Denise Kim Wy

They say people regret the things they didn’t do much more than the things they did. This story is Wy’s take on living with regret and trying to mend rickety bridges. Please Stay jumps between scenes in the present—where Kym and Ethan reconnect after seven years of being apart—and the past—to give the readers the back story of where their friendship began. Wy’s characters are likeable enough, though I confess I found Ethan much more appealing than Kym. His inherent charm and obvious affection for Kym led me to wonder how Kym could ever have believed in and acted upon his seeming indifference. Nonetheless, their reunion, which spans nearly the entirety of the novel, is sweet and indicative of the kind of love that begins in childhood and endures even after separation.

Wy has the potential to be a good novelist. Please Stay certainly attempts to explore a very excruciating and real emotion that befalls almost every person; it would be especially poignant for those currently in the throes of adolescence and early adulthood. However, Wy’s novel suffers from a lack of editing. While some typographical errors in any novel can be encountered without leaving a lasting impression, the same cannot be said here: Unnecessary typos, omitted words, problems with idiomatic expressions, and deviance from standard English conventions interrupted the flow of the story and significantly impacted my overall impression of the book. On a number of occasions, I had to trudge through a sentence, trying to decipher its meaning, which made the actual reading more tedious than enjoyable. With a little more editing and tweaking to improve story flow, Wy will surely leave readers with an enjoyable novel.… (mere)