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Honestly, I have a thing for books about relationship abuse or obsession, and this is a good one. Clara is a young girl who gets over her head in a relationship and escapes to a beach house with her father to get away from her obsessive exboyfriend and finally start to move on with her life.
I love the way Deb Caletti writes, even if I don’t like the little footnotes she adds. I love the characters of this book because they’re all eccentric and interesting in their own way. I love the subtle way she uses foreshadowing and how everything links together in the end. I love the story. This is a good, solid book.
On the other hand though, I couldn’t give it a five because of a few annoying factors. Christian, the ex-boyfriend, may be jealous, possessive, and obsessive, but he’s never physically abusive and I was kind of waiting for it to happen throughout the novel, but it never does, giving it an anticlimactic feel. In the beginning, the book switches back and forth between the present and the past, making me read quickly through the present descriptions so I could get back to the meat of the story and read about her relationship with Christian, an obvious thing the reader would want to know more about. It definitely adds more suspense to the story and I’m sure it came off a lot better this way than if it had gone in chronological order, but it still drove me a little crazy.
There was also the unbelievable factor. The way everything ties together throughout the entire novel. The idea that a girl fresh out of a constricting relationship could get involved with another boy while on a recovery vacation.
But really, the book was amazing. I love the recurring themes of ghosts and the way she thinks about them. I love the narration and the way the main character thought and explained things. I loved the relationship between her and her father and the way that the story of her mother’s death played out.
I would recommend this book to anyone. Deb Caletti really has something special. I love her books and I loved this one.
I love the way Deb Caletti writes, even if I don’t like the little footnotes she adds. I love the characters of this book because they’re all eccentric and interesting in their own way. I love the subtle way she uses foreshadowing and how everything links together in the end. I love the story. This is a good, solid book.
On the other hand though, I couldn’t give it a five because of a few annoying factors. Christian, the ex-boyfriend, may be jealous, possessive, and obsessive, but he’s never physically abusive and I was kind of waiting for it to happen throughout the novel, but it never does, giving it an anticlimactic feel. In the beginning, the book switches back and forth between the present and the past, making me read quickly through the present descriptions so I could get back to the meat of the story and read about her relationship with Christian, an obvious thing the reader would want to know more about. It definitely adds more suspense to the story and I’m sure it came off a lot better this way than if it had gone in chronological order, but it still drove me a little crazy.
There was also the unbelievable factor. The way everything ties together throughout the entire novel. The idea that a girl fresh out of a constricting relationship could get involved with another boy while on a recovery vacation.
But really, the book was amazing. I love the recurring themes of ghosts and the way she thinks about them. I love the narration and the way the main character thought and explained things. I loved the relationship between her and her father and the way that the story of her mother’s death played out.
I would recommend this book to anyone. Deb Caletti really has something special. I love her books and I loved this one.
How to start. How to start. Perhaps with what made me unable to put this book down when I got it last evening. First paragraph-
" First off, I've never told this story to anyone. Not the entire thing anyway, and not entirely truthfully. I'm only telling it now for one reason, and that's because an untold story has a weight that can submerge you, sure as a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean. I learned that. This kind of story, those kind of things kept secret- they have the power to keep you hidden forever, and most of all from yourself. The ghosts from that drowned ship, they keep haunting."
That first paragraph resonated with me so much that I had to dive in with my head and for once, open up that little place I allow to feel, my heart. I knew Clara from the minute she met Christian and knew exactly why she did every action she did. I'd once held the power Clara felt of having someone love her so much that they'd do anything to keep her. It's powerful and wonderful and scary to be the one that loves less. But it's all consuming and Clara learns that there is a dark side to the power and Christian. And his jealousies and walking on eggshells and having to lie about her past becomes too much. It's emotionally draining. And dangerous in a way Clara can't even imagine. She and Christian were perfect and then Christian, perfect, beautiful, foreign Christian let his insecurities begin to show and there was no forgetting. And there is accommodating and adjusting for certain things in a relationship and then there is what Clara did for Christian.
But this is not one of those stories where you can say "Oh stupid girl" and want to shake her because Clara has brought us into the story with her. We are Clara for lack of a better way to explain it. She put little asterisks in her story. Example- She lets us know her mother is dead.* Then at the bottom of the page
"*Yes this story has a dead mother. Mine. She had a sudden aneurysm when I was barely four. Died before she could even get to a hospital. Dead mother's have become a story cliche thanks to Disney movies and novel writers. All the dead mothers in books, you'd think it was a common occurrence. Even Dad's books have them. But mine was real. She was no cliche and neither am I." It's Clara's story and she's writing it not Deb Caletti. The author is not between us and Clara. She's removed herself and I kept checking the description of the book to make sure this was fiction and not Deb Caletti's real story.
Because the author removed herself from the story, I felt very close to Clara. I identified with her, understood her trying to spare Christian's feelings, trying time and time to remove the hurt. She was a nice girl. She was nice to people and breaking up with someone, well it makes her feel not nice. And she's sure that Christian's reactions are her fault, for that first giddy feeling of power. The one she can't admit to at first but then tells her Dad, her Dad the writer who seems less like a Dad and more like an adult friend that takes care of Clara. He respects her way more than any parent I've ever seen to be called a parent. Yet he is parental when necessary, he doesn't tell Clara "no" when he doesn't like Christian. But when he sees warning signs, danger, he takes action. But if Clara feels shame and can't forgive herself, her father feels even worse. This stalwart man who plays metaphor games and would rather use clues to guess who's house they are renting than google him, the one that insists on protecting his daughter has a big secret. One that changes everything for Clara. She keeps us with her throughout the novel, with her asterisks as if she's sitting beside us letting us know the secret thoughts she had while putting her story down. While unburdening her of the ghosts. More than one passage made me stop and I had to read it over and over sinking into what it really was saying, not just the words on the top layer, but the deeper meaning.
I felt so many emotions reading this novel and when I finished it, I wanted to pick it up and start again. And I will. I'll learn something new that I didn't catch the first time as I ate it up. It isn't a light read or easy. It's philosophical and deep with emotion and thought. It is definitely character driven. Clara brings us along through every emotion dragging us through the dirty self doubt and self incrimination to the final triumph of anger. Does she grow in this book? We're sitting here while she tells her story aren't we? Dad is a big character in this novel and I like the relationship he and Clara have. Does Dad grow? From a famous author to a human being, at least for Clara. There is of course Christian. And if you don't know a Christian in male or female form, then you're lucky. I have a magnet for these type of people. There are other secondary characters that bring some much needed relief to the tension in Clara's life.
If I had a rating system, stars, hearts, rabbits, hats, gold coins any of the creative things I've seen other reviewers use I'd throw all the things I had into a pot and make the biggest star, heart, rabbit, hat, gold coin and make it dance, sing, shoot fire works whatever. This is the best realistic fiction I have ever read. This is the best YA I have read. This is the best book I have read. Never have I felt more a part of a story, never have I been so involved, so unsure of the outcome, so tentative as Clara moved ahead with her/my life. I wouldn't have Deb Caletti change even one word in this novel. It isn't entertaining. It's more than realistic. It's real.
" First off, I've never told this story to anyone. Not the entire thing anyway, and not entirely truthfully. I'm only telling it now for one reason, and that's because an untold story has a weight that can submerge you, sure as a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean. I learned that. This kind of story, those kind of things kept secret- they have the power to keep you hidden forever, and most of all from yourself. The ghosts from that drowned ship, they keep haunting."
That first paragraph resonated with me so much that I had to dive in with my head and for once, open up that little place I allow to feel, my heart. I knew Clara from the minute she met Christian and knew exactly why she did every action she did. I'd once held the power Clara felt of having someone love her so much that they'd do anything to keep her. It's powerful and wonderful and scary to be the one that loves less. But it's all consuming and Clara learns that there is a dark side to the power and Christian. And his jealousies and walking on eggshells and having to lie about her past becomes too much. It's emotionally draining. And dangerous in a way Clara can't even imagine. She and Christian were perfect and then Christian, perfect, beautiful, foreign Christian let his insecurities begin to show and there was no forgetting. And there is accommodating and adjusting for certain things in a relationship and then there is what Clara did for Christian.
But this is not one of those stories where you can say "Oh stupid girl" and want to shake her because Clara has brought us into the story with her. We are Clara for lack of a better way to explain it. She put little asterisks in her story. Example- She lets us know her mother is dead.* Then at the bottom of the page
"*Yes this story has a dead mother. Mine. She had a sudden aneurysm when I was barely four. Died before she could even get to a hospital. Dead mother's have become a story cliche thanks to Disney movies and novel writers. All the dead mothers in books, you'd think it was a common occurrence. Even Dad's books have them. But mine was real. She was no cliche and neither am I." It's Clara's story and she's writing it not Deb Caletti. The author is not between us and Clara. She's removed herself and I kept checking the description of the book to make sure this was fiction and not Deb Caletti's real story.
Because the author removed herself from the story, I felt very close to Clara. I identified with her, understood her trying to spare Christian's feelings, trying time and time to remove the hurt. She was a nice girl. She was nice to people and breaking up with someone, well it makes her feel not nice. And she's sure that Christian's reactions are her fault, for that first giddy feeling of power. The one she can't admit to at first but then tells her Dad, her Dad the writer who seems less like a Dad and more like an adult friend that takes care of Clara. He respects her way more than any parent I've ever seen to be called a parent. Yet he is parental when necessary, he doesn't tell Clara "no" when he doesn't like Christian. But when he sees warning signs, danger, he takes action. But if Clara feels shame and can't forgive herself, her father feels even worse. This stalwart man who plays metaphor games and would rather use clues to guess who's house they are renting than google him, the one that insists on protecting his daughter has a big secret. One that changes everything for Clara. She keeps us with her throughout the novel, with her asterisks as if she's sitting beside us letting us know the secret thoughts she had while putting her story down. While unburdening her of the ghosts. More than one passage made me stop and I had to read it over and over sinking into what it really was saying, not just the words on the top layer, but the deeper meaning.
I felt so many emotions reading this novel and when I finished it, I wanted to pick it up and start again. And I will. I'll learn something new that I didn't catch the first time as I ate it up. It isn't a light read or easy. It's philosophical and deep with emotion and thought. It is definitely character driven. Clara brings us along through every emotion dragging us through the dirty self doubt and self incrimination to the final triumph of anger. Does she grow in this book? We're sitting here while she tells her story aren't we? Dad is a big character in this novel and I like the relationship he and Clara have. Does Dad grow? From a famous author to a human being, at least for Clara. There is of course Christian. And if you don't know a Christian in male or female form, then you're lucky. I have a magnet for these type of people. There are other secondary characters that bring some much needed relief to the tension in Clara's life.
If I had a rating system, stars, hearts, rabbits, hats, gold coins any of the creative things I've seen other reviewers use I'd throw all the things I had into a pot and make the biggest star, heart, rabbit, hat, gold coin and make it dance, sing, shoot fire works whatever. This is the best realistic fiction I have ever read. This is the best YA I have read. This is the best book I have read. Never have I felt more a part of a story, never have I been so involved, so unsure of the outcome, so tentative as Clara moved ahead with her/my life. I wouldn't have Deb Caletti change even one word in this novel. It isn't entertaining. It's more than realistic. It's real.
"Another person is, at the heart of it, unknowable."
This book is a mixed up one for me.
On one part, it's an incredible study of obsession and how one relationship can be so much - love, incredible emotion, you can feel literally drawn to someone. But, this same relationship can be toxic - that "so much' can be "too much", that want to own someone, consume them. It can be love but it can just as quickly, eerily easily be hate.
So, I loved that it was such a detailed view of this.
But, it all just hits a little too close to home for me. It's a struggle to read her "oh this is all my fault". Because, you know, she's still trying to recover from the abuse - still a victim in many ways of the word.
But I'm already on the surviving side. And unless you are in a good place, it can really be a struggle to read someone bemoan their survival and still be a victim - sometimes it's just hard to read.
But for some, this can be a very eye opening kind of story.
This book is a mixed up one for me.
On one part, it's an incredible study of obsession and how one relationship can be so much - love, incredible emotion, you can feel literally drawn to someone. But, this same relationship can be toxic - that "so much' can be "too much", that want to own someone, consume them. It can be love but it can just as quickly, eerily easily be hate.
So, I loved that it was such a detailed view of this.
But, it all just hits a little too close to home for me. It's a struggle to read her "oh this is all my fault". Because, you know, she's still trying to recover from the abuse - still a victim in many ways of the word.
But I'm already on the surviving side. And unless you are in a good place, it can really be a struggle to read someone bemoan their survival and still be a victim - sometimes it's just hard to read.
But for some, this can be a very eye opening kind of story.
This is a book I would never read at all. I tried to finish it, but it made me fall asleep each time I opened the page.
Deb Caletti is a wonderful writer, I admit that, but the book overall was boring. I couldn't understand what was going on when the scene shifts to a memory mostly because I was just trying to get done with it so I can say I read it.
I wanted to love it as I read, but there was something that made me not. I just couldn't get into it.
Deb Caletti is a wonderful writer, I admit that, but the book overall was boring. I couldn't understand what was going on when the scene shifts to a memory mostly because I was just trying to get done with it so I can say I read it.
I wanted to love it as I read, but there was something that made me not. I just couldn't get into it.
at first i really couldn't get into this book. but i finally pushed through and tried to keep reading.. then it got eerily intense for me. very real story. not sure i cared too much for the ending though. definitely realistic & relateable.
This isn't really a review o.o but ... wow
Through every moment in this book D: I could feel him too :s like how he was watching her ... and when I went to next page , I was just waiting for him to appear... to jump out from a bush , scare her ..and that she has a heart attack or smth
I read faster and faster .. kinda hoping for him to appear finally , so she could be calm again :(
I really got myself into to book ... must be the weather here ._. There is a storm outside :O Must be the ghostslol
Through every moment in this book D: I could feel him too :s like how he was watching her ... and when I went to next page , I was just waiting for him to appear... to jump out from a bush , scare her ..
I read faster and faster .. kinda hoping for him to appear finally , so she could be calm again :(
I really got myself into to book ... must be the weather here ._. There is a storm outside :O Must be the ghosts
Couldn't put this one down! The author did an amazing job laying out this story.
I absolutely loved this book. It had a ton of twists and turns and unexpected revelations. Keep in mind it is one of those books that has time jumps between present and past which I didn't mind because it kept the book interesting. I was kind of annoyed that Clara kept going back to Christian but sometimes love is blinding. Clara and her relationship with her Dad was really great and added something special to the plot. I wish that Clara had made a good friend instead of just meeting a significant other to open up to. The whole broke-girl-opens-up-to-cute-guy scenario is repetitive in YA. The last 30 pages were so intense I felt like I was watching an LMN movie. You will never get bored of this book. Anyway Deb definitely didn't disappoint and I recommend this to anyone who wants something a little atypical to read .
This book was good but the ending felt a little rushed. I would have hoped that Caletti would have elaborated on what happened to Christian. But other than that a really good novel!!
Hope I remember this right. The book was about a girl who has gotten out of a horrible (to put it lightly) relationship with her stalker boyfriend, and this is not me being sarcastic. Clara learns how to live with the past on her summer after graduating high school.
What surprised me most about Stay was that Clara was kind of ashamed of the past relationship because she felt responsible for letting it go so far, but it’s always easier to say its okay when it isn't you. It's easier to say 'it wasn't your fault'. I think that was the point of this, or at least that is what I got from it.
In the book Clara's past life with Christian and her present switches in each chapter. What bothered me just a little was that she gets into a relationship not too long after she arrives in the new town. Clara does very much edge on the side of caution and it does make for a good comparison of what a healthy relationship is to the one she had with Christian.
What I did like was its honesty, even though I didn't find everything enjoyable it did give me a better understanding of Clara. Like how she cares about Christian even after everything and how she felt so powerful over him at times and then at others she fears him.
Another good aspect was the relationship with her Dad. Now he is one of those single handsome intellectual fathers but their father daughter relationship is what I'm talking about. I'm glad that it was a significant part of the story because parents play a huge part of kids’/teens’ lives and at times it’s skipped over in young adult literature.
What surprised me most about Stay was that Clara was kind of ashamed of the past relationship because she felt responsible for letting it go so far, but it’s always easier to say its okay when it isn't you. It's easier to say 'it wasn't your fault'. I think that was the point of this, or at least that is what I got from it.
In the book Clara's past life with Christian and her present switches in each chapter. What bothered me just a little was that she gets into a relationship not too long after she arrives in the new town. Clara does very much edge on the side of caution and it does make for a good comparison of what a healthy relationship is to the one she had with Christian.
What I did like was its honesty, even though I didn't find everything enjoyable it did give me a better understanding of Clara. Like how she cares about Christian even after everything and how she felt so powerful over him at times and then at others she fears him.
Another good aspect was the relationship with her Dad. Now he is one of those single handsome intellectual fathers but their father daughter relationship is what I'm talking about. I'm glad that it was a significant part of the story because parents play a huge part of kids’/teens’ lives and at times it’s skipped over in young adult literature.