An Underwhelming and Overrated Story: If I Stay (If I Stay # 1) by Gayle Forman Review

(Photo from: www.amazon.com)

Let me begin this review by saying that each and everyone of you is entitled to your own opinion. It you loved something, it doesn't matter if other people hate it. So much the better for you actually. You found joy in something others did not. So if you enjoyed Gayle Forman's If I Stay, I completely respect that and I'm glad that you enjoyed it. As for me however, I absolutely did not like this book.

I won't deny that If I Stay has a very interesting premise. It's the reason I bought it in the first place. But my interest quickly plummeted to the ground when nothing really important and remotely exciting was happening after the car accident. After that it was just mostly flashbacks and once-in-a-while check-ins on her critical condition as well as scenes with Adam. 

The flashbacks just felt like they were dragging on and on and on. They were minimally interesting. I know why they were there, it was to give the reader further background on her family and Adam so that we'll know the cost of her decision to stay or not but it didn't do a good job at hooking the reader. I remember skimming through the pages to see how much more I had to read and being severely disappointed when I saw that it took up most of the book. It kept on explaining and explaining and explaining some more. I actually wanted to get back in the real time and see how she was doing because it's got to involve something more than what we were getting in those flashbacks. And it did. Adam was creating all kinds of trouble just to see her lifeless body but it was just kept getting cut off for more time with those flashbacks. If the flashbacks weren't so dull, I'm sure I would have enjoyed this book more.

If the story isn't great or captivating, it can always be saved by the characters depending on how interesting and good they are. Sad to say, the characters were just...all right. Mia was fine, her best friend was fine, Adam was annoying at times but fine. All of them were just all right but not enough to pull the story up a level. The most enjoyable were Mia's parents and younger brother but my attachment to them, although the best, was still somewhat weak. It actually made me so much more frustrated at the ending which I will be getting to later. The pacing was all over the place at times but mostly slow to the point I debated with myself whether to skip some chapters and wonder how much of a difference it will make. 

My biggest problem was the ending itself. It felt like the most rushed and lazy ending I have ever read (at least so far). I expected something more of that ending since the first and middle parts were passable at best but I was wrong. It just got worst.

In the end, If I Stay is a book that had an interesting premise but was generally dull from beginning to end. It had so much potential but unfortunately it did not deliver. I feel like the hype around this book tremendously outweighed the actual story. Maybe if it would have been much better without the hype. It would still be dull but I wouldn't feel so disappointed because I was expecting a beautiful and heart-wrenching story.

Again, I am not telling you to dislike this book as much as I did. I wished I feel the same love most of you do but this is just how I feel about this novel as a whole. I bought the boxed set of the If I Stay duology and maybe I would read Where She Went sometime in the future but as of now I am still way too turned off from If I Stay to read it and take it seriously.

2/10 stars.

HEAVY SPOILER WARNING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT READ IF I STAY YET

I feel like I need to elaborate more on why I think the ending was rushed and lazy. Like I said above, this book was mostly filled with flashbacks of her life before the accident. Flashbacks of her family and her relationship with Adam. Although it was quite boring, I found myself caring a little for her family. The author spent so much time trying to make the reader invest on her family because of the great relationship and memories she had with them. Even more than Adam, who she had a somewhat rocky relationship with especially near the time of her accident. After the scene where she found out her little brother was dead, she was ready to die herself. She was practically begging to die and I was okay with it, even agreeing with her because like her, I see no point in trying to live life without her beloved family. After all those memories and exposition, I would gladly let her go, knowing she was happy with her family. 

And then Adam and his little speech happened.

It was a good speech but not enough to turn me against the investment that was built upon since she started relaying her memories of her family.  It was simply too short. She was practically an inch away from saying "I'm ready to die" when Adam came in. After that, she basically just said "Oh wait! I want to stay!" and automatically brought herself back from the edge! It felt like I wasted all of my time feeling for her family for half of the book when she was just going to disregard that for a boy she was about to leave literally two pages ago. If that ending was supposed to work, then we should not have gotten so many flashbacks of her family and maybe prolonged the scenes Adam was actually next to her and saying how much he loved and cared for her. A page and a half speech just doesn't cut it. It feels rushed and lazy, period. I hope this explanation clarifies why I really don't like the ending.