Review: I'm Still Here by Clélie Avit

Title: I'm Still Here
Author: Clélie Avit
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publish Date: August 23, 2016
Source: Publisher

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Elsa is spending her thirtieth birthday in the hospital bed where she's lain for months after a devastating mountain accident. Unable to speak, see, or move, she appears to be in an irreversible coma, but her friends and family don't know that she's regained the power of hearing.

That day, a stranger named Thibault enters the hospital to visit his brother, who's just been injured in an accident that killed two young girls. He instead seeks refuge in the room where Elsa lies, and quickly becomes intrigued by the young woman, returning day after day to sit beside her, convinced that his words are being heard.

As their connection grows, the doctors deliver a devastating blow to her family. Is it possible that Thibault knows something no one else does, and can he reach her before it's too late?"

My Two Cents:

"I'm Still Here" is the story of Elsa who finds herself in a hospital after a devastating accident at work. The problem is that she is in a coma but has started to be able to hear what goes on around her. Thibault is a man whose brother is in the same hospital is also after causing a car accident while drunk. Thibault is so mad at his brother that he can't stand to be in his hospital room so he wanders into Elsa's hospital room. All he knows about her is what is written in her chart. In a strange twist, he begins to fall for her. Elsa knows that Thibault is there.

This is a modern take on the sleeping beauty fairy tale. I love fairy tale retellings and while this is not exactly a true fairy tale retelling, it has a lot of elements of the sleeping beauty tale that really drew me in.

I really like that the story is told both from Elsa and Thibault's perspective. Elsa can only hear so she doesn't actually see what is going on around here her and uses her imagination to fill in the gaps. Elsa can't talk to also so she only has a slanted view as to what's going on. I thought that it was interesting to have some parts of the story not be there because of the perspective of the two main characters.

When this book ended, I found myself wondering about what was next for the two main characters. The book is left very open-ended and while I was frustrated with that, I still enjoyed the idea that it was open to the reader to determine what happened next. I could definitely see there being a follow on to this book as to where the story goes for these characters.