Book Response #1- "If I Stay" Gayle Forman

Reading Response #1 – “If I Stay” By Gayle Forman

            The book that I have chosen to do my first reading response on is “If I Stay” I began interested in this book mostly because of the movie that is based on it. But I have this thing where I don’t like seeing the movie version of a book unless I have read the book version first. So I spent the weekend after the movie came out reading “If I Stay” it only took me about a day and a half to read it, because I was so interested in reading it, and over all I liked the book a lot!

 

In “If I Stay” by Gayle Forman It starts off as a typical family that lives in Oregon, a Dad who was in a rock band in his early years, a Mom who fell in love with that rock n’ roll type of  guy, a musically gifted daughter, named Mia, and an energetic son named teddy. But this family is about to go through a very dramatic experience, A terrible car accident on a snow day changes this family forever, or more just Mia.

 

Now I don’t want this reading response to be me giving away the whole book, but that’s probably what it’s going to turn out as in the end. Throughout out the first couple of chapters it starts the tone of the book as a happy, casual, calm book. It talks about how Mia, and  boy named Adam start to like each other, but this couple isn’t a couple you would think would be together,  they get nicked named as “Groovy and the Geek”. They go on a first date, and they go to see the cellist Yo-yo Ma. This is very sentimental to Mia because she is a cellist, and you wouldn’t think for emo-rock band member Adam to go to see Yo-yo Ma, but he did it for her. You later find out that Adam, saved up a month’s worth of pizza delivery tips to get theses Yo-Yo Ma tickets, and that just makes me like this book even more because of the cute relationship that you see Mia, and Adam share.

 

The Chapters that I have read, have really got me into this book, because I’m a teenage girl who likes to read about relationships in books. Relationships in books are always better, boys in books are always better. But like I said before I’m excited to see how the relationship of Mia, and Adam changes throughout the book, and what happens over all to the plot of the story.  

Quotes:

“If I felt like a fish out of water in my family, I felt like a fish on Mars in Adam’s circle.”

• This quote is significant because it’s saying how Mia feels not in place with her family since she is not like her family. She isn’t into punk rock, she doesn’t have the blonde hair like her mom, dad, and brother. And she is saying that she also isn’t like Adam, but it’s important and goes with the summary that I wrote because even though Adam and her aren’t alike in appearances, and cliques but they are alike in musicality. They both have a love for music, and that’s what pulls them together to have such a great connection. It’s just like the label their relationship got, “The Groovy and the Geek” how opposites attract.

“Mia, Mia, Mia. This is the you I like, you definitely dressed sexier and are, you know, blond, and that's different. But the you who you are tonight is the same you I was in love with yesterday, the you I'll be in love with tomorrow. I love that fragile and tough, quiet and kick-ass. Hell, you're one of the punkest girls I know, no matter who you listen to or what you wear.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the photo above its Mia and Adam on Halloween, and Mia went as a punk rocker because she thought Adam would like her more if she was dress more like the girl he thought she wanted to be like. Adam went as Beethoven because he wanted to impress Mia. This picture illustrates the quote that is above.