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The Next Twilight?
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Gayle Forman’s young-adult novel If I Stay won’t be published until April, but it’s already being adapted for Hollywood by the studio behind the blockbuster vampire movie. Will it eclipse Twilight?
The night before Twilight opened in November, teenage girls all across the country pitched tents outside of movie theaters. Summit Entertainment—the film’s distributor—knew it had a goldmine.
The film enjoyed a $70 million opening weekend, catapulting the best-selling book series into an even higher stratosphere. To date, the Twilight books have sold over 22 million copies, author Stephenie Meyer has been named USA Today’s Author of 2008, and her four books locked down all four top spots on its best-selling book list.
“There was a question that haunted me for years,” says author Gayle Forman. “What would you do if the rest of your family had died, and you could choose to go with them? What would you do?”
As the dust settles from the film’s tremendous success, another tween star is looming: If I Stay, a forthcoming novel by Gayle Forman. Forman is an upbeat, Brooklyn-based mom who used to write social-justice stories for Seventeen. She has published one young-adult novel, Sisters in Sanity, and a travel memoir, You Can’t Get There From Here.
Sarah Burnes of Gernert Co., Forman’s agent, was also the acquiring editor of Alice Sebold’s bestselling The Lovely Bones, to which If I Stay has already been compared. If I Stay is due out next month and has already been optioned by Summit, andTwilight’s director, Catherine Hardwicke, has signed on to direct.
If I Stay is the story of Mia, a senior in an Oregon high school who is an avid cellist bound for Juilliard. On a snow day, Mia and her family drive to visit friends, and suffer a brutal head-on collision. Mia is left in a coma, and yet is fully aware that her parents and younger brother have died. She watches events unfold around her from her bed in the Intensive-care unit, and is left with the decision: whether to die with her family, or live in a world without them.
If I Stay. By Gayle Forman. 208 pages. Dutton Juvenile. $16.99.
“There was a question that’s haunted me for years,” Forman told The Daily Beast about her creative process. “What would you do if the rest of your family had died, and you were cognizant of this, and you could choose to go with them? What would you do, if you had to choose? And one day out of the blue, Mia arrived—a totally fictional, fully formed 17-year-old cello player—to answer it.”
Similar to The Lovely Bones—which also features an out-of-body narrator—there was initial dispute over whether If I Stay was a YA book because of its sophisticated and tragic content. (ultimately, Bones was not marketed as YA). The book centers on the choice between life and death, a weighty subject for teens. And while If I Stay will now be released in the U.S. as a young-adult novel, it is being marketed as both YA and adult fiction in Britain—an attempt by its publisher to attract a wider audience.
Now that Summit has acquired If I Stay, the company faces challenges similar to those it confronted in the making and marketing the film of Twilight. Can it remain true to the book and yet broaden its appeal to an older audience?
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I'm personally not a fan of the "Twilight" series, but to suggest that a book like this would be the next "Twilight" seems delusional at best. Seriously, are you drunk?
To be a huge run-away hit with young girls, to the point of rabid fandom, it requires the fantasy elements that the "Twilight" series has - this book has zero of that.
Not that it won't be successful, but why even compare two ridiciulous non-related treatments? Because they are both aimed at young adult audiences?
As the person above said, this is more like a Lifetime movie, not a blockbuster teen hit.
I'm glad I'm the only one who believes there is a qualitative difference between a total mind-candy fantasy about falling in love with a VAMPIRE, and a first-person narrative about a girl stuck in a coma who is trying to decide if she should die like the rest of her family or stay alive.
"Twilight" is a fairy tale - this book sounds pretty grim.
I have to say that I disagree with the comments above.
I was a high school sophomore and my youngest sister was a sixth grader when "The Lovely Bones" came out. We were both avid fans of that book, telling everyone we knew that they simply had to read it.
The subject was dark and grim, took place 25 years ago and didn't have any of the "fantasy elements that the "Twilight" series has" yet every girl I went to high school with was reading it faithfully.
I think people are underestimating this particular fan base. You make it sound as if all you need to do it shake a pretty boy and glitter in front of their faces and it'll be a sure hit. Teenagers don't need Romeo-esque vampires and romantic storylines in order to fall in love with a book and help coax it into "rabid fandom". They only need something to connect with. Teen girls are at that age when fantasy becomes more and more fleeting and the reality of humanity seeps in. While it is nice to escape to that fanciful world it is also equally intriguing to explore the other aspect of these new feelings and emotions. The words mean more. The story resonates deeper. Books like "If I Stay" and "The Lovely Bones" fit that bill quite eloquently. In the case of all three books it is only a matter of getting girls to feel "I could be that girl." They'll want to see her on screen, hear what her voice sounds like, and watch her interact with people.
If Forman can charm teenagers into becoming emotionally attached and connected with her character I am quite sure it could reach the fandom of "Twilight."
I also think that it could reach the Twilight fandom.
i loved the movie and im def looking forward to reading the book. i just wish the movie would of been longer and had more to it.
Why does everyone think that teens need an extremely romantic, glitzy story to catch their eye? I think all women/girls in general appreciate romance in their reading, but we still enjoy novels lacking romance. I am a teen, and yes I loved Twilight, but I also loved The Lovely Bones, To Kill a Mocking Bird, 1984, and The Hunger Games. I wouldn't say that those books revolve around romance. I can appreciate stories with depth and despair.
I definitely don't think this will be the "next twilight", simply because there are MANY amazing books out there that probably haven't even come to half the popularity of Twilight. But still, this isn't to say that it's impossible. People who think that for a book to be a "hit" that it has to deal with fantasies and love, look at Harry Potter. You can't just decide what will and won't be a hit judged by the summary of the book, you should probably stick your nose in it and read it first.
After hearing this book review for If I Stay, on the NPR book review this morning, i see here not just a morbid personal dilemma, but a great societal struggle. What will win out, Moral obligation or American narcissism? What is fascinating is that the protagonist's fate is hers to decide! To choose to die is a highly individualist, very western decision, and would ignore the fact that one's gift of living life in the first place makes him or her indebted to the bigger scheme of things, be it god, mankind, family heritage, or community. Will Mia factor in the concerns and feelings of the living- her boyfriend, her peers- and the yet to live- The family of her own she may have one day- into her choice to live or die? Does she not have a duty to give back to the society and culture that is ultimately responsible for her well being and her accomplishments that she enjoyed previous to the accident?
I don't know if i'd ever read gloomy book like this but i hope that Mia makes the right decision, heads off to college, and inspires others with her life story.
This book completely moved me, the way I thought about life is now not the same. I definitely think that this could reach to Twilight fandom, if not more.
Besides the movie production, the director and the love story between Mia and Adam, there is no more similitaries with Twilight. If I Stay is way more emotional and realistic. I think that even if the movie is done as an Independant movie, it could go far.
The actors should be unknown (well at least for Adam and Mia) so this way, people will be able to discover new actors and not having any opinion on them.
Teens could relate to Mia"s life more then Twilight, becaise in If I Stay, the book is about family, love, music and this is things that we face in everyday of our lifes. And I also think that it will appeal an older audience because this story could remind a memory of someone who had been something through the same kind of thing in their life.
In the story, Mia has the choice, and it is not everybody who had the choice to live or die and I think that is something that needs to be see by the population.
And Mia and Adam"s relationship could relate a lot more to the relationships in real life then Twilight.
So thit is my opinion, and If I Stay is one of the best book I ever read and Gayle Forman should make a sequel of If I Stay.
Thank you.
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