Today I am going to be reviewing the If I Stay duology by Gayle Forman. This duology is composed of If I Stay and Where She Went. I will also share some of my thoughts on the If I Stay film. I actually listened to both of these novels as audiobooks. I actually had mixed feelings about these audiobooks, and I will share some of my feelings on those as well. But first, here is the synopsis of If I Stay from Goodreads:
"Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?
Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters."
I originally picked up the first book, If I Stay, because I saw the trailer for the movie. One of my favorite actresses is Chloe Grace Moretz and since she played Mia in the film adaptation, it definitely pushed me to read this book. Also, the story consists of many moments of family, music, romance, etc. that I really looked forward to. Although I really wanted to read the book, and I read it in a day and a half, I did not like this book very much. I would give it 2/5 stars, those two stars are because of the scenes involving music and Mia's family. I did not like much else in this book. The audiobook was also very bad, I didn't really like the way the narrator read the novel, and the use of the music in the book was very bad, it sounded horrible in the audiobook, and ruined the mood of every scene it was in. My lease favorite scene was when Mia and Adam are alone and he tells her, before having sex, for her to "play me like I'm your cello." Uh... weird! I don't know how that is supposed to be "sexy," I'm a musician, and this phrase wouldn't "turn me on." I really liked Adam's character, but I thought Mia's character was a little annoying. I didn't cry in this book, despite being warned by several others that I would most likely cry, I think the tragedy happened so quickly that I didn't have time to comprehend what was going on, which I believe was the author's intent. I believe the emotional factor was supposed to come in later in the novel with the aftermath. Another thing I did like about the book was the ending, I know several people didn't like it, but I thought it was perfect, I felt that there were several points in the novel that were quite boring and I feel that if it would have continued, MY RATING would have been lower than it is.
The If I Stay film was AMAZING! Although I didn't like the book, I still expected to love the film, and it did not disappoint. The actors were amazing, the things I didn't like from the book were fixed in the film, and I also shed a tear or two during the movie. I can only praise this movie, I've seen the movie three times so far, and I will probably see it many more. (And if you guys were wondering, I cried during the scene with the Mia's grandfather talking to her towards the end of the movie.) My favorite aspect of the movie was the music, it was so good, every scene with music was amazing. I have the movie soundtrack on my spotify, I love it! I rate this movie 5/5 stars, and I can't say much else about it, because I LOVED it so much, I loved everything about it.
I was put off to reading Where She Went for several months because I didn't think I would like it because I didn't like the If I Stay novel. However, after watching the If I Stay film for the third time, I decided I should give it a try. I'm glad I did! This novel was written in the perspective of Adam, about three years after the events of If I Stay, and Mia and Adam have split. I loved this book so much, I was very interested in Adam's story, and his split with Adam. It was simply amazing. I got all the feels at the end, and I was so excited when Adam and Mia were reunited. The only thing I didn't enjoy about this book were the few instances where Adam EXPLODED, I understand why he reacted the way he did in certain situations, but it was still very annoying. Three of these instances I really didn't like, because it talked about how Adam was wanting to harm some women he was faced with, I understand it was his anxiety, but I got pissed when he talked about hurting Mia and "tasting her tears as they streamed down her face." But, nonetheless, the book was amazing, and I give it 5/5 stars. I also really liked the audiobook for this installment. The only part of the audiobook I didn't like was the addition of the guitar solos between the chapters. I thought it was too cheesy, and I just couldn't like that no matter how hard I tried. But other than that, I loved this audiobook quite a bit. The narrator was very talented, and made the audiobook very believable. Although I'm not very confident that there will be a film for Where She Went, I really hope there is, because I love the conversations between Adam and Mia, and I would also love to see Chloe Grace Moretz in another movie.
I hope you guys enjoyed these, if you read the first book but didn't like it, I still believe you should try reading Where She Went, because it is much better. I hope you all liked my review, and I hope to write more reviews soon.
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