I simply slung my rucksack on my shoulder and climbed into the car – and into the life – of perfect strangers.
It was meant to be Caitlin’s perfect summer, but betrayed by her best friend and her boyfriend, she finds herself hitchhiking home alone, heartbroken, and penniless.
When a smiling family pulls up on the roadside to help her on her way, she’s relieved – they seem so friendly, safe. And when they offer her a warm bed in their isolated house for the night, she’s grateful not to have to travel back alone in the dark. In any case, she’s in no rush to get home, where a grave secret is lying in wait to blow her family apart.
One night soon turns into two, and then three. The increasingly spellbinding couple wants her to stay, and why shouldn’t she? Their children need a tutor, and the longer she can avoid home, the better. But then an older member of the household warns her to leave immediately. And when her phone suddenly goes missing, when she realises that this perfect family is a perfect lie, it might not be so easy for her to leave…
Book Info: Page length: 368 pages. Publisher: Orion. Publication Date: 17 Aug 2023
“Although there were few books in our house growing up, there were always plenty of stories. My father used to take us on his knee on wet afternoons and start, ‘As I was going through the woods, I met…’; and my grandfather would do the same, but begin: ‘When I was a boy, living in Cornwall, I got to know a family of bears…’
“Stories were chiefly for entertainment and comfort, but we came to enjoy the core values embedded in them and the way things turned out all right in the end. I think I began to learn then that although real life doesn’t have neat story arcs, storytelling is a way of making sense of the world.”
Jane Bailey is the author of seven novels. Her first was shortlisted for the Dillons Prize, her fifth novel, ‘What Was Rescued’, for the RNA Novel of the Year awards, and her her latest novel, ‘Sorry Isn’t Good Enough’, is published by Orion in 2022.
Jane has been a writer-in-residence for Cheltenham Festivals’ First Story for several years, which promotes creative writing in schools serving low-income communities. She has also been writer-in-residence for Beyond Words, which takes creative writing to young people in Gloucestershire Hospitals.
Jane lives in Gloucestershire.
My Review:
This is my first book by Jane Bailey and was chosen as a buddy read along with 12 other TBC members last month.
Stay is narrated by 19 year old Caitlin, who has just left her boyfriend in Europe to return home with literally the clothes on her back arriving as the Covid-19 pandemic starts. Stuck in the UK with no phone or money, a young family offer to take her home for the night which Caitlin accepts. However, when the UK goes into Lockdown the following day and Caitlin is reluctant to go home to face her own family, she agrees to stay with Marcus, Mimi and the children on their isolated farm and home-school their 2 girls.
However, it quickly turns into a living nightmare when she finds herself cut off from everyone with no phone, internet or escape. Slowly realising what she’s got herself involved in, she begins to plan her escape and more importantly save the two young girls she has grown to care for.
I really enjoyed the way Caitlin narrated her story, it becomes obvious from the start that something terrible has happened and despite her naivity it’s easy to see why she was fooled by this seemingly normal couple Marcus and Mimi.
Without giving anything away, this story does have some uncomfortable themes running throughout it and those who are triggered by child abuse or cults should be aware that these topics are covered in detail.
An enjoyable page-turner.
