It isn't even an inch, but in this part of Oregon a slight dusting brings everything to a standstill as the one snowplow in the county gets busy clearing the roads. I wake up this morning to a thin blanket of white covering our front lawn. Mia finds herself trapped in a world somewhere between life and death.Įveryone thinks it was because of the snow.

She grapples with typical teenage dilemmas, but these seemingly imperative issues are quickly forgotten when an accident kills her and her family. The book centers on Mia, a young cellist whose life is imperfect but securely ordinary. Although it may not be a thriller in the traditional sense, it incorporates the one perpetual question that lies at the heart of every suspense novel: Will the protagonist survive? The twist that Forman incorporates, however, is that the answer lies with the protagonist herself.

There are no ruthless men with guns, no diabolical lawyers, no serial murderers. But something told me this book was 'the one.' And sometimes you just can't let a special book go.Ī novel about a teenage musician is a far departure from the traditional model of a thriller. My first encounter with Gayle Forman's If I Stay began like most of my romances - for purely physical reasons. Some I bought for their covers, some for the feel of the paper, and some I had a genuine interest in - until a newer, glossier novel caught my eye. Were I to write my confessions, I would have to admit to buying books for purely aesthetic reasons.

If i stay gayle