If I Stay

At the outset of the novel, Adam, Mia’s loving and sensitive boyfriend, is a college freshman and the lead-singer/guitarist in an up-and-coming regional rock band called Shooting Star. Having just signed a record deal with a Seattle music label, Adam must balance his musical ambitions with his love for Mia. Like Mia, he is a devoted musician who has the talent and focus necessary to achieve his musical aspirations. And, like Mia, he is torn between his love for music and his love and commitment to their relationship. 

Beyond his musical talent and characteristic devotion, Adam has a flair for the dramatic, and a love of the “grand gesture.” He saves two weeks of his pizza delivery money to take Mia on a dream date to see the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and when the hospital staff initially refuses him access to Mia in the ICU, he hatches a sequence of dramatic schemes to slip through hospital security. 

Adam is more than a boyfriend to Mia; he is a soul-mate, sharing her passion and talent for music. He is willing to sacrifice his personal desires—including the survival of their relationship—in order to put Mia’s needs first during her 24 hour struggle between life and death. Adam epitomizes the saving grace of unconditional love in the novel.

While Adam shares Mia’s talent and passion for music, Kim shares her sense of humor and her worldview. Like Mia, she prefers droll and dry humor, and she is quick-witted, resilient, and prone to hiding her emotions. Like Mia, she has dark-hair, dresses conservatively, and is very different from her emotional mother. Her moderate temperament makes her the voice of reason and restraint when the other characters in the novel, including Adam, hover on the brink of emotional collapse during Mia’s coma. In many ways, she is a rock of stability, humor, and resilient strength.

Though Kim is similar to Mia, her Jewish faith makes her somewhat unusual in Oregon. While Mia comes from a family of atheists, Kim is devout in her practice of Judaism, praying for Mia in the hospital chapel. Although Kim is not a musician, she provides unrelenting support and encouragement of Mia’s musical talent, convincing her to attend a summer conservatory and to follow her aspirations. In every way, Kim epitomizes love and friendship in its purest form.

Mia describes her mom as a former “rocker chick,” who dressed in fishnets and worshipped tough, rock starlets like Kim Gordon and Debbie Harry. Though she came from a broken family, and her own adolescence and early adulthood are marked by cultural rebellion and nonconformity, she becomes a terrific mother and loving wife, a figure of strength and fierce idealism that holds her family together. She not only encourages Mia to follow her musical dreams, but she supports her ambition to attend Julliard. Beyond this support, Mia’s mother is often the person Mia turns to when she needs advice, or is struggling with a difficult life decision. Though Mia’s mother is taken from her in the accident, her memory survives as an enduring representation of uncompromising toughness and willful strength.