55. If I Stay - Gayle Forman

for: YA
Dutton Books/Penguin, April 2009
$16.99
200 pgs.
Rating: 5 (or maybe 4.5 because it made me cry)

Right from the beginning you know that there will be a catastrophe and what that catastrophe is. And, yuh, I did cry, but not 'til the end....whew....I just couldn't help it.

This story is layer after layer of character development woven beautifully together. Love. Family. Quirkiness. And music. Lots and lots of music- punk and classical and many more of those aforementioned layers in between. It's clever and heart-warming and tells the story of a 17 year-old cellist bound for Juilliard, from her point-of-view.....her point-of-view as an out-of-body protagonist that is watching her family and friends as she hovers in a coma after a dreadful car accident.

I don't want to give any more spoilers. The story is so beautifully written and pulls you in so quickly that you very badly want to know these people. And don't decide not to read it because you don't like sad stories. It's too good to do that.

In the afterword, Forman says that she listened to Glen Hasard and Marketa Irglova sing Falling Slowly 200 times while she wrote this book. I SO love that song - it's on my FAVORITES playlist on my IPod. And if you saw the movie Once, you've heard it, too. That REALLY endeared me to the author.

What a great piece of storytelling.