Stay With Me by Paul Griffin - NO

Griffin, Paul Stay With Me, 304 pgs.  Penguin Group (USA), 2011. $12.10 Language – PG13; Mature Content – R; Violence: PG13; Cece and Mack are tow teenagers who come from dysfunctional families.  Mack is a dropout with a record and Cece is an honor student.  Cece lives with her mom who drinks and Mack’s dad is mean and angry.  Mack recues damaged dogs – pitbulls – and nurses them back to health.  They both work in a pizza restaurant.  Cece has a brother named Anthony who enlisted to go fight.  A relationship blossoms between Mack and Cece.  Mack has anger issues and hears noise like static in his head and it sets him off.  The relationship between Mack and Cece is doomed from the start and the book deals with the loss and frustrations they both face.  The story is told from the alternating voices of Mack and Cece.

I did not finish this book.  The sexual content was more than I would be comfortable with in my library.  The language was strong with several instances of the “F” word.  The online reviews were all very favorable of this book and wanted to be able to give it a good review.  However, because of the content I am not recommending it.HS – NO. Reviewer: W. Child - Cyprus High Library Media Specialist