Mia fan art courtesy NinjaKitty28
After reading the free sample on my Kindle for “If I Stay” by Gayle Forman, I knew I had to buy it. It is one of those books that you cannot put down, even when you really should go to bed. My first night reading it, I couldn’t go to sleep; I had to get up to find out what would happen to Mia. The same thing happened to me when I read the sequel, “Where She Went.” As I lay in bed, I tossed and turned as I wondered what would become of Adam. I became completely engrossed, involved, obsessedwith both novels. That’s how incredible Forman’s books are, and it all boiled to Adam and Mia.
Adam and Mia are different than most of the other YA couples I’ve encountered. Their love endures tragic circumstances that are seemingly insurmountable. Discovering how their love will endure despite the tragedy that surrounds them is what keeps you involved in their lives. You can’t help rooting for their love, even when it seems unsustainable.
Couple: Mia Hall and Adam Wilde
Ages: Between the two books their ages span from 17 & 18 to 20 & 21
Who Are They?: Adam is the frontman of an up-and-coming indie punk band, Shooting Star, and Mia is a Juilliard-trained cellist. Although they come from different worlds, their mutual love of music draws them together. Adam is drawn to Mia’s intensity when she plays the cello. Mia is drawn to Adam, who’s a fierce punk musician but also the gentlest of boyfriends.
Why Do We Love Them?: It’s easy to love Mia. She comes from a family that you quickly come to love. Her parents are former punk rockers. Mia’s love for classical music and the cello comes as a big surprise to her parents, but they are quickly supportive because they believe that loving music is more important than the type of music. Adam is that incredibly cool and unique guy that truly doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him. He is one of those people that “marches to the beat of his own drummer”. When he first asks Mia out it’s to a Yo-Yo Ma concert that he saved up two weeks’ worth of pizza delivery tips. To cement his “cool factor” he wears a sharkskin suit and Creepers. Together, they bridge the gap between classical music and alt rock. Together, they are Groovy and the Geek.
Mia on Adam:
“Still his attention baffled me. It wasn’t that Adam was such a popular guy. He wasn’t a jock or a most-likely-to-succeed sort. But he was cool. Cool in that he had his own rockery style, procured from thrift stores and garage sales, not from Urban Outfitters knock-offs. Cool in that he seemed totally happy to sit in the lunchroom absorbed in a book, not just pretending to read because he didn’t have anywhere to sit or anyone to sit with.”
“I thought of the tuning fork I used to adjust my cello. Hitting it sets off vibrations in the note of A-vibrations that keep growing and growing, until the harmonic pitch fills up the room. That’s what Adam’s grin was doing to me during dinner.”
“I force my head up and my eyes open. Adam. God even in this state, he is beautiful.”
Adam on Mia:
“I love that you’re fragile and tough… you’re one of the punkest girls I know, no matter who you listen to or what you wear.”
“An image of Mia flashes before my eyes. Seventeen years old, those dark eyes full of love, intensity, fear, music, magic, grief. Her freezing hands.”
“I simply want to touch her cheek, still flushed from the night’s performance. I want to cut through the space that separates us, measured in feet—not miles, not continents, not years—and to take a callused finger to her face. I want to touch her to make sure it’s really her…”
I really loved Mia and Adam. I think my favorite thing about them was that their relationship was realistic. After what happened to her and her family, there was no way her life could be “happily ever after.” There were things that they each needed to figure out about themselves first. And so when they reunite, you believe that they are strong enough for their love to endure.
i simply LOVED Mia and Adam. I couldn’t get my mind off them for weeks. I kept writing “Mia + Adam” on my hands inside a heart. I love how real their relationship seems no matter how fictional it is. They touched me. I kept wishing Adam would somehow become a real life person (sadly it didn’t work 😉 haha. I think Gayle Forman did a miraculous job at these two books.
Adam+Mia