January Genreflecting: Contemporary Life: The Basics

I wanted to do a reading challenge for the subject of Genreflecting, but I didn't get much feedback (maybe because it asked you to read 2 books for each genre and discuss them or because it's not really a "reading challenge" per se, but more an educational experiment), so I've turned it into a monthly feature! For each month of 2013, there will be a specific genre that will be analyzed. I'm planning to have author input and at least 2 reviews of books in the genre as well.

January's genre is contemporary life. Contemporary life books are real-life or reality based books. These books are placed in a contemporary setting that readers can relate to in real time. Usually the reader is following a teen protagonist as they work through their daily lives. While there can be a science-fiction (or other) slight twist in the story, that is not the primary focus. The primary focus of these books is the life of the protagonist and his/her cohorts, not necessarily the issues that they face in that life. (paraphrased from Teen Genreflecting 3, 2010)

Just a few authors you may recognize who often write in this genre are:
Sarah Dessen (Along for the Ride)
John Green (Paper Towns)
Deb Caletti (Stay)
Jennifer Echols (Going Too Far)

While there are many more, these are some of my favorites. I'm excited to say that I've chosen my two books, one older and one newer, to read for this challenge. The older book is The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (originally published in 1999) and I'll have a review and analysis up on Friday, January 18th. The newer book is The Brothers Torres by Coert Voorhees (originally published in 2008) and I'll have a review and analysis up on Friday, January 25th. I'll also be hosting a giveaway, so stay tuned!

Be sure to check back each week for the next installment in this exciting and fun new feature!

Stay by Deb Caletti

Clara is in hiding. Christian, the love of her life, turned out to be a bit troubled (okay, a lot troubled), so her father has whisked her away to a remote island for the summer. She's been forced to get a summer job while she regroups about her college plans for the fall. With a famous author for a father & a long-deceased mother, Clara has been able to convince everyone in her life that they're touring Europe while he writes his latest best seller.

Things that Clara doesn't understand: how she let things get so out of control with Christian, what she's going to do in the fall, why her afraid-of-the-open-water father chose to spend the summer on an island, & how she really feels about sailing boy Finn. Regrouping is harder than she thought it would be because she spent so much time anticipating Christian's reactions & adjusting her behavior to suit his demands that she doesn't know much about who she really is on the inside.

When Christian starts calling her non-stop, despite changing her number several times, and she begins to feel like someone is watching her constantly, Clara decides that there is only so much hiding one can do before you must face your fears.

This was the first Deb Caletti book I've ever read & I think I may have been missing out on something. I thought this was going to be a gritty, emotionally taxing book, but Caletti only skims the surface of the dangerous relationship. She shows us all the signs of danger & really draws the tension tight, so much so that I actually gasped a few times regarding the characters' behavior.

Clara is not a helpless character at all. She is simply naive & a bit consumed by the idea of love. She wants to badly to be in love with Christian & to have something solid & consistent that she finds herself clinging to an even more unstable mess than her home life. Christian is not an unsympathetic character. I can see where a girl could be easily drawn in by him, but his actions spoke volumes. An even more compelling aspect of the book were the relationships between the adults on the island. They were so much more complex & foreboding that they really added something to the story.

Told with flashbacks to her relationship with Christian, Stay was a phenomenal book with just the right touches of everything. I hope you enjoy it too! Let me know your thoughts in the comments!