If you are looking for a tearjerker than this excellently crafted, but short novel for teens will be right up your alley. Seventeen-year-old Mia couldn't ask for things to get better. She is a talented cellist with a good chance of getting into Julliard. She has a great boyfriend whos also into music, though he leans more toward alternative/punk rock. She loves her parents, and her seven-year-old brother is not the usual annoying stereotype.

That is all about to change, and it happens in just a moment as the whole family is driving out for a visit to her grandparents. One moment, they are enjoying a beautiful winter drive. And the next, Mia is waking up in a dazed state. She runs over to check her parents to find that they have been killed. Next, she dashes over to who she thinks is her brother, but finds that it is herself, barely alive. EMS arrives and rushes her to the hospital.

From here on, readers join her on a journey as she is treated for severe injuries she might not survive. She is rushed in an out of surgery while remaining in a coma. The whole time, she is watching from a distance as friends, family, and medical personnel hope and pray that she will survive.

Its starts to become clear that she has a decision to make. With all the trauma and loss that she has faced, she can't help but question whether she even wants to survive. As a result, readers travel with her as she flashes backs through major points in her life. These visits to her own history show how she has been exposed to life, death, birth, love, sex, friendship, talent, and family.

It is really these memories and a number of touching moments as she watches her loved ones in ICU with her comatose body that ultimately help her find an answer to the question that makes up the title ... should she stay?

I wasn't looking forward to this one, mostly because the title didn't really call to me. Although, I understand the symbolism now that I have read the book. I am glad that I got a chance to read it since it was incredibly moving and thought provoking. Too rarely do any of us stop and take stock at the value of the people and life experiences that surround us. Mia is forced to do that just so she can decide whether it is worth it to fight to survive even as it means she will be without family.

Her ability to move around, separated from her comatose body reminded me a lot of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. The difference is that this is a book of introspection as the protagonist is confronted with death rather than using the unique perspective of a character to secretly look into the lives of her loved ones as they deal with her death.

This book strongly parallels Wendy Mass' Heaven Looks a Lot Like a Mall, in which the protagonist taking a chance to examine the ups and downs as they are confronted with death. Mass attempts to do it with a balance of seriousness and humor, but this novel does it much more strongly with a good dose of realism. The reader is not put off by the black humor or the need to constantly tie what is happening with the theme of the mall. Instead the reader can't help but be drawn to Mia and her friends and family's pain. You can't help but want to cheer her on so she will want to live, but you can also understand why she is questioning whether that is what she wants.

If I had to sum it up in one word ... I would say, "Amazing!"

WARNING: Tissues will likely be required while reading this book.