"the last 10 minutes"
so....lets start by saying I DID in fact cry the last 10 minutes of the book and I'm excited for the movie.
However; for whatever reason I couldn't get connected to this book at all. She's in a coma & it's just going back through all the memories which I guess didn't interest me. There is the possibility that I missed some of the "good" stuff because It just didn't have my attention. I really wanted to like this because of the reviews and I saw the trailer for the movie but for me it was just ....boring :(
"I probably won't listen to it aha"
I had a hard time getting into the story as I felt it very stereotypical because of the plot in itself -with the car accident and girl's out of body experience which are very easy plot lines that you can find written by any creative writing student- but also because of the use flashbacks and the way they are written. I usually am very fond of flashbacks and other literary devices to change the timeline of events but this didn't quite work for me. It was just too much told and not enough shown for my own liking.
But in the end, the performance made it worth it. There were times when the reader really got the emotion across through her voice and these moments were quite nice.
"Distracting word choice"
I love the story of this book. I'm an avid reader of young adult literature, and my high school students were all talking about this one, so I thought I'd give it a try. The story was good, but the language is not even close to the way a teenager would think or speak. The author used some really pretentious, complex vocabulary that REALLY took me out of the moment. The narration added to this at times- I had trouble getting through the first part of the book. Mia's parents read as the archetype, exaggerated hipster "cool-parents". It was really offputting. Once I got into the meat of the story, I let myself get swept up in the narrative and I could put those annoyances out of my mind.
"Very Good"
Good story & great reader. Glad that I saw the book and bought it. I was hoping that it would end like it did.
"Absurdly and floridly overwritten"
The writing in If I Stay made me want to leap out of my second story window to escape from it. Not the plot, which was adequate if melodramatic, the language itself. The use of three adjectives and two modifiers where the correct noun would have sufficed created a claustrophobic atmosphere and non-existent pacing. The author substituted words for story. This is the only one star review I've ever posted, but it is the only one star book I've ever downloaded.
"Good story but..."
Enjoyed the story and the play out. I wish the narrator had a younger sound/vibe for Mia.
"It was ok"
I loved it but there was one part that was just like ugh really seriously!