This is one of the few stories that will always have a special place on my bookshelf. Gayle Forman does a wonderful job writing about the most difficult things that we face in life; loss, friendship, family, and love.
It started out as a normal day for 17-year-old Mia. Mia, her parents, and her little brother Teddy were on there way to Henry and Willow’s house: Mia’s parents’ old friends. Besides arguing a little over the music selection and spots of snow on the road, everything was fine. Once Mia’s classical music came on, she drifted to sleep while listening to Beethoven’s Cello Sonata no. 3.
Mia is standing in a ditch. The car is torn to pieces, hit by a 4 ton pickup truck going 60 miles per hour. Beethoven’s Cello Sonata no. 3 is somehow still playing. She sees her father laying unmoving on the road;
Pieces of my father’s brain are on the asphalt. But his pipe is in his left breast pocket.
What she is seeing doesn’t completely register with her. She thinks it’s a bad dream. Then she sees her mother;
There’s almost no blood on her, but her lips are already blue and the whites of her eyes are completely red, like a ghoul from a low-budget monster movie.
Mia, unable to look, turns her head to the ruined car. A hand with a metal charm bracelet sticks out; her charm bracelet. She walks over to see herself lying in the car, her clothes and hair soaked with blood. Her leg has split open and her bone is visible. Suddenly Mia thinks about her brother, Teddy, and where he is. She runs back to the road asking herself, Am I dead?, and then she hears the sirens. She knows that this is real.
Mia’s body is rushed to the hospital, and she falls into a coma. For the rest of the story, Mia has flashbacks of times with her family and friends. She struggles with the decision of giving up and being with her family, or holding on to life and pursuing her dreams with the weight of her mom, dad, and brother being dead. Also, while Mia is in the hospital, her friends go to great lengths to see her and discover what is really happening while she’s in a coma.