Book Review: Stay by Deb Caletti

5/5***** An insightful and uncompromising account of an abusive teenage relationship and a girl's way back to normalcy

Advance Reading Copy

Title:
Stay
Author:
Deb Caletti
Publication History:
US Hardcover April 5th 2011 by Simon Pulse
US/UK Kindle April 5th 2011 by Simon Pulse
Genre:
YA, Fiction








Review:
When I got the ARC of this book from Simon & Schuster I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had neither read a summery nor heard about Deb Caletti before. I just liked the cover.

The book is brilliantly crafted, chapters alternating between the past and the present, and the story is unsettling and haunting, it moves up and down and yanks you from romantic girl fantasies to pure, most realistic horror.
Stay deals with an abusive teenage relationship and the thin line where love tips from intense to obsessive. It is written with great understanding and sensitivity, the careful side glance at Meyer's Twilight made me smile a little (a sad little smile of understanding), and I am more than thankful that it has not a happy/bubbly ending but leaves the reader with a last paragraph of food for thought.

When Clara meets Christian they have an instant connection. "It's your dark pieces having instant recognition with their dark pieces," Clara tells right on p.3 and that pretty much sets the tone for one part of the story. They meet, they collide in searing fire and then they crash - hard. In the beginning their love just seems passionate and romantically (jealousy-inducing) intense and through Clara's slightly reluctant telling it takes you a while to figure out that at some point Christian's side of the relationship has tipped from intense to obsessive. First it is just little mood swings and banalities but soon Clara feels like she can't make a single move without him checkin on her. And she can't. She tries to make excuses for him, blaming herself, until he threatens to harm himself. At that point Clara finally draws a line and leaves town with her father.

The second strand of the story cleverly entwines with the first one and captures Clara's way out of that mess of a relationship. Staying hidden in a tiny village by the sea she begins a slow process of finding her way back to normalcy, to stopping to blame herself for what happened and to giving love another chance when she meets Finn, a sweet, laid-back local sailor.

That is until Christian finds her and the horror begins anew.

Even though this is not super-fast-paced it will have you glued to the pages and you will blow through it before you know. The horrors and despair of the story are not immediately obvious, it takes a while to dawn on you. But once you truly grasp what's going on the horror hits full force and you won't find sleep until you turn the last page. As I said before, this book does not have a truly happy ending - but it does end on a hopeful note.