If We Stay

Click to read my thoughts on the books: If I Stay and its sequel Where She Went.

There is a reason that I have not done any sort of write-up about If I Stay the movie, despite in what high favor I hold the book on which the movie was based. And, no, the reason is not that I was disappointed by the movie. The reason is simply that, even as a movie, this story remains immensely personal.

Looking back at my first post on the book back in 2010, I see that I compared it to reading a memoir because of how important Mia becomes to the reader. And I think this is Gayle Forman's power as a write: she can portray human emotion and human relationships with full, beautiful, and tragic power. But how do you take a text like that and put it on a screen? Isn't a screen something public and far away?

If I Stay was not a big release in theatres and the movie had a tiny budget. I do wish it had had more of a budget so that it could have had prettier cinematography or a more unifying score, things like that. But on the other hand, a small movie has power of its own. If the whole world isn't watching with you, you have the chance to be alone with the story and to let your reaction be your reaction only--like reading a book in silence.

So let me focus on what worked well in this movie. While I think there was more focus on Mia's relationship with Adam, there was still that family dynamic within the movie that I think is so scarcely portrayed well in either movies or TV. That in itself in entirely refreshing and endearing to see. And as far as Mia and Adam go, you know what I like best about their relationship? They have music in common because it is something so important to them both but they each focus on entirely opposite kinds of music. The inclusion of both Adam's rock band and Mia's cello music brought in exactly the right atmosphere because this is the music of the characters. I only wish there had been more of this music and less of the generic pop songs that were also part of the soundtrack. 

After seeing the movie, I went on iTunes and bought most of the Willamette Stone (Adam's band) songs from the soundtrack. These are so well put together. The quality is designed to reflect where the band is at each point in time and the lyrics and sound go along with the plot and emotions of each moment, as well. Each song come to be so touching, in different and developing ways. First it is the story of young love and bright hopes for the future. Then it is struck by tragedy and seeks a new kind of joy, one that has surpassed all the physical pain of the world. 

Where She Went

A while back, I posted my thoughts on Gayle Forman's If I Stay; you can read that post here. As you can see, I very much enjoyed that book. When I heard, however, about its sequel, I wasn't sure what to think. If I Stay just doesn't seem like a book that can have a sequel: the point about it was encapsulated in one moment in time.

But I was underestimating an author I had enjoyed. (Light spoilers below, I suppose.)

While If I Stay is from Mia's perspective but is very much about her loved ones and her relationships with them, Where She Went is from Adam's perspective but is very much about Mia and their relationship. In the first chapter or so, I wasn't too keen on the perspective change. But it works out wonderfully: it allows the sequel to do the same thing that the original did without repeating itself. Like its predecessor, Where She Went is heartbreaking, sweet, tragic, raw, and lovely. It, too, is about a single moment, but a moment influenced by other moments and that also will influence future moments.

I suppose you could call it sentiment, but that doesn't sound quite right. I was one of the few people on the planet who thought The Notebook was a boring movie (maybe not boring: it just didn't affect me). So it isn't so much sentiment, but emotion brought out into center stage. I'll also say that this book was one of the cases where a present tense narrative worked: sometimes I even forgot that it was present tense (as opposed to some other books where the tense might just drag the pace down into slowness).

There is a reason I haven't said much about plot: summarizing would just remove the elements from how they exist in the book. I don't want to do that: they're quite comfortable where they are. It's hard to look at just one element when they're all part of a whole.

So, yes, Gayle Forman managed to put together a sequel that did justice to the first book I enjoyed. If you read If I Stay but haven't gotten around to this one yet, you must.

If I Stay

A week ago, I read Gayle Forman's book If I Stay, mainly because Kaleb Nation wrote a review of it for NPR. I tacked the book onto an Amazon order so that I could get free shipping, as one does.

The premise is similar to The Lovely Bones, yet very different; that book did not resonate with me the way that this one did. Instead of a 13-year old who is tells us on the first page that she was murdered and then explains what happens as she watches down on her family as they deal with/don't deal with the trajedy, If I Stay is in the voice of a 17-year old whose entire family is in a fatal car crash in the first chapter. She realizes that she is still alive (for now) and struggles to accept her new situation and what decision she must now make. The Lovely Bones was about "an event;" If I Stay was more about plain emotion.

At times, it was greatly saddening: descriptions of Mia's life and her relationships are set against what is happening now at the hospital. It is a short book that I thought at first would only take me a day, but I had to slow down for the first half. After that, I moved more quickly because I simply had to know what Mia would do. She becomes so important to you as you read: it's more like reading someone's memoir than a novel.

And when I finally closed the back cover, I felt like calling everyone I know to tell them how I appreciate them . . . I didn't actually do that, but the point is, this book made a definite impact on me. That's a big statement for me. I found this book so close in with human experience that I had to take something from it and continue pondering its content.

It seems Summit Entertainment is trying to make a movie out of it. We'll see how that goes.