If I Stay is a book that moved me, made me think, and which I will no doubt return to for a second and third reading. In the opening sequence of the book 17-year-old Mia and her family are involved in a serious car accident. Comatose Mia is taken to hospital alone, where she finds herself in a suspended state – moving outside her physical body and watching events unfold from a distance.

In a series of beautifully-paced memories, the reader learns all about Mia’s life – her former rocker parents, her personable little brother Teddy, her boyfriend Adam. Forman’s characters are complete, idiosyncratic and believable; the kind of funny, honest and quirky people I wish I knew myself. The suspense grows as Mia’s memories wind around the real-life action in the hospital. Will Mia survive? Does she want to stay in a world that will be vastly different to the one she knew before the accident?

This is a formidably written and life-affirming book that deserves a wide readership beyond the young adult fiction age bracket.