And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard - OPTIONAL

Hubbard, Jenny And We Stay, 224 p. Delacorte (Random), 2014.  $17. 

Language: PG-13 (30 swears, 1 ‘f’); Mature Content: R (short graphic interactions and descriptions); Violence: PG (suicide by gun).  

Emily Beam is trying to rebuild her life after her boyfriend committed suicide in front of her in the school library.  No one at her new boarding school knows her story, but she is reluctant to engage with any of them.  Her roommate works to help her fit in, just a little bit, which helps, but Emily has to admit some terrible things to herself before she can begin to heal.  She and her boyfriend made some bad judgment errors, not realizing that first love doesn’t mean lasting love and that sex may not have anything to do with love at all.  In this town where Emily Dickinson also lived, and with the help of poems that seem to burst from her soul, maybe Emily has a chance.  

Hubbard’s poems are beautiful –definitely the best I have read in a YA novel in a very long time.  While some of the mature content situations made me uncomfortable, Hubbard’s voice in Emily is still compelling and rings true. I finished it in one night.  There is one situation in particular I take issue with, but I am not going to lay my own family out on this blog.   

HS – OPTIONAL (content issues).  Cindy, Library Teacher