If I Stay

If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Teen Zone Fiction Main Level - Forman

Mia is a 17-year-old cello player. She plans to go to Julliard after high school. She has a wonderful boyfriend. She loves her family, and genuinely enjoys being with them. These are her reasons for living.

You see, Mia and her family were in a car accident. She is the lone survivor, in a coma in the hospital. Her body is pretty messed up: collapsed lung, spleen removed surgically, brain contusions, and more. Mia knows this because she watches her body and the people around her in the hospital in an out-of-body experience. These are her reasons for dying.

The story is told from her wandering "soul" self. She has to decide if life is worth fighting for. If she stays, what will her life be like? If she goes, what will death be like?

This is a heart-wrenching story. Mia's best friend, her boy friend, and her surviving extended family gather around her - all reasons to stay. In addition to the play-by-play from the soul self, we learn about what Mia's life was like before the accident: how she met her boyfriend, how her parents met and how they raised their children, how Mia's brother Teddy was more like her own child than her brother because they were so close. All of these details make us root for her to stay.