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And We Stay (2014)

by Jenny Hubbard(Favorite Author)

3.34 of 5 Votes: 7

ISBN

0385740573 (ISBN13: 9780385740579)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Delacorte Press

review 1: I love when I randomly grab something at the library and it turns out to be a gem. Granted, someone there put And We Stay on a table display, so that employee clearly knew something I didn’t. Yes this is YA, and in someone else’s less capable hands, giving teen Emily two of the most dreaded possibilities in a teenager’s (and her parent’s) life could have come across as contrived or clichéd or overdramatic. However, Jenny Hubbard handles Emily’s past delicately, allowing the pieces of her torment to trickle effortlessly into the rest of the story. In fact, so skillful was she that it took several trips into the flashback for me to even realize that along with the switch from present to past time came a switch in tense as well. Hubbard slides from present tense t... moreo past and back so effortlessly that you’ve traveled backward and are firmly delivered back to Emily’s present before you realize that a masterful writer has just pulled your puppet strings and you never even felt it. Equally intriguing is the parallel between Emily and her counterpart, Emily Dickinson, and the use of poetry as a method for Emily to cope with what’s happened to her. This is a smart book cloaked in an easy read—the writing, the mechanisms, Emily’s poetry, the idea that love is no easier on the youth than it is for adults—and one I hope teens will appreciate for its realistic, non-glamorized portrayal of a young life wrought with hardships, but ones that can be overcome with self-reflection and honesty.
review 2: I'm always nervous about YA books with substantial amounts of poetry. It's a fine line to walk between something that was believably written by the main character and provides insight into his/her personality while still being semi-readable as poetry. This book does it! And We Stay deals with a lot of over-exposed teen tropes - teen suicide, boarding school, sexuality, etc - and manages to make everything feel fresh and unique. Really well done. I'd recommend to bookish teenage girls and lovers of Emily Dickinson. less

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