Review
time! I was meant to post this yesterday but I had a family commitment so never
got around to it! Stay with Me written by Paul Griffin who is best known for
his teen novel The Orange Houses. I did a little background check on Griffin (
aka read up on his Goodreads bio) and he actually trains dogs so that’s cool
how it relates to the novel! Thanks to Text Publishing for the review copy!
(Goodreads) An urban romance that will capture your soul, break your heart, and restore your faith in the human spirit
Fifteen-year-olds Cece and Mack didn't expect to fall in love. She's a sensitive A student; he's a high school dropout. But soon they're spending every moment together, bonding over a rescued dog, telling their secrets, making plans for the future. Everything is perfect. Until. Until. Mack makes a horrible mistake, and in just a few minutes, the future they'd planned becomes impossible. In this stark new reality, both of them must find meaning and hope in the memories of what they had, to survive when the person they love can't stay.
The
Short Story? – A powerful novel about first love, loss and hope. Griffin has
written a moving coming-to-age novel that will influence readers of all ages. A
bittersweet love story, a mutual heartbreak and the painful process of moving
on. Stay with Me is an excellent work of fiction that discusses issues that are
faced by teenagers all around the world. Beautiful and heavily influential,
Stay with Me is fantastic!
The
Long Story? – I didn’t cry but I think that if I didn’t read the ending first I
would have. I’m not a fan of coming-to-age novels, sob stories or anything that
can be classified as real teen fiction. All of which can be used to describe
Stay with Me yet I really enjoyed the novel. It’s the kind of novel that really
makes an impact on you and makes you think again how your life could have
turned out to be like - makes you appreciate the lifestyle you have. It deals
with a lot of serious teen issues like neglect, sex, juvenile behavior and more
importantly how to work your way through those issues. Stay with Me was really
an excellent balance of romance and the coming-to-age aspects of the novel.
Towards the end with all the heartbreak I found it a little hard to read
because I’m a huge fan of happy endings and the ending of this novel can only
be described as bittersweet. However, overall Stay with Me was a brilliant
novel that I’m sure many of you would find very refreshing. It’s a great novel,
very powerful.
In
Stay with Me, the characterization focuses less on the physical appearance of
the characters and more on their emotional state. The novel is written so that
the story is told from the perspectives of Cece and Mack, two teens who are in
love. The alternating perspectives work really well with the novel because you
needed both Cece and Mack’s point of view to get a grasp of the whole story.
What really did show through the story was that Cece and Mack had a very close
relationship and that they really do love each other. Both characters have
their own personal demons and it was a really nice touch to have them help each
other through their individual issues. Boo is another character that’s very
important because she was the glue that stuck the whole novel together. She
played a very important part in the novel in bringing Cece and Mack closer
together and she shaped how the novel ended. Overall it’s a very complex
characterization however I feel they were necessary in giving the novel
personality.
For
me when it got the heartbreak and the separation, it was really hard to read.
One of the main reasons I don’t like to read real teen fiction is because of
the bittersweet endings. It’s realistic but it’s not fiction and it’s not
happy. However Stay with Me was definitely a very influential novel with a lot
of value. It teaches about love, loss and hope and it’s a great coming-to-age
novel. Beautifully written, Griffin has written a bittersweet love story with a
deeper and more important message behind it. For fans of Judy Blume and Sarah
Dessen.
What's it's Worth? - Squeeze into the Budget/ Hand Over the Paycheck
Badass
Bookie xx
I hadn't heard of this one, but it sounds worth a read. Thanks for the review :)
ReplyDeleteI've seen this one around but haven't read many reviews of it. I'm definitely a little nervous about the ending now as I also prefer happy ones. Still I'm a sucker for good contemporaries so I think I"ll be picking this one up. Thanks for the review!
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