Because She Stayed

In her first book, If I Stay, Gayle Forman told the story of Mia, a young woman left in a coma by the same car accident that killed her mother, father, and little brother. She tells the story as she watches over her unconscious body and the friends and family who plead with her to stay. We know she chose to stay, but I always wondered where she went. Now we know...

When Mia came back, one of the only reason she returned was for her boyfriend and best friend, Adam. Now, three years later, Adam has become an angry, unhappy man. His band is famous, he is dating a famous actress, and he has the world at his fingertips, but he can't have the one thing he really wants: Mia. After she woke up, Adam stayed with her on the long, painful road to recovery. Her determination to play the cello again was one of the driving forces that kept her going. When she left for Julliard the following fall, Adam headed to the LA with his band. Although they were a continent apart, Adam was determined to stay together. what he didn't understand at first was that Mia needed to move on, from both the accident and everything that reminded her of the accident, including Adam.

After three years apart, Adam is in New York with his band, ready to continue their European tour. On a whim, he decides to stay in New York one more night, and he finds himself drawn to the concert hall where Mia is playing. After her concert is finished, she sends someone to bring him backstage. It is that choice, that instant, that changes their lives forever. The survivor's guilt, the shame, the grief, the loss, all come flooding back to both of them as they spend an awkward night together. Mia convinces Adam to take a farewell tour of NYC with her that one last night before she leaves for Japan on her own tour. He agrees, but he seems to do so in the same punishment-seeking way he is about his entire life- believing he doesn't deserve anything better. Along the journey, Mia and Adam share their deepest pains and find in one another the people they once knew as well as the people they have become.

This is a beautiful story full of grief and heartache. Told from Adam's perspective, you can understand how he grieves as much as Mia, although his grief was never realized since they technically weren't his family (although in all aspects but biology they were indeed his family). The reader can also see the grief pattern Mia has experienced where she is simply tired of being treated like the victim. For three years she experienced everyone, from her grandparents to her professors, treating her like she was fragile and would break at any moment. She hated it. She was tired of everyone giving her a free pass because of her family. She just wanted to be seen for who she was: a girl, a cellist, a person who didn't lose everything and at the same time, a person who did lose everything. Together, Mia and Adam heal one another, and it is a story you need to experience to understand.

I not only suggest this story for anyone who read the first book, but I also recommend both books as a great story for struggling readers. The story starts with a traumatizing event and continues in a full story arc through the culmination of the sequel. It is a well-envisioned and beautiful story that will undoubtedly touch anyone who graces its pages. Gayle Forman is a great author, and I am grateful she decided to continue this story.