Review: And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard

And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard

Released: January 28, 2014

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Format: via NetGalley
Challenges: 2014 NetGalley/Edelweiss

Rating: 3/5

Synopsis

When high school senior Paul Wagoner walks into his school library with a stolen gun, he threatens his girlfriend Emily Beam, then takes his own life. In the wake of the tragedy, an angry and guilt-ridden Emily is shipped off to boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she encounters a ghostly presence who shares her name. The spirit of Emily Dickinson and two quirky girls offer helping hands, but it is up to Emily to heal her own damaged self.

This inventive story, told in verse and in prose, paints the aftermath of tragedy as a landscape where there is good behind the bad, hope inside the despair, and springtime under the snow.

My Thoughts

I must admit I feel very torn by this book. One part of me really enjoyed it while the other part felt like it fell short. I was so excited to read this for the last few months simply based by the synopsis. However while I read it I just felt this consist feeling that there was more to the story than what I was reading.

It felt like I was reading two different books. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the storyline[s] I just felt like I wanted to read one more than the other. I was more interested and invested in reading about Emily and Paul’s background than her whole connection to Emily Dickinson. While we got the jest of what lead up to Paul’s suicide I felt like more could've be told. I wanted to learn more about their relationship and even her relationships with the girls at the school. I did enjoy the poems “Emily” wrote I thought they were great. I could see how her life mirrored that of Emily Dickinson but at times I felt like it was more about her than the modern day Emily.

The whole storyline on Emily and Paul’s relationship was one I knew had so much more to offer and I wished that could’ve shined more. I wanted to know more of what was on Paul’s mind and why he felt and reacted the way he did.

Despite what I wanted more of, this is a book with more pluses than minuses. Not to mention if you’re a fan of poetry and/or Emily Dickerson I know you will not be disappointed.