Reviews - Stay and Fight: A Novel

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632 reviews for:

Stay and Fight: A Novel

Madeline ffitch

3.78 AVERAGE

reading_inthe_littlehouse's review against another edition

5.0

The characters in this book! I got sucked into their crazy lives and I couldn’t stop. This one will stay with me for awhile.

notlikeshrek's review against another edition

3.75

emotional tense medium-paced

sillymsdebs's review against another edition

4.0

This was a well written book with a great storyline told by multiple viewpoints. You have two women who are bringing a child into the world meet up with a woman who is just learning her independence. They decide to live off the land and raise this child to be “prepared”. I was not shocked by the ramifications from this, but I loved how it unfolded. My only issue is the fantasy aspect. While it was woven throughout the story, what did it for me was a scene in the end where it bordered on unbelievable. Other than that, it was a very good book about what it is to live differently than others.

knikchevich's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

afton_gray's review against another edition

5.0

Stay and Fight can only be described as harrowing for the way that it toes the line between a family tearing apart and a family knotting itself so tightly together that individuals no longer quite have edges. I've never read a book that made me so acutely aware of how thin the line between the two is. Set in rural Appalachia and rooted in a survivalist mentality, this is the novel of not just queer family-building but queer family-lasting, and it will remind you of every reason under the sun to stay and fight. I loved it madly.

anniekg's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Wow this book was a roller coaster. At first I liked it fine. Then I disliked it and found it hard to get through. Then I started to really get super into it. Then it ended and I was like "what. that's the end?!?!"

The incredible thing about this book is how it pulls you inside the perspective of the characters. You really understand why they do what they do even when you are like "WTF don't do that!" For awhile I felt like there were no likeable characters and no plot and I was on the verge of giving up, but my best friend had wanted to read it together. But then once Pearly was a character with his own narration I was hooked. I really loved Pearly's sections. I think I found Helen's mostly the hardest to listen to, probably b/c she reminded me of me. But the end of Karen's portion was also awful; I was so angry with her Spoiler when she called Shane and told him they were short handed. Like seriously why would you do that?? But I really loved the disruptive action she took at the end. Didn't redeem her for me but I really was glad she did that.

I found myself wanting more from the story, but also maybe the ending was perfect and it was good how it left me wondering and wanting more.

I really did like the narrative style, how the story was bouncing from narrator to narrator but always moving the story forward in the same story. Somehow that felt different than some other stories with different narrators.

alexacook's review against another edition

4.0

It doesn't feel like it was 2 years ago that I read this one. It really stuck with me, exploring commitment to community and building your own society.