief of losing her parents and her brother. Or, join her deceased family members in the afterlife and avoid the pain of living without her mother, father, and little brother. The novel received positive reviews from the young adult audience, and Summit Entertainment optioned it in December 2010, for a 2014 film adaptation.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.3 across 727 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 83% of the weight and the score stays at 7.4 — the Young adult average of 7.8 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.3 | 32 | 4% |
| Google Books | 8.0 | 44 | 6% |
| Hardcover | 7.3 | 651 | 90% |
Frequently asked
What age is If I Stay for?
If I Stay sits on the Young adult shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 13 and up. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 272 pages — shorter than 89% of the ranked books in Young adult.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Young adult — and a score of 7.4, the closest to this book.
