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If I Stay - Gayle Forman

So...I finally read this over the weekend. I will say it was a fast one, like I started it Sat morning and finished it that afternoon (and I wasn't reading constantly, I was running errands a good bit too). I do read fast, but there was something about this, like it's supposed to be so wrenching,(and the description of the crash totally is)so difficult, so emotional, so, so, so and maybe I'm just old and cynical and have a stone for a heart, but I didn't really get that. It felt emo for emo's sake and that kind of bugs. 

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to love about this book. The main character, Mia, is interesting, well rounded, exists outside of her boyfriend, smart, talented, has a best girl friend (who's actually a friend), loves her family and is generally the kind of person you'd like to know. The characters all act in reasonable and understandably human ways that work. For me, however, there was something, like it just felt a little hollow to me, the characters behaved a little bit too much as they "should" not as they "would." I don't know, I think maybe it just didn't fully resonate with me the way it has for so many other readers (psst, and that's ok, I still liked it). I don't think I'm going to continue on to the next one though, it just fell a little flat to me.