Gayle Forman tells the story of seventeen-year old Cello prodigy Mia, who survives a car crash in which the rest of her family is killed. The premise of the book is that, sometimes when we are hovering between life and death, we can chose whether we stay or go.
I did enjoy this book and it made me cry, but that’s really not unusual. At the best of times, I can be overly emotionally susceptible to films and books, so pregnancy hormones are probably making me twice as bad. I thought the writing was good, well paced and the flashback scenes tied in well with Mia’s current situation of finding herself in limbo, watching over her battered body and grieving relatives and friends and deciding whether or not she can bear to live without her immediate family.
However, a few things irked me about Mia’s relationships. Her parents seemed just that bit too cool and perfect. Mia is a teenager and yet not one flashback recalls a tense moment between her and her parents. Whilst I understand that the purpose of the flashbacks is to highlight how much she has lost, it sometimes felt unrealistic to me. There was no teenage angst, no rebellion, no mention of her finding her parents embarrassing at any time (even though her dad dresses exclusively in 50s suits and bowties and her mum is extremely opinionated and hot headed). She gets on perfectly with her much younger brother and, to be perfectly honest, I found their interactions cloyingly sweet at times.
Crucially, I never quite brought into Adam and Mia as a couple. Their ‘tough times’ are what any teenage couple might go through – one going to this university, the other going to another. What happens when we go our separate ways? Will our love transcend distance and the novelty of uni? Nothing new here. Interestingly, Adam was the one that seemed most affected by this thought, not Mia. Whilst I do think teenagers are often underestimated in their capacity for treating love with respect and wisdom, Mia and Adam just didn’t gel for me.
In fact, Mia was sometimes quite detached from what was happening in her life. I would have liked to have read more about her grief at losing her family – I didn’t feel like Forman emphasised this enough. Mia never wonders about whether she will still even be able to play the cello should she decide to stay. I kept expecting her to overhear one of the doctors speculating over whether this would be a possibility for her, or even for one of her visitors to bring this issue up. As music seemed to be such an integral part of her life, and indeed the book, I felt this was quite a large omission from the story. It certainly would have made her decision that much more difficult to make if it transpired that she may not be able to play the cello ever again.
I also felt that perhaps not enough of her personality came through. She is supposed to have a dry sense of humour but that was only shown a couple of times. As people often deal with extreme situations with humour, I thought perhaps Forman missed an opportunity for the reader to engage with Mia a little more. Humour could have been used to bring Kim to life too – she is supposed to be the best friend, but seemed much more of a minor character. I barely remember much about her except that she has untameable hair and is Jewish.
So, I realise that, at the beginning of this review, I did mention that I enjoyed this book and yet I seem to have spent four paragraphs eviscerating it. I really liked the theme of music that ran through the book. The idea that music bonds people and has the ability to bring people together really resonates with me. Forman could have been overly dramatic and emotionally manipulative but I thought her writing was clean and unfettered. The flashbacks of Mia’s life were well constructed and flowed pretty seamlessly with the current time line. Adam’s speech at the end of the book was pitched just right – my tears were shed here – it was an emotional moment, not unexpected but not at all overdone.
I loved Gramps – he was the character that really stood out for me. Probably quite a stereotypical Grandfather but stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, right? I thought he was really well developed, a very likeable character who showed a tremendous amount of empathy and strength.
So, would I recommend this book? Yes, I think I would. I would class it as a light read, despite the subject matter. It’s not a long book, but it does pose an interesting question and some of the scenes are really quite powerful. Given that it’s marketed as YA, I would give it a 7/10 rating.
Next up? Not sure – hope to get another book through from Transworld soon…
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