The story starts with Mia's family enjoying a snow day out of school. The weather clears so they decide to have to some fun visiting friends and family. This is when Mia's life changes forever. The family is involved in a horrible car accident that immediately kills her parents and critically injures her and her younger brother, Teddy. The story is narated by Mia who has an out of body experience while she is in a coma. It bounces from current time events that Mia is witnessing her body endure and her memories, where we hear of her relationship with her parents, brother, best friend and boy friend.
The sequel to this story comes out on April 5 and I am really looking forward to it. This is a great, moving read.
The last normal moment that Mia, a talented cellist, can remember is being in the car with her family. Then she is standing outside her body beside their mangled Buick and her parents' corpses, watching herself and her little brother being tended by paramedics. As she ponders her state (Am I dead? I actually have to ask myself this), Mia is whisked away to a hospital, where, her body in a coma, she reflects on the past and tries to decide whether to fight to live. Via Mia's thoughts and flashbacks, Forman (Sisters in Sanity) expertly explores the teenager's life, her passion for classical music and her strong relationships with her family, friends and boyfriend, Adam. Mia's singular perspective (which will recall Alice Sebold's adult novel, The Lovely Bones) also allows for powerful portraits of her friends and family as they cope: Please don't die. If you die, there's going to be one of those cheesy Princess Diana memorials at school, prays Mia's friend Kim. I know you'd hate that kind of thing. Intensely moving, the novel will force readers to take stock of their lives and the people and things that make them worth living.
1 comment:
Wow. Intense. Don't know if I could handle that right now, but it is definitely on my 'to-do' list to read this.
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