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And We Stay by Jenny
Hubbard
Released: January 28, 2014
Publisher: St. Martin’s
Press
Format: via NetGalley
Challenges: 2014 NetGalley/Edelweiss
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.
