Point of View

If I Stay is written in the first person from the point of view of Mia, the main character. The entire story takes place in Mia's mind as she lies unconscious in a hospital following a devastating car accident. As the book's narrator, Mia switches back and forth between the present tense, which she uses when talking about what she is currently thinking or what is going on around her, and the past tense, which she uses when she reflects on her life and relationships.

Using a first-person narrator means that the reader always knows exactly what Mia is thinking and feeling, including during her reflections on previous experiences. However, we only see the other characters through her eyes with no opportunity to get information from their own perspectives.

Language and Meaning

If I Stay is told from the perspective of an American teenage girl...