Friday 10 January 2014

Review: And We Stay

And We Stay
Author:

Publication Date:  January 28th 2014    
~A copy was provided by Random House Childrens/Delacorte Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review~




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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.

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I'll be the first to admit I don't get all poetry, I can get the feelings behind it, but don't ask me what they actually mean because I have no clue. I'm a lyrics person myself, and though you might say it's basically the same. It's not. Personally, I find poetry too restricting at times, I love reading it, but writing it is not for me.
And We Stay from the description is a little misleading but I really enjoyed it. Well, "enjoyed" isn't the word because it's depressing at points, but really beautiful. Emily Beam's story is not an easy one, it's not a comfortable one either. The last few months of Emily's life has been hell, and you see how it takes its toll on her, she doesn't know how to move away from it.  It's one thing to have your ex-boyfriend come into school and corner you in the library with a gun, but the aftermath isn't what Emily expected, she can't shake it off. But, that's not where Emily Beam's story begins or ends...