BOOK REVIEW: Stay Another Day by Juno Dawson

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Pages: 352

Genre: YA Contemporary

I thoroughly enjoyed this festive read filled with heaps & heaps of messy family drama with a dash of Christmas cheer.

“Everyone is struggling with something. It’s why we’ve got to be kind to each other, even when it’s really fuckin’ hard. You just don’t know. You can’t tell by looking.”

This is definitely not your typical cute festive romance read filled with happy & nearly flawless characters - it is messy, it is raw & so much more & guaranteed to pull you in from the start.

Although I own two other books by Juno Dawson, this was the first one I read & I’m pleased to say I cannot wait to read the rest of her books. I absolutely love her writing style & how she brings a diverse group of characters to life. I couldn’t help but grow attached to the characters & rooting for them to find happiness.

“I think it’s because to love and be loved you have to open yourself up to the possibility of being hurt. You have to take off the armour. You have to show your soft bits to someone. You have to be vulnerable, and that’s the scariest thing there is.”

The book is written from multiple POVs - Rowan who is 19, his twin sister Fern & their 17 year old sister Willow. Each of the characters were written so well & complex, that I could almost immediately tell whose POV I was reading without even looking at the chapter heading. There’s no denying that each characters has their own flaws & mistakes, but that just made them all the more realistic & easy to learn from.

My favourite character was definitely Rowan - he is such a cutie beneath his tough, nonchalant & emotionally unavailable exterior & his POV was hilarious most of the time, filled with a lot of witty comments & confidence.

Two other favourites were Syd & Thom, although each character in this book played such an integral role in the storyline & the development of the group of characters as a whole.

I loved the fact that the group of characters were all so diverse.

This book addresses difficult subjects such as mental health, eating disorders and self harm. I recommend looking up TW for this one. 🤗

Favourite read of 2021❓

Happy New Year friends❤️