Stay With Me
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A small-town girl and a troubled boy find an unexpected connection that transcends their differences.
“Griffin gracefully answers questions and solves mysteries, leaving us with hope and a smile without making things falsely shiny and bright.”—The New York Times Book Review
Céce and Mack couldn’t be more opposite. She’s a sensitive A-student and he’s a high school dropout. But one thing’s for certain: They can’t resist their love for each other and soon they’re spending every moment together, bonding over a rescued dog and telling their darkest secrets.
Then Mack makes a horrible mistake and suddenly their world is torn apart. Now Céce and Mack must find meaning and hope in the memories of what they had . . . and figure out how to survive when the person they love can’t stay.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a narrative spanning 102 days, Mack and C Ce, co-workers at a restaurant and co-narrators of the story, are set up by C Ce's brother, Anthony, and slowly hit it off. C Ce is heartbroken when Anthony joins the army, leaving her alone with their alcoholic mother, whose condition Griffin (The Orange Houses) delicately conveys with profound emotion. Mack, whose mother left him with a bitter alcoholic father, is gentle with the dogs he trains, but he's mentally disturbed psychologically tormented by a hissing noise, "Like when you roll the radio to static and dial up the volume." When the hissing gets loud, generally as a reaction to injustice, Mack turns chillingly violent. As tension builds, readers will likely anticipate that this violence will ignite the conflict that brings Mack and C Ce's relationship to an end, but each step of that journey is authentic, painful, and heartfelt. Griffin's gift at giving voice to deeply flawed, disadvantaged characters without patronizing or oversimplifying their circumstances shines in this moving novel of loss, acceptance, and the possibility of redemption. Ages 14 up.
