An unforgettable novel about the power of friendship and kindness by the New York Times bestselling author of Pay It Forward.
In the summer of 1969, fourteen-year-old Lucas Painter carries a huge weight on his shoulders. His brother is fighting in Vietnam. His embattled parents are locked in a never-ending war. And his best friend, Connor, is struggling with his own family issues. To find relief … own family issues. To find relief from the chaos, Lucas takes long, meandering walks, and one day he veers into the woods.
There he discovers an isolated cabin and two huge dogs. Frightened, he runs. And the dogs run with him. Lucas finds unusual peace in running with the dogs, and eventually he meets their owner, Zoe Dinsmore. Closed off and haunted by a tragic past, Zoe has given up. She doesn’t want to be saved. She wants out. But Lucas doesn’t want her to go, and he sees an opportunity to bring more than one friend back into the light. It’s either the best or worst idea he’s ever had, but Lucas isn’t giving up on Zoe or Connor.
Their unexpected connection might be the saving grace that Zoe thought she’d lost, that Connor needs, and that Lucas has been running toward.
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How can one choice change a person’s life forever? One decision? Just one little thing you decide to do that changes the course of your life and the people you love most?
Lucas Painter is a child. Only fourteen years old and he already has the weight of the world on his shoulders. At least that is the way it turns out in the summer of 1969. His parents are constantly yelling. His brother is in Vietnam. His best friend is so messed up he doesn’t ever leave his house unless Lucas can convince him too. Then just for short periods of time. Lucas is a good boy. He never lies. He’s fair to everyone. He tries so hard to be the kind of kid people like. One day he decides to take a shortcut home and his life is never the same.
Lucas thinks he has to be strong for everyone but himself. He gives. He gives without expectations. He is always there to listen. To help anyone who may need him. The day he takes this shortcut is the beginning of a summer that will shape him, his brother, his best friend and a woman, Zoe, who thought it was time to go. But Lucas helped her to STAY!! He convinces her to STAY! Everyday Lucas goes running with Zoe’s dogs. They love to run, he loves to run. It helps him release stress and he definitely has a lot of that. Then one day he meets Zoe. Zoe has a whole story of her own and Lucas finally gets to know it all.
Throughout this story you learn more and more about the characters and it will touch your heart in ways you may not have experienced with a book. Though I have felt every emotion there is while reading, this one gives me every single one of those feels. The loneliness, sadness, happiness, tears, laughter, love, despair, need, wanting, you name it it’s in here. This is one book that truly is a page turner. Once you start it you will not want to put it down. It’s by far my favorite book by this author and I have read and loved several.
You’ll love the characters. The time frame. The town. Most of the people. The descriptions. You’ll feel like you are right beside Lucas during all of this. It starts going back in time to the summer of 1969 then in the end goes fifty years ahead to let you know what happened to everyone and I do mean everyone. It does not leave you guessing or hanging. It has the perfect ending to what to me is the perfect book.. I honestly loved this book so much. I won’t be forgetting this story. It did make me do some ugly crying but it was so worth it.
Thank you #NetGalley, Lake Union and Catherine Ryan Hyde for this beautiful ARC. This is my own true review.
It’s a huge 5 stars and I most highly recommend it to everyone.
Really good story. Relevant considering all the teen suicides happening today, even if it took place years ago.
Fourteen-year-old Lucas is worried about many things in the summer of 1969. His older brother is fighting in Vietnam, his parents fight constantly, and his best friend is growing more and more reclusive. Lucas is worried about everyone, and wants to fix their problems, but is unable to do so. As a release, he’s started running. He runs in the woods behind his house, finding it calming. Until one day he come upon a small cabin that he’s never noticed before and two very active dogs. After days of running with the dogs, he meets their owner, Zoe, who lives isolated from everyone. After a near-tragedy, Lucas’s friendship with Zoe grows, and an unusual connection is made that will touch everyone in Lucas’s life, especially him.
I love stories where unexpected friendships grow to be so much more. Catherine Ryan Hyde is an expert at developing flawed characters who somehow find each other and learn to live to their potential. It’s people helping people, even the most broken of us. Set in the turbulent era of the Vietnam War, when knowing right from wrong was difficult, this book pulls at your heartstrings. This novel is one of my favorites by this amazing author.
I read this book in one day. It was a really interesting story. The characters are really well developed and emotionally work amazing together. The story starts out a bit dark and sad but eventually winds around to a really beautiful account of family and friendship that transcends the individual hurdles everyone must go through for mutual healing.
This is one of my favorite authors, and I like how her stories make one feel. She always gives us a glimpse of the positive, giving one hope even in hard circumstances. The way she has her characters interact, the words used and wisdom given, so spot on. She uses a straight forward and relatable style.
The story follows best friends Lucas and Connor, both 14 and a woman, Zoe Dinsmore who lives in the woods outside of the town, with her two large dogs.
Both Lucas and his friend Connor, have difficult family lives, both sets of parents are very dysfunctional. Lucas has a family that is constantly fighting and Connors family do not really talk and both fathers are distant.
The way Lucas, deals with his stress is that he likes to run in the woods, where he runs into Zoe’s dogs who have decided to make this their ritual as well.
Zoe in her mid 50’s has had tragedy and repercussions from that tragedy throughout her life, and has a hard time wanting to go on at times.
Both she and Lucas finally meet when one day on his run, where he sees her dogs distressed in front of the cabin, when he sees that she may be unresponsive he calls the authorities. After that Zoe and Lucas become friends, both helping the other get through things.
She also helps him navigate life, by listening and answering his questions, something that his parents should have done. Connor also with his troubles is introduced to Zoe, and they all benefit from this friendship.
A beautiful story of people who even though, they may be lost in their own situations, are able to be there for each other.
Like the saying, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” here it is more “don’t judge a person for their faults.”
I cannot wait to read her next book.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC of this book.
I can’t get enough of Catherine Ryan Hyde ‘s books each one is better than the last
This was an excellent book for book clubs. The author accurately captured the naivety and uncertainty of youth. The story showed the evolution and progress of friendship and the growth as the young characters began to learn more about the world and themselves.
Great characters who are flawed and real. This books opens your eyes to the relationships that mean the most and how caring for someone can make a difference.
Enjoyable, Thoughtful. A good read!
I rated this a 5 because this hits home with every emotion a person can have, in a realistic manner. The wisdom from how to look outside of yourself, when trying to help to much makes you take on too much responsibility making you ineffective at helping, the real life situations that can happen to anybody. I could go on but I won’t. You will have to read it for yourself to understand.
When I watch movie credits, I usually fail to remember the name of the author whose book became a screenplay. Case in point, many of us are familiar with the movie Pay It Forward, but I didn’t remember that it was based on the novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde. She’s quite the accomplished author, with more than 40 published books.
But I didn’t know any of that when I started reading Stay. I knew it was about Lucas, a fourteen-year-old boy, who grapples with feeling overwhelmed by life and a surprising meeting with Zoe Dinsmore, someone I thought the same age as Lucas. I was wrong about Zoe’s age; she’s a grown woman. But that didn’t ruin the story or stop me from reading further.
Stay is an exquisitely touching coming-of-age story that delves into the minds and feelings of Lucas, his best friend Connor who’s depressed, Lucas’s older brother Roy who’s in Vietnam, and Zoe who has an arsenal of secrets. Some of the characters have a tragic past, some of them are simply dealing the best they know how with the day-to-day events, which often feel frightening and out of control. Hyde is a master at exploring the thoughts and feelings of ordinary people and showing us on an intimate level how they function. There are no super heroes, no action-adventure romps, no escapism or magical realism. The writing is straightforward and honest. And through that lens of truth we see exactly what makes people fail and what makes them succeed. We see the magic of silence, of a few simple words, and the profound change they can make in someone’s life.
Your teenage years might not have been like Lucas’s or Connor’s, but their friendship and feelings will make you reminisce. Or maybe you’ll think of something more current. That’s the treasure of Stay and Hyde’s writing. Her characters and themes relate to us all.
I highly recommend Stay, a glory of a book. I love it when a story keeps calling me to read. And now that I’ve finished, I’ll be looking for more Hyde books to devour.
A Plain Lovely Read – A beautifully written, small town story of some simple and good people just doing their best at growing up, being a friend, understanding others and being oneself. Subtle insights into how people think and how life “works” throughout. You’ll want to have befriended the main characters … but have to settle on just enjoying a good book. Looking forward to reading more by this author! If the others are this good … I hope she keeps on writing!
This book was very insightful. Especially from a teenager’s point of view.
Beautifully written coming of age story. I have brothers, sons and grandsons, so I will verify that the author’s perspective of teenage boys reactions and thought processes are accurate! I was so sorry when this book ended.
This insightful, well-told tale says some thing we need to be reminded of from time to time. The tone of this novel is pitch-perfect!
Take a look at the world from a child’s eyes. During the Vietnam War, a young boy in a small town sees people for who they are and learns from them.
Gives the reader a unique perspective with an uplifting finish.
Recommend this read to bring you back down to earth.
A very good story! 14 year old Lucas just has the weight on his shoulders and spends most of the story making sure others are taken care of and happy. I like how the ending jumped 50 years and the reader got to see how all the characters matured. My first story by her and not my last.
This is a beautiful, deeply moving story. In a simple, yet compelling way, the author exposes life’s truths and I feel transformed. This is my first book by Catherine Ryan Hyde and I’m excited to read more.
Charming book. I enjoyed from the very first page.
Catherine Ryan Hyde writes about the human spirit in a straight-forward and authentic, but deeply compassionate manner. She showcases her characters’ resiliency, and how being or becoming part of a community inspires them to want to be better — for themselves and those they have come to love. In Stay, employing her signature style, she explore several difficult topics, including suicide, addiction, and post-traumatic stress suffered by veterans. The result is an uplifting story, full of hope, about the futility of isolation, individual choices, and affording others the dignity to make their own choices.
Lucas does not want to be on the track team, but he does enjoy running in the woods — precisely where his mother has told him not to go, warning him that he might get lost. His first-person narrative gives insight into his thoughts and feelings about the stressors in his life. He takes up running because he finds it impossible to “think any real thoughts at the same time. That was the whole point of doing the thing.” His brother, Roy, is stationed in Vietnam, and his parents fight constantly. In fact, they are so busy fighting, Lucas feels that he is largely invisible to them. So he does go running in the woods and, in fact, gets lost. But he happens upon a cabin and a massive dog house, as well as not one, but two huge dogs. To his surprise, he realizes that the dogs just want to run and play with him. So he begins running with them every morning before school.
But one morning, Lucas discovers Zoe, the older woman who owns the dogs, lying in bed in the cabin, unresponsive. He runs home, telephones for help, and in doing so, saves her life. Lucas’ choice to disregard his mother’s order and make it his habit to run with the dogs each morning sets in motion a series of events that change the trajectory of Zoe’s life, along with Lucas’.
Hyde reveals that Zoe attempted suicide because she has been living with the guilt and far-reaching repercussions of a tragedy that occurred years ago. She has deliberately isolated herself out in the woods, and has no desire to continue living. But when Lucas realizes that she still wants to end her life, but loves the dogs and wants them cared for, he angrily and bravely makes clear that he will not look after them when she is gone. Her attitude spurs his curiosity, and he learns about her shocking history and why she is so determined not to go on living.
The choice to continue living is a theme that Hyde weaves throughout the story, examining it through Connor’s struggle with depression, as well as the problems his mother deals with, especially after his parents’ marriage finally falls apart. Lucas is a true friend to Connor, and Connor’s family problems trouble him greatly. He worries about Connor but is not sure how to help. He will not give up on Zoe, either, and gradually manages to forge a friendship with her.
Hyde details how Lucas learns life lesson from the cantankerous Zoe, who recognizes that Lucas is a boy who takes on everyone else’s struggles, and tries to convince him that he’ll “have a much happier life if you get a strong bead on what’s your responsibility and what isn’t.” That advice informs his relationship with and desire to help Connor come to terms with his own dysfunctional family.
It also figures prominently in Lucas’ relationship with his older brother, Roy, who returns unexpectedly from Vietnam, forever changed. Roy made choices in Vietnam that will impact him for the rest of his life, and Lucas discovers that Roy cannot be helped until he is ready to receive help. As with Zoe and Connor, Lucas learns about supporting a loved one, and facilitating their effort to receive assistance. Through Roy, Hyde challenges readers to consider the impact of war and, more particularly, the Vietnam War, upon warriors.
Hyde’s characters, with all of their faults and flaws, are compellingly empathetic. The dogs play prominent roles in the story because of their connection to the characters and the ways in which the characters’ feelings for and reactions to them illustrate the characters’ core values and traits. Lucas’ voice is heartbreakingly resonant, genuine, and thoroughly believable. She has crafted a lovely story about ordinary people facing extraordinary challenges with the best intentions and integrity, but who aren’t equipped with the coping skills required to overcome the issues they face. But they do have resilience, as well as strength and courage that they are surprised to learn they possess.
Lucas’ one choice sets in motion events that have far-reaching, multi-generational consequences, but Hyde passionately conveys that nothing in the lives of Lucas or his loved ones is a mistake. As always, Hyde’s commitment to her subject matter and affection for her characters is evident, and she provides readers with difficult themes and complicated issues upon which to reflect, and ponder how they might respond to similar challenges.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book.