Summary

If I Stay, by Gayle Forman, is not divided into chapters. It is written as a continuing narrative taking place over a twenty-four hour period. The book opens at 7:09 a.m. as seventeen-year-old Mia, her eight-year-old brother Teddy, and their parents celebrate the fact that a snowfall of less than an inch has shut down school in their Oregon town. Since her father is a teacher, he has the day off. Her mother decides to take the day off from her job so the family can take a drive to visit friends and later have dinner with her grandparents. Mia is excited because tonight she will go to Portland to see her boyfriend Adam’s up-and-coming band called Shooting Stars as they open for a concert. Mia is also a musician; but, unlike Adam, she plays the cello. She loves...