An Amazing Young Adult Novel

Deb Catletti is an amazing young adult fiction writer. Her new novel Stay is as seductive as Clara's suave stalker boyfriend, Christian. With white blonde hair and a deep voice licked by flames of danger, he doesn't seem like the other regular suburban teens. Clara, a self-described nice girl who doesn't have the "sadistic overconfidance of the popular," finds herself approaching him at a basketball game when his girlfriend goes to the bathroom. This racy move is uncharacteristic of Clara, but she says it was love at first sight. She says that she should have listened to her father. Love at first sight is almost always something darker.
Stay is as much a psychological thriller as a romance novel. Deb Catletti makes readers turn pages chasing Clara through her race to escape Christian's clutches. Love at first sight turns out to be hard to resist and even harder to get away from. Clara's dad says that the kind of love experienced at first sight is just the darker parts of oneself identifying with the darker parts of another. This psychological assessment of the underlying causes of obsession is a deep lesson for a young adult novel. Stay is a page-turner, but it's also a cautionary tale for teens on avoiding dangerous relationships and situations. Educational leadership programs offers tips on teaching to teens.
For those young adults who like to spend a lot of time in the library, Deb Catletti's new novel is a must for passing time between stacks. Clara is something of a librarian herself, with a summer job at Armchair books in Stay. This is as much a novel for aspiring librarians as for young adults. Clara gets to peruse her favorites in the setting of the beautiful Pacific northwest, but that doesn't mean that readers everywhere can't immerse themselves in the scenery from their neighborhood libraries. For someone thinking about becoming a librarian (www.librariandegree.org), Stay is an inspirational tale as well as a fun story.
Deb Catletti grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and it's obvious she has a real sense for the romantic oceanside setting. It's no wonder Twilight was set in Forks, Washington, a port village near Seattle. Catletti says that setting is like a character itself, paying as much attention to detail in backdrop as character development. She is intimately familiar with the Pacific Northwest, and it shows in evocative descriptions of waves, lighthouses and quaint bookstores. To read more about Catletti and her writing process, see her website.