Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Hardcover

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Published: April 9th 2009 by Dutton Juvenile

Paperback

Synopsis from Good Reads: In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck...

Why I picked it up: This book was always on my radar to eventually pick up and read.  What finally got me to read it was I received the ARC for the sequel Where She Went (due out in April of 2011) in the mail.   So of course I had to read If I Stay.

My Thoughts on the Book:
I loved this book!!  My only complaint about the book was it had me crying like a little baby.  In fact just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes.

Mia has a huge decision to make as she lays in a coma, to live or to die.  The whole story is told through Mia as she is having an out of body experience.  This allows her to see how extended family,her boyfriend Adam, and her best friend Kim are handling the aftermath of the accident. These moments in the present were the ones that had me bawling and also laughing.  I found great amusement of ways Adam tried to get into the ICU to see Mia. 

As Mia is making her decision she also recalls memories of her family, of her best friend, and how she started dating Adam.  These memories give a strong foundation of the development of the novel and gives glimpses of how Mia might make her ultimate decision. The characters are more fully developed in these glimpses of the past.  


This book is so great a must read!!!  Just be prepared to cry and then want the sequel desperately. 


Link to a great review from NPR

Leviathan vs. Airborn

I just recently finished listening to Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.  While I did end up enjoying the book at the end, I kept thinking about awesomeness which is Airborn by Kenneth Opel.


Brief summery of both books (source Clermont County Library Summary)

Leviathan:  " In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts."

Airborn:  "Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface." And really this summary doesn't do it justice because there is mayhem and pirates also. 


Publish date/length of audiobook:

Leviathan: 2009/ 8 hrs and 20 mins
Airborn: 2004/ 10 hr. 30 min  

Why I listened to them:

Leviathan: I will fully admit that I had no intention to read this book.  I have only read one other book by Scott Westerfeld which was the Uglies and though I enjoyed that book I did not feel the need to continue with the series.  Yet, when I found out that Alan Cumming was doing the narration, my interest was peaked, and I was soon looking into how I was going to get the audio book.   

Airborn: So I listened to this in 2007 and I think I randomly picked up the audio book at the library.  Which ended up being a wonderful accident.


Who does the narration and what I thought:

Leviathan:   As mentioned above Alan Cumming.  I loved Cumming's narration!  I knew he was a great actor and does an excellent job with accents, I was overly impressed with his variety of voices for each character. 
Airborn: Was narrated by David Kelly and accompanied by a full cast.  I generally enjoy full cast audio books and Airborn was no exception.


What I thought of the books and will I pick up the next book(s):

Leviathan: My main complaint about the book was the switching of the narration between the Prince and Deryn.  It drove me nuts!!  I listened to this book while driving and occasionally would tune out and once tuned in again the narrator had switched.  This lead to some mild confusion at points to say the least.  There were many times where I wished the book was told strictly in Deryn's perspective.  I was far more interested in Deryn's story then the Prince's. 
I am still debating if I want to listen to the next book.  I probably will just because of the amazing job that Alan Cumming did. 

Airborn: Loved this story!!  I loved every stinky part of it.  In fact when the next books in the series were released I bought the hardcover and highly enjoyed the sequels. 

Favorite Couple

This is for a contest run by Not Enough Bookshelves.  She is giving away 3 books (winner gets to choose) from her top ten favorite couples of the year.

I am limiting my choices to books that I read for the first time in 2010.  Otherwise, I would be debating forever between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, Cal and Min from Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie, Katnis and Peeta, Eve and Roarke from the in Death series or many other couples.

So my favorite couple for this year is Eugenides (Gen) and Attolia from the Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner.

I read the whole series this year because The King of Attolia was considered a Top Ten Best Book for YA's a few years ago.    I enjoyed how the relationship developed overtime and was somewhat fully explained in my favorite in the series, The King of Attolia.

Eugenides and Attolia really shouldn't ever be a couple.  They are so different, but those differences are what makes them work.  If anything Eugenides should hate Attolia for what she did and yet he still loves her.  It is also because of the horrible incident that Attolia actually falls in love with Gen.  The parts where it is revealed how deeply these 2 feel for each or small nuggets of greatness.  The romance between these two characters reminds me of The Scarlett Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy and the love between Sir Percy and Marguerite.


So read The Queen's Thief series and for that matter The Scarlett Pimpernel.   

Love of In Death series by J.D. Robb

I really enjoy this series.  I started the series in 2008, and have read all the books, including novellas found in various anthologies.  

The series takes place in the future, 2059 and everything is high tech.  The main character is Eve Dallas, a lieutenant for the NYPD Homicide division, who eventually falls in love and marries Roarke, an extremely wealthy businessman.  Each book (all 38 books) has its own mystery, but for a good half of the series there was an overall plot of figuring out who exactly is Eve Dallas.  Now the series has been focusing more on Roarke's background and his family connections.  I cannot sit down and tell you what happened in each book but I can tell you all about the overall plot.

I love the series for the characters, and not just Eve and Roarke (I would love to find a man like Roarke).  But mainly the development of the secondary characters that tend to pop up now and then during a book.  Sometimes a book will have a case that focuses on a secondary character.  I also like to see how Eve interacts with characters, because before she meet Roarke, she was extremely anti-social, really had no friends and lived and breathed her job.

I know this series will eventually end, at least featuring Eve and Roarke.  It'll be sad when it happens but until then I will be one of the first people requesting it from the library or waiting patiently for the newest book to come out in paperback.