I'll Stay

I'll Stay

By Karen Day

Released Tuesday, January 30, 2018

When 22-year-old Clare Michaels travels on spring break with friends- including her best friend, the dynamic and intense Lee- she has no idea how fateful this trip will be. But a few bad decisions lead Clare and Lee into a horrific encounter with three violent men. When Lee sacrifices herself so Clare can escape, the decision sets the novel in motion. Told in three parts, and set in Indiana and on the East Coast, the novel addresses the ramifications of this night during different stages in their young adult lives. Clare wants to believe that she's "moved on." If she's a good person and takes care of Lee's emotional life - just as she's been taking care of her troubled yet brilliant mother- she'll be forgiven for leaving that night. But Lee - who flounders after the trauma, can't forget. As the years go by, the events of the night keep dragging them back into it and threaten not only their friendship but also their self worth. Along the way, the novel wrestles with important questions: how much do we owe the people we love? What are the dangers of living an unexamined life? And how can we escape the psychological paradigms established in our childhoods?

Karen Day is the author of three middle grade novels, Tall Tales, No Cream Puffs, and A Million Miles from Boston, all published by Wendy Lamb at Random House. I’ll Stay is her first adult novel. In addition to teaching at the Cape Cod Writing Center conference, she also teaches at Boston’s Grub Street, at various SCBWI events and at workshops across metro Boston.