Stay by Deb Caletti

Hardcover, 313 pages
Published April 5th, 2011
Simon Pulse
Source: Library

Clara’s relationship with Christian is intense from the start, and like nothing she’s ever experienced before. But what starts as devotion quickly becomes obsession, and it’s almost too late before Clara realizes how far gone Christian is—and what he’s willing to do to make her stay.
Now Clara has left the city—and Christian—behind. No one back home has any idea where she is, but she still struggles to shake off her fear. She knows Christian won’t let her go that easily, and that no matter how far she runs, it may not be far enough….

*MY THOUGHTS*
This book surprised me in both good and bad ways… Let’s start with the good. I really liked the way Caletti went back and forth between the past & present. Clara’s memories were my favorite part of the story. I think this was because this is where the danger of Christian was. I found myself swallowed up by those chapters, yelling at the book as if I were yelling at Clara herself. As for the bad, I was surprised that the only time I found myself wrapped up was when the fear of Christian was around. The chapters from the present weren’t as engrossing as the others. But at the end, when Christian surfaced in the present, I was a goner. I also was torn between the “realistic-ness” of the situation. I felt after events like that there was no way anyone would move on as easily to Finn as she did. But, I did like the way Christian was portrayed and the realistic way she- a fool in love– kept letting him back in. This was definitely a nice way to come back to realistic fiction.