Review: Stay by Deb Caletti

Book: Stay by Deb Caletti
Pages: 320 Pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: April 5th, 2011
Source: ARC from publisher
Grade: 5 Stars

Synopsis:
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:

I haven’t read any of Deb Caletti’s past books, but I’ve heard they’re great and I was lucky enough to get an ARC of Stay for review. I really really really really really liked this book.

Obsession is a hard subject to write about, but Caletti’s work seemed flawless. I loved the hardcore emotion in this book. I fell for Christian with Clara and could understand why it was hard for her to leave him. Christian was a great guy. Was. I felt bad for Christian (I know, I really shouldn’t. Bad Danna) because he had major issues. I could understand that he was guilty after everything he did wrong to Clara, but he couldn’t change. Not without help anyway.

One thing that confused me was that the narrating would switch from when Clara was with Christian to when Clara’s in California waiting for Christian to leave her alone. I wish there would’ve been a before and after sign somewhere. I really liked the footnotes though. They added something to the book that would’ve been lost without it. It made Stay sound more like Clara was actually talking to me.

The ending was beautiful. Some people might say that they didn’t like it or that there wasn’t closure, but I liked that the ending left me to imagine Clara’s future.  I liked that her and Finn worked everything out and her father seemed happy too. Stay is a book you definitely want to read.

Grade: 5 Stars