Review: And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard

And We Stay

By: Jenny Hubbard

Pub. Date: January 28, 2014

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Pages: 240

Source: Netgalley

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.

 I received this galley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley and Random House Children's.

Emily has been through one of the worst experiences someone can go through. Two days after breaking up with her boyfriend, Paul corners her in the school library threatening her and eventually kills himself. Knowing she will never be able to function normally in that school again, she is sent to a boarding school in Massachusetts, the same school that Emily Dickinson attended.

I had really high hopes for this one, but I ended up not being a huge fan of the story. I was expecting this awesome, exciting ghost story. What I found was a boring, slow paced one instead. Emily was dealing with a lot of pain, so I loved watching her slowly heal and comes to terms with what happened though. It was so much worse then what I first imagined, and I couldn't even fathom how she was feeling.

While I wasn't a huge fan of the story, I thought the writing was beautiful. Throughout the story was poems written by Emily about what she was feeling, and these poems definitely added to the story.

Overall, And We Stay was not the story for me, but I am excited to hear what other people think about it.