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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
I had been wanting to read this book since I first read the summary several months ago, but I had to wait -impatiently- for its release. I have enjoyed all of the books by Deb Caletti that I have read in the past, but I fell in love with her previous novel, Six Rules of Maybe. After that I had really high expectations for Stay, because her writing has been improving so much with each new book. I was not disappointed.
Clara was written perfectly. She felt so real. All of her choices and her actions seemed to make so much sense. The way she felt about her situation felt very realistic, and I had such an easy time relating to her. The decision to make her out of the typical YA age range was also a nice change. Most of the present storyline takes place the summer after Clara has graduated high school. I wish there were more YA books that focused on the older end of the spectrum. There was a maturity level in this book and its characters that is often lacking in books of the genre. Clara’s father was also remarkably well done. He was fun and humorous, but it was easy to see how protective he was and how much he loved Clara. There was more to his story than just the fact that he was Clara’s father too, which was something I really appreciated. He had his own storyline, even if it was a secondary one. I found that to be very refreshing. All of the characters that Clara and her father meet and interact with during their summer at the beach were interesting and unique. I loved the complexity and quirks of the various people. All of them felt real enough to really exist.
The story was not quite what I was expecting, but that was not a bad thing. In fact it may have made me appreciate it all the more. The relationship between Clara and Christian was very realistically handled. The way it affected them felt seemed more natural than how many relationships are viewed in YA. Seeing that even when a person treats you badly and hurts you, does not always make you stop loving them, was refreshing in a way. It made me feel that I was not alone in feeling like that at times.
All in all I did not fall in love with this book as I did with Six Rules of Maybe, but I did thoroughly enjoy it. It is a touching, hard look at what can happen in a relationship. I appreciated the way the author wrote her characters. All of them felt real enough to step off the page and talk to me. A wonderful read that I highly recommend.
Clara was written perfectly. She felt so real. All of her choices and her actions seemed to make so much sense. The way she felt about her situation felt very realistic, and I had such an easy time relating to her. The decision to make her out of the typical YA age range was also a nice change. Most of the present storyline takes place the summer after Clara has graduated high school. I wish there were more YA books that focused on the older end of the spectrum. There was a maturity level in this book and its characters that is often lacking in books of the genre. Clara’s father was also remarkably well done. He was fun and humorous, but it was easy to see how protective he was and how much he loved Clara. There was more to his story than just the fact that he was Clara’s father too, which was something I really appreciated. He had his own storyline, even if it was a secondary one. I found that to be very refreshing. All of the characters that Clara and her father meet and interact with during their summer at the beach were interesting and unique. I loved the complexity and quirks of the various people. All of them felt real enough to really exist.
The story was not quite what I was expecting, but that was not a bad thing. In fact it may have made me appreciate it all the more. The relationship between Clara and Christian was very realistically handled. The way it affected them felt seemed more natural than how many relationships are viewed in YA. Seeing that even when a person treats you badly and hurts you, does not always make you stop loving them, was refreshing in a way. It made me feel that I was not alone in feeling like that at times.
All in all I did not fall in love with this book as I did with Six Rules of Maybe, but I did thoroughly enjoy it. It is a touching, hard look at what can happen in a relationship. I appreciated the way the author wrote her characters. All of them felt real enough to step off the page and talk to me. A wonderful read that I highly recommend.
Digs into the issues of dealing with the aftermath of this kind of situation. A good book for discussion with young girls about keeping themselves present in a relationship and listening to their instincts.
There were so many times when reading this that I thought about the ease of falling into, and out of, love and relationships, and often that can become warped. Christian's obsession with Clara, his unwillingness to let her go and his jealousy of her other relationships all felt real, albeit distant because we see it all through Clara's eyes. Clara, unfortunately, doesn't feel as real.
She seems to be removed from what's going on, except for the times she's falling into love with Christian or Finn. When Christian's continued questioning about her activities passes from mere questioning to obsessive, she says she's upset and scared, but I didn't feel that she was. When Christian gets her new cell phone number, or shows up at the summer hide-out, I didn't sense her terror the way I did her desire to kiss him at the start of their relationship. Of course, this is all told several years later (the reference to the birthday cards is so casual, and accepting, which bothered me).
As this isn't a final copy, I can only hope that the finished product includes information for teens who are in that type of obsessive relationship.
ARC provided by publisher.
She seems to be removed from what's going on, except for the times she's falling into love with Christian or Finn. When Christian's continued questioning about her activities passes from mere questioning to obsessive, she says she's upset and scared, but I didn't feel that she was. When Christian gets her new cell phone number, or shows up at the summer hide-out, I didn't sense her terror the way I did her desire to kiss him at the start of their relationship. Of course, this is all told several years later (the reference to the birthday cards is so casual, and accepting, which bothered me).
As this isn't a final copy, I can only hope that the finished product includes information for teens who are in that type of obsessive relationship.
ARC provided by publisher.
emotional
tense
slow-paced
medium-paced
I wasn't sure about the footnotes in this book - they seemed written by someone else, perhaps an older Clara and it seemed a bit off-putting. Also, the title is completely unmemorable. But get those minor issues aside, and it's a good read filled with drama and tension, yet remaining realistic. Added points for taking place in the PNW. 3.5 stars.
This book is so great! It has so many connections that can be made throughout the book. I think this book had a really strong message that was hard to miss. i recommend it to anyone. Best by Caletti by far. I love her dad and i wish i had someone in my life with his personality. i love the way he uses metaphors all the time. Also, the footnotes throughout the book are hilarious and add so much to the book! I wish every guy was as great as Finn.
After writing my Top Ten Tuesday post yesterday I realized that I never got around to reviewing this book despite really enjoying the subject matter. Lately I have been reading a lot of books about abusive relationships and they are all beautifully written. Although I am currently dating a wonderful guy who makes me extremely happy, it is easy to relate to the abusive relationship books because I've also had my share of bad relationships.
What I like the most about Stay is that it shows what happens after someone has been in a bad relationship. Clara had to pick up the pieces and get as far away as possible from Christian who had turned into a crazy stalker. He was the epitome of possessive and was very dangerous. Caletti fully captures Clara's struggle to forget about what happened with Christian and let a new guy into her life.
Stay is a wonderful novel that makes you think a lot about relationships
What I like the most about Stay is that it shows what happens after someone has been in a bad relationship. Clara had to pick up the pieces and get as far away as possible from Christian who had turned into a crazy stalker. He was the epitome of possessive and was very dangerous. Caletti fully captures Clara's struggle to forget about what happened with Christian and let a new guy into her life.
Stay is a wonderful novel that makes you think a lot about relationships
This was my first Caletti. I'll try her again, but, in the light of the rave reviews and general glowing appreciation on GR, I found this book surprisingly meh.
Clara is in hiding from her emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend, Christian. Lucky for her, she gets to hide in an idyllic beach town with her widowed writer father (instantly made me think of Richard Castle, which kind of made me love him unconditionally). Of course, the threat of Christian is always lurking.
Clara's new love interest (who I know as boat boy) was pretty bland and Clara apparently has INSTANT chemistry with everyone. She never had to work for a guy so there was no real romance. With Christian and with boat boy it was all “I instantly love you! You’re obviously awesome!” I guess Clara is really pretty? And the romantic claptrap out of these boys mouths! Both the obsessive one and the normal one were incredibly sappy. Boys don’t speak like that. Right? It sounded weird.
I found some of the metaphors just awkward and the use of footnotes was poor. Footnotes, I think, are hard to do well. They need to be either useful or amusing and here they were neither. They could’ve easily been cut and it wouldn’t have impacted the book at all.
And then there's abusive-boyfriend Christian. I know that emotional manipulation is a real problem and Christian was a psycho stalker. And it's a good message to get out there that just because he's not hitting you doesn't mean he's not abusive. Being incredibly possessive and emotionally harmful is BAD NEWS. That's not love. That's abuse.
BUT. He cried. A lot. And men who constantly burst into tears are just not intimidating. I've never been around an emotional abuser, so maybe this is what they do? And in the climatic scene where Clara is running away from Christian and she jumps into a boat in the middle of a storm just to escape...it ends with Christian running away weeping. Maybe it’s because I imagined him looking like Chris Hemsworth (who plays Norse god Thor), but this just turned into a giant Narm moment for me--unintentionally hilarious, not intimidating or frightening like it was supposed to be. Maybe I’m just a horrible person.
Clara is in hiding from her emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend, Christian. Lucky for her, she gets to hide in an idyllic beach town with her widowed writer father (instantly made me think of Richard Castle, which kind of made me love him unconditionally). Of course, the threat of Christian is always lurking.
Clara's new love interest (who I know as boat boy) was pretty bland and Clara apparently has INSTANT chemistry with everyone. She never had to work for a guy so there was no real romance. With Christian and with boat boy it was all “I instantly love you! You’re obviously awesome!” I guess Clara is really pretty? And the romantic claptrap out of these boys mouths! Both the obsessive one and the normal one were incredibly sappy. Boys don’t speak like that. Right? It sounded weird.
I found some of the metaphors just awkward and the use of footnotes was poor. Footnotes, I think, are hard to do well. They need to be either useful or amusing and here they were neither. They could’ve easily been cut and it wouldn’t have impacted the book at all.
And then there's abusive-boyfriend Christian. I know that emotional manipulation is a real problem and Christian was a psycho stalker. And it's a good message to get out there that just because he's not hitting you doesn't mean he's not abusive. Being incredibly possessive and emotionally harmful is BAD NEWS. That's not love. That's abuse.
BUT. He cried. A lot. And men who constantly burst into tears are just not intimidating. I've never been around an emotional abuser, so maybe this is what they do? And in the climatic scene where Clara is running away from Christian and she jumps into a boat in the middle of a storm just to escape...it ends with Christian running away weeping. Maybe it’s because I imagined him looking like Chris Hemsworth (who plays Norse god Thor), but this just turned into a giant Narm moment for me--unintentionally hilarious, not intimidating or frightening like it was supposed to be. Maybe I’m just a horrible person.