If I Stay--If I Read the Book, If I Watch the Movie

MAAAANY of you have read the very popular book by Gayle Forman, If I Stay, about a teenage girl that has an out of body experience after being involved in a car crash that kills her parents and her little brother....

And she is left in a coma struggling with the possibilities IF she stays...or IF she goes.

Summary from Goodreads:

Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make.

Most of you know that a film was made from this book:

Most of the time, I am fairly skeptical of cinematic portrayals of books.  But over the weekend, I found it on NetFlix and decided it was worth a try--it couldn't be worse than the movie version of The Fault in Our Stars... 

I was actually blown away by this film! Yes, it's a chick flick, a sob story, but it is soooo much more than that.  The film really captures Mia's love of music and her determination to be a great cellist.  I absolutely love that it's the MUSIC and Julliard that really makes her consider life over death--not some high school romance.  

I also really like Chloe Grace Moretz--I think she's a terrific up and coming actress for all these teen movies.  I hope to see her in more...she's actually starring in the NEW TEEN book to movie, The 5th Wave that I read and reviewed!