If I Stay Choices

When you're a teenager, you have a lot of different choices to make. Choosing extracurricular activities, finding the right part-time job, and figuring out what college to attend can all be tough decisions. But none of them are life-and-death situations. In If I Stay, Mia does have a life-or-death decision to make—the choice between life and death. It's a choice very few people expect to make, especially at such a young age, but it provides the book's big conflict. Which will she choose?

Questions About Choices

1. Does Mia actually have a choice whether she lives or dies?
2. What will Mia choose after she wakes up—Juilliard or Adam?
3. Would Adam really choose Mia over his music career? Would this choice make either of them happy?

Chew on This

Mia lives a privileged life and a privileged death. Not only does she have a wealth of choices in life—where to go to college, what instrument to play, which fairy-tale ending she'd like for her life—she can also choose to live or die. Every aspect of her own life is under her control.

Mia's parents were often left without a choice. Both their kids were surprises, and their own death was also a surprise. They had to adapt to what life dealt them, and Mia must do the same after her accident.