Clara and her father’s move to a rental place in a small town on the water begins Deb Caletti’s latest novel, Stay. Although a quiet event in their lives, it ends up being a huge part of the story, as we begin weaving the story of Clara’s volatile last few months in an abusive relationship with Christian with the story of her recovery and attempt to reconcile her feelings for Christian, herself, and a guy she’s met on the water in her new town. Is she ready to move on after such a rough relationship with Christian? Can she let herself believe she’s worth more than what Christian told her?

Stay is a slower paced story but it’s an important one. As readers, we know immediately that the relationship Clara develops with Christian won’t be healthy — we can see it from the start. But what Caletti does that’s so important here is that she drops us square into Clara’s mindset. As outsiders, it’s easy for us to judge this relationship, but given the internal thoughts of Clara, it’s almost easy to see why she chose to remain in an abusive relationship and why she’s unwilling to throw herself into a new one after ending things with Christian.

A secondary plot that Caletti develops in this book is that of Clara’s mother: she’s been dead for quite a while, but we’re never given the immediate reason why. Clara’s father isn’t willing to talk much about it, but it’s through his newly emerging relationships in this new town that he finally comes to terms with his grief over the loss of his wife and is able and willing to relate the story to his daughter.

This isn’t an easy book to review, primarily because it is such an issue-driven book. It’s fairly cut and dry in terms of what the goals are in story telling, and as readers, we have our expectations adequately met. Christian is depicted at first as a good guy, but then we’re given insight into those small moments where his character is questionable. Then we see his wretched side fully. We get to see Clara develop her innocent fascination with Christian into a full relationship, one which is rich and exciting from the get go. Then we see her begin questioning his actions toward her, his possessiveness and need to keep an eye on her. We care deeply when she’s hurt and we want her to leave Christian, but we know, too, it will take quite a bit for her to build the power to do so. Both are fully realized characters, complex and emotionally charged, but neither were exactly different. That is to say, nothing memorable stood out about either for me as a reader. They were based on their actions/reactions thereafter, rather than their characteristics.

The story as a whole never coalesced like I hoped, either. Although I liked the resolution, I kept thinking in the back of my head that more should happen or that I should know something quirky or more compelling about any of the characters. Part of me questioned the audience of this novel more generally, too: as Sarah’s pointed out, Caletti’s writing feels a bit like a teen version of Jodi Picoult. I agree. In fact, part of me believes that a story like Stay has tremendous cross-over potential for adult readers and admittedly, there were moments in the story that the description dwelled just a little too long on the water front imagery and the idea of the sea, something that happens much more in adult fiction than teen. Those moments didn’t feel as authentic to Clara’s voice as I’d like them to because they felt much more adult than teen. Although she’d been through something that certainly was adult, I didn’t believe her sensibilities in those musings.

What I really liked about this novel, though, was the relationship between Clara and her father. It’s rare to read a well-written relationship between a father and a daughter, but I think Caletti nails it here. Dad doesn’t hover, but he wants to protect his daughter; Clara doesn’t repel him or go running to him for safety, but she treads carefully into the world of knowing she needs her father for some things (such as safety and security) but that she also needs to rely on herself to handle other things (such as social acceptance and moving on). I really liked her father throughout the story, but it was probably the last couple of interactions between them that solidified him as my favorite character in the story.

Worth noting, this book can come off a bit jarring upon first reading. The chapters alternate from the present back through the past, and it took me a few chapters to figure this out. It’s worth noting that I read the advanced copy of this title, and as of that version, there were not indicators on the chapters noting whether they were in the present or were flashbacks. Once in the groove of the story telling method, though, the flow makes sense and works quite nicely. I liked the story’s execution because it really gave us intimate insight into Clara’s mindset, both in the moment and in her reflection of those moments.

Stay will work for your teen fans of adult fiction authors like Jodi Picoult or Anna Quendlin (and fans of her most well-known work Black and Blue will likely find Caletti’s story an interesting work to read in comparison to boot). It’ll also work for fans of Sarah Dessen and Susane Colasanti, though the plotting here will be the thrust of the stories, rather than the characters. And finally, I urge you to keep this book on your radar if for no other reason than to notice one of 2011’s ya trends: relationship abuse. Stay is the first big name book on this topic out this year, but Jennifer Brown’s Bitter End (reviewed here) will be available this week and Jenny Downham’s You Against Me will be over from the UK this fall. In addition, Amanda Grace (the pen name for Mandy Hubbard) has also recently released But I Love Him on this topic, as well. It’ll be interesting to see the varied and various angles on this tough but important topic — Caletti’s title falls on the internal and recovery aspects of the victim.