Stay With Me

Freymann-Weyr, Garret. 2006. Stay With Me.
Stay with Me is the story of a teen girl (16-17) who is struggling with the suicide of her older half-sister, Rebecca. Rebecca was the sister she felt closest to despite their age difference. Clare, her other half-sister, always felt distant and strange. But now, months after Rebecca’s death, Leila finds herself living with Clare while her parents go to Europe to lose themselves in their work. In addition to her loss, she is struggling with typical teen problems: boys, sexuality, desire, and wanting to know who she is and what she wants to do with her life. Her parents want her to get a college education--preferably at an elite, expensive, prestigious school. She would be fine getting a year or two of real-life experience at the theatre. That and she wants almost more than anything to meet the great love of her life. But sometimes what you want isn’t always what you get.
What is somewhat unusual in Stay With Me, is that the narrator, Leila, becomes romantically (and sexually) involved with a much older man (31 or 32 to her 16 or 17). No one important--from either family seems to notice or care. Only a few laughs or jokes from his friends or co-workers. Usually, this kind of relationship would be alarming to someone and presented as such--a mistake in the happening--but that is not the case here. Which leaves me wondering is that a good thing or a bad thing that it is left so open-ended???