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Stay and Fight: A Novel
"Like Bastard Out of Carolina, ffitch's electrifying debut novel is a paean to independence and a protest against the materialism of our age." —O: The Oprah Magazine
"Delightfully raucous." —Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
Helen arrives in Appalachian Ohio full of love and her boyfriend’s ideas for living off the land. Too soon, with winter coming, he calls it quits. Helped by Rudy—her government-questioning, wisdom-spouting, seasonal-affective-disordered boss—and a neighbor couple, Helen makes it to spring. Those neighbors, Karen and Lily, are awaiting the arrival of their first child, a boy, which means their time at the Women’s Land Trust must end.
So Helen invites the new family to throw in with her—they’ll split the work and the food, build a house, and make a life that sustains them, if barely, for years. Then young Perley decides he wants to go to school. And Rudy sets up a fruit-tree nursery on the pipeline easement edging their land. The outside world is brought clamoring into their makeshift family.
Set in a region known for its independent spirit, Stay and Fight shakes up what it means to be a family, to live well, to make peace with nature and make deals with the system. It is a protest novel that challenges our notions of effective action. It is a family novel that refuses to limit the term. And it is a marvel of storytelling that both breaks with tradition and celebrates it. Best of all, it is full of flawed, cantankerous, flesh-and-blood characters who remind us that conflict isn't the end of love, but the real beginning.
Absorbingly spun, perfectly voiced, and disruptively political, Madeline ffitch's Stay and Fight forces us to reimagine an Appalachia—and an America—we think we know. And it takes us, laughing and fighting, into a new understanding of what it means to love and to be free.
"Delightfully raucous." —Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
Helen arrives in Appalachian Ohio full of love and her boyfriend’s ideas for living off the land. Too soon, with winter coming, he calls it quits. Helped by Rudy—her government-questioning, wisdom-spouting, seasonal-affective-disordered boss—and a neighbor couple, Helen makes it to spring. Those neighbors, Karen and Lily, are awaiting the arrival of their first child, a boy, which means their time at the Women’s Land Trust must end.
So Helen invites the new family to throw in with her—they’ll split the work and the food, build a house, and make a life that sustains them, if barely, for years. Then young Perley decides he wants to go to school. And Rudy sets up a fruit-tree nursery on the pipeline easement edging their land. The outside world is brought clamoring into their makeshift family.
Set in a region known for its independent spirit, Stay and Fight shakes up what it means to be a family, to live well, to make peace with nature and make deals with the system. It is a protest novel that challenges our notions of effective action. It is a family novel that refuses to limit the term. And it is a marvel of storytelling that both breaks with tradition and celebrates it. Best of all, it is full of flawed, cantankerous, flesh-and-blood characters who remind us that conflict isn't the end of love, but the real beginning.
Absorbingly spun, perfectly voiced, and disruptively political, Madeline ffitch's Stay and Fight forces us to reimagine an Appalachia—and an America—we think we know. And it takes us, laughing and fighting, into a new understanding of what it means to love and to be free.
304 pages, Paperback
First published July 9, 2019
466 people are currently reading
29295 people want to read
About the author
Madeline Ffitch
8 books113 followersMadeline ffitch writes and organizes in Appalachian Ohio. She was a founding member of the punk theater company, The Missoula Oblongata, and is the author of the story collection, Valparaiso, Round the Horn. Madeline has been awarded residencies at Yaddo and at the MacDowell Colony. She is the author of Stay and Fight from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 862 reviews
February 17, 2020
Incredible book. Made me think about the meaning of freedom, and the functionality of idealism, especially when it comes to raising kids. Read if you're interested in rural life, poverty, lesbian motherhood, child development, living off the land, and chosen families.
August 29, 2019
Well, this is different. Quirky, with a capital “Q”. And I liked it. Stay and Fight is about a makeshift family in Appalachian Ohio that gets together basically in order to help each other out. Two lesbians and their infant son have to leave their cabin in The Women’s Land Trust because of the sex of their baby. They come together with Helen, a woman stuck on a piece of rural land, dumped by her boyfriend. They build a house the best they can and for the most part live off the land with a clan of non-rent-paying black snakes, oh my!
The baby, Perley, is quite the boy. By age 7, though he still has quite the imagination with child-like thoughts and dreams, he has developed wisdom far beyond his years. Life is not easy for this family. They struggle mightily, not only for survival, but with each other. We are along for the journey as they persevere and make the best of whatever opportunities come their way. There are several supporting characters that are also hard up and show us in many different ways how they deal with all the adversity thrown at them. Some handle it well, others do not. There are so many wonderful themes in this story-- the third paragraph of the official blurb describes these more beautifully than I can.
Initially, I couldn’t figure out where this story was going (I had forgotten the blurb that I had read weeks previously). In fact, early on, I had some intrusive thoughts of DNF’ing it, something I rarely do. This cost the novel a star. But I pushed on and before long, I was totally engrossed and finished the last 55% in 2 days—fast for me. There was a lot going on at the end. At 95% there was so much to resolve that I wondered if the author was going to pull a cliffhanger, something that would have cost her at least another star. But, amazingly, the last 5% was beautifully done and provided a very satisfying ending. The last sentence brought goosebumps!
I highly recommend Stay and Fight (a most appropriate title) to everyone looking for a quirky, yet poignant, character-driven tale of adversity. The writing is beautiful, and the characters just burst off the pages. I will definitely look for more from Ms. Ffitch.
Thank you Net Galley; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; and Ms. Madeline Ffitch for an advanced review copy. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.
The baby, Perley, is quite the boy. By age 7, though he still has quite the imagination with child-like thoughts and dreams, he has developed wisdom far beyond his years. Life is not easy for this family. They struggle mightily, not only for survival, but with each other. We are along for the journey as they persevere and make the best of whatever opportunities come their way. There are several supporting characters that are also hard up and show us in many different ways how they deal with all the adversity thrown at them. Some handle it well, others do not. There are so many wonderful themes in this story-- the third paragraph of the official blurb describes these more beautifully than I can.
Initially, I couldn’t figure out where this story was going (I had forgotten the blurb that I had read weeks previously). In fact, early on, I had some intrusive thoughts of DNF’ing it, something I rarely do. This cost the novel a star. But I pushed on and before long, I was totally engrossed and finished the last 55% in 2 days—fast for me. There was a lot going on at the end. At 95% there was so much to resolve that I wondered if the author was going to pull a cliffhanger, something that would have cost her at least another star. But, amazingly, the last 5% was beautifully done and provided a very satisfying ending. The last sentence brought goosebumps!
I highly recommend Stay and Fight (a most appropriate title) to everyone looking for a quirky, yet poignant, character-driven tale of adversity. The writing is beautiful, and the characters just burst off the pages. I will definitely look for more from Ms. Ffitch.
Thank you Net Galley; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; and Ms. Madeline Ffitch for an advanced review copy. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.
July 14, 2019
Things I learned from Stay and Fight:
- people are mean
- people are even meaner to you if you're different
- and even more so if you're also poor or any kind of minority
- but it's still alright to be different
Stay and Fight was gritty, sometimes brutal and cynnical, real and rough, but it was also a gem, a pure wonder. It's told in a very honest and very raw way - you can basically feel, smell and see it all, because it's so colorful and full of energy.
And so I loved this book with incredible ferocity.
Read the full review here:
I thank the publisher for a free copy of the ebook through NetGalley in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
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- people are mean
- people are even meaner to you if you're different
- and even more so if you're also poor or any kind of minority
- but it's still alright to be different
Stay and Fight was gritty, sometimes brutal and cynnical, real and rough, but it was also a gem, a pure wonder. It's told in a very honest and very raw way - you can basically feel, smell and see it all, because it's so colorful and full of energy.
And so I loved this book with incredible ferocity.
Read the full review here:
I thank the publisher for a free copy of the ebook through NetGalley in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Read Post On My Blog | Themed Bookstagram | Quick Update Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
July 21, 2019
I’m a huge fan of character driven novels, especially ones in which characters narrate their turn of events. In this incredibly quirky novel, “Stay and Fight” author and Appalachia environmental activist, Madeline Ffitch, provides the reader with the ugly downside of the gas pipeline projects. But it’s more than that; it’s also a story of survivalist sorts trying to live peacefully, outside social norms, in untraditional ways. This way of life becomes a problem for society’s do-gooders who want to banish those who don’t fall in line with their ideals.
Ffitch’s strength as an author is making her characters endearing and sympathetic. An casual observer could view the characters as being dangerous, malicious, and a bit crazy. Under Ffitch’s deft skills, the reader sees the characters heart and intentions. It’s a novel that forces the reader to take a pause in initial judgments of those who live an unconventional life.
Narrators Helen, Lily, and Karen are three women who live in the Ohio Appalachian Mountains. Helen came with her boyfriend, purchasing a few acres to scrape off a living. Lily and Karen are lesbians who want to live their lives freely. Lily is pregnant and the ladies plan to raise their child off the land. When their son Perley is born, the two women need to find another place of living, as they are in a woman only community. After Helen’s boyfriend leaves her, she offers her home to the women to share.
Perley starts narrating when he’s around 5 or 6. He’s an adorable narrator, providing the reader with his innocent points of view. He loves his moms and his “mean aunt” Helen. However, once he sees the school bus stop at the end of the road to pick up other children, he decides he wants to go to school. He just wants a friend.
Another fascinating character is Rudy, an arborist who has his own special place in the novel. If I saw Rudy in the streets, I’d keep my distance. In the novel, he is hilarious.
The life-style of the characters could make anyone blanch. When Perley goes to school with snakebite on his face, the officials get involved. Perley is one of the best characters in the novel, with his innocence and observations making the reader chuckle. The ladies have their own special chuckle moments.
It’s a story of misfits just trying to live their lives with the underlying message that pipelines will have serious social and economical consequences.
Ffitch’s strength as an author is making her characters endearing and sympathetic. An casual observer could view the characters as being dangerous, malicious, and a bit crazy. Under Ffitch’s deft skills, the reader sees the characters heart and intentions. It’s a novel that forces the reader to take a pause in initial judgments of those who live an unconventional life.
Narrators Helen, Lily, and Karen are three women who live in the Ohio Appalachian Mountains. Helen came with her boyfriend, purchasing a few acres to scrape off a living. Lily and Karen are lesbians who want to live their lives freely. Lily is pregnant and the ladies plan to raise their child off the land. When their son Perley is born, the two women need to find another place of living, as they are in a woman only community. After Helen’s boyfriend leaves her, she offers her home to the women to share.
Perley starts narrating when he’s around 5 or 6. He’s an adorable narrator, providing the reader with his innocent points of view. He loves his moms and his “mean aunt” Helen. However, once he sees the school bus stop at the end of the road to pick up other children, he decides he wants to go to school. He just wants a friend.
Another fascinating character is Rudy, an arborist who has his own special place in the novel. If I saw Rudy in the streets, I’d keep my distance. In the novel, he is hilarious.
The life-style of the characters could make anyone blanch. When Perley goes to school with snakebite on his face, the officials get involved. Perley is one of the best characters in the novel, with his innocence and observations making the reader chuckle. The ladies have their own special chuckle moments.
It’s a story of misfits just trying to live their lives with the underlying message that pipelines will have serious social and economical consequences.
October 22, 2019
Stay and Fight is one of those odd books that make themselves so very difficult to review, by way of being incredibly good and incredibly hard to pin down to why.
It's not going to be for everyone - the book kicks off with the story of a man who almost let his p*nis rot off one winter rather than see a doctor, and that's most likely the best way to let readers sort out for themselves whether they'd like to read this book or not. But it's really a book about three women who learn who they are and how to stand up for that, and for each other.
We rotate point of view among all three, and the author does a truly magnificent job of keeping the voices distinct. I could close my eyes, pick a page at random, and be able to tell you whose chapter this was, without hesitation. And they're all very real - flaws and quirks that make them feel truly human, will never putting me off by taking them too far.
It's an odd little book, this, but an enjoyable one, and definitely something I'd prescribe for a book slump.
It's not going to be for everyone - the book kicks off with the story of a man who almost let his p*nis rot off one winter rather than see a doctor, and that's most likely the best way to let readers sort out for themselves whether they'd like to read this book or not. But it's really a book about three women who learn who they are and how to stand up for that, and for each other.
We rotate point of view among all three, and the author does a truly magnificent job of keeping the voices distinct. I could close my eyes, pick a page at random, and be able to tell you whose chapter this was, without hesitation. And they're all very real - flaws and quirks that make them feel truly human, will never putting me off by taking them too far.
It's an odd little book, this, but an enjoyable one, and definitely something I'd prescribe for a book slump.
March 29, 2024
There are literal Easter eggs in this book so the characters-in-the-know can sneakily protect each other.
There are also figurative Easter eggs (here's how you destroy an oil excavator in case of, you know, zombies, wink-wink).
And now that I've finished, the entire book feels like an Easter egg. A secret, bitter-burnt love letter to those who love the green and mulchy earth. An egg for hatching snakes. A Best Practices Manual for quietly escaping the world's cruel and relentless Best Practices, escaping even the concept of Best Practices, and instead releasing ourselves into the brave imperfections of family and home.
I loved this book. I cannot comprehend the reviewers who say they couldn't connect to the characters. Or the reviewer who reduced their stars because there were too many 'gross snakes.' Like: go terraform Mars with Elon Musk OK and leave us the Earth and the snakes and the novels like this thank you.
Now I'm mad about people who hate snakes, but what I mean to say is: read this book.
There are also figurative Easter eggs (here's how you destroy an oil excavator in case of, you know, zombies, wink-wink).
And now that I've finished, the entire book feels like an Easter egg. A secret, bitter-burnt love letter to those who love the green and mulchy earth. An egg for hatching snakes. A Best Practices Manual for quietly escaping the world's cruel and relentless Best Practices, escaping even the concept of Best Practices, and instead releasing ourselves into the brave imperfections of family and home.
I loved this book. I cannot comprehend the reviewers who say they couldn't connect to the characters. Or the reviewer who reduced their stars because there were too many 'gross snakes.' Like: go terraform Mars with Elon Musk OK and leave us the Earth and the snakes and the novels like this thank you.
Now I'm mad about people who hate snakes, but what I mean to say is: read this book.
April 19, 2022
This book started out with a bang and then I felt like it really just kinda wobbled around drunkenly for the rest of the time, but in a way that only made it feel more real and grounded, and less like the fictional story it is. One thing that Ffitch does very well in this book is introduce you to characters and then make you absolutely despise almost every single one of them; I will be honest and admit that for quite a bit of the book I took that to mean that the book was awful, but I eventually came around and realized that the writing itself was very well done, and only through such good writing could I still enjoy a narrative with so few people I actually wanted to see succeed.
The shining points of this book were always any chapters shown from the eyes of a child, because these were another way that Ffitch showed her creative brilliance in just how accurate it felt to hear about the world through the eyes of a seven year old just trying to understand what's going on around him. I don't think this book was amazing or life changing and I am almost certain I'll never read it again, but I am glad that it was suggested as a feature for this month in my book club because otherwise I probably would've never given it a second glance or picked it up and that certainly would've made me miss out on some really great thought provoking points of social commentary that were sprinkled throughout.
The shining points of this book were always any chapters shown from the eyes of a child, because these were another way that Ffitch showed her creative brilliance in just how accurate it felt to hear about the world through the eyes of a seven year old just trying to understand what's going on around him. I don't think this book was amazing or life changing and I am almost certain I'll never read it again, but I am glad that it was suggested as a feature for this month in my book club because otherwise I probably would've never given it a second glance or picked it up and that certainly would've made me miss out on some really great thought provoking points of social commentary that were sprinkled throughout.
September 12, 2019
I wish the world was full of novels about queer feminist anarchists in Appalachian Ohio.
May 7, 2022
This book was such a disappointment. I saw a tiktok recommending it, put it on hold immediately, and was so excited many weeks later when I finally got it…and it’s just genuinely terrible. The writing is fine but not great, every single character except for maybe Perley is not only unlikable, but unfathomably stupid and irresponsible. The worst part though is that it reads sexist, homophobic, classist, and racist at various points in the story despite being seemingly designed to fight those things, and i don’t know if it’s intentional or if the author is just very out of touch. I am genuinely confused as to why anyone likes this book.
December 24, 2018
Thanks to goodreads and the publisher for the free copy! This is the story of a woman who moves to Appalachia with her boyfriend to live off the land (his idea). He quickly bails out at the first sign of difficulty. She stays and barely survives the first winter. Needing reinforcements, she invites a lesbian couple who need a new place to live. The have a new baby boy making them ineligible to stay on Woman's Trust land any longer. They mix with a hillbilly anti-authoritarian who usually has cheeto dust in his beard and an old depressed lawyer. They get by minding their own business for a few years. Of course, when the boy is old enough for school other people start minding their business for them. The villains aren't evil really, but like in life they are just principals and social workers and nameless corporations who need their land, just doing their jobs. With the over the top nature of the characters, the book probably shouldn't have worked. But it sure did work. It reminded me of The Monkey Wrench Gang with feminists instead of cowboys, hillbillies instead of polygamists. The fighting against the system was fun, but the characters were very well written, I came for the rebellion and stayed for the people. The narration alternates between first person takes of the three women and the boy and they all worked. The quirky boy raised like a wolf fantasizing of being an elf, able to live off the land but problematic because he can't navigate a tablet, was particularly entertaining. A fine book.
December 23, 2019
Queer family (dyke couple + son + nonrelated "Mean Aunt") in rural Appalachia living a hard glowing life on the land that gets disrupted the minute their son interfaces with "Outside" via school; as the pipeline cutting across their acreage portends doom. Lots of grit and animal guts in this tale of tough love and chosen family (plus snakes) -- Zazen crossed with Mostly Dead Things with the bite of Dorothy Allison. I read this in two days, fell right in.
July 15, 2025
This book was very competently written, Ffitch knows how to give characters a distinctive voice and how to present the same story from multiple point of views in the way that doesn't get tedious. The whole thing felt surprisingly both vulnerable and powerful. There's a beautiful exploration of what it means to live comfortably and how what one wants can clash violently with what "society" wants for "us" which I really appreciated.
I liked all the characters, except the kid, I would have liked this one better if we had spent less time with the kid's POV (I'm a hater of kids' POVs in books that aren't for kids so take that with a grain of salt if you're not).
I liked all the characters, except the kid, I would have liked this one better if we had spent less time with the kid's POV (I'm a hater of kids' POVs in books that aren't for kids so take that with a grain of salt if you're not).
April 20, 2022
Had to sit on this for a while after finishing. Initially, I couldn't figure out where the story was going, and I toyed with the idea of DNF-ing, but I pushed on and ended up engrossed. I didn't particularly care for the ending, but also am not sure how else it could have ended or what I would have changed. I think I mostly felt that the ending was a little abrupt and that I would have liked to have stayed with the characters for a little while longer.
I struggled with figuring out how to review this book. I ended up listening to some interviews that Madeline Ffitch did and reading through other reviews on Goodreads and in opinion pieces. I didn't feel like the book was hilarious or even the "delightfully raucous" that I've seen tossed around in some reviews. If this book were a person, I'd call it a "son of a gun" and "old bastard" before buying it a round at the bar. It's gritty, cynical, real, but also filled with a bit of wonder that gleams through the cracks if you manage to catch it just right. Filled and built on the brave imperfections that are associated with the found family trope dialed to the max between three women who learn who they are, how to stand up for that, and eventually, for each other.
I felt that the novel was a decent exploration on the intersectionality of gender, sexual identity, racism, classism, and environmentalism because it forces the reader to pause their initial judgments of the unconventional. Because of this, I'm not sure that I can judge this book on a good/bad binary system like I try to do, so instead I think I'll dive into just one theme that I thought about constantly.
I think the concept that I toyed with the most while reading was the meaning of freedom and the functionality of idealism. There's an underlying tension between absolute freedom of choice and the constraints of life's givens. The book is concerned with freedom and what it means to be free, but also the ethics of that freedom. The more that each woman attempts to justify their individual concerns and goals, the more that they are unable to accept each other and deny the others freedom in order to validate their attempt to give their life meaning. Freedom isn't just a plot of private property in which you kick out the world. It isn't just living up to a subjective and but ultimately external goal. And it isn't an ideal world free of conflict. I think the book's focus is freedom as a process, rather than an outcome, and that the pursuit of one's own freedom is also conditional on the freedom of others. Which necessitates a system that recognizes and evaluates conflicts - to stay and fight through competing interests and choices rather than to run away, to oppress the freedom of others, or to shut down. Ultimately, all four of the POV characters comes to terms with freedom as a process through a different angle.
I struggled with figuring out how to review this book. I ended up listening to some interviews that Madeline Ffitch did and reading through other reviews on Goodreads and in opinion pieces. I didn't feel like the book was hilarious or even the "delightfully raucous" that I've seen tossed around in some reviews. If this book were a person, I'd call it a "son of a gun" and "old bastard" before buying it a round at the bar. It's gritty, cynical, real, but also filled with a bit of wonder that gleams through the cracks if you manage to catch it just right. Filled and built on the brave imperfections that are associated with the found family trope dialed to the max between three women who learn who they are, how to stand up for that, and eventually, for each other.
I felt that the novel was a decent exploration on the intersectionality of gender, sexual identity, racism, classism, and environmentalism because it forces the reader to pause their initial judgments of the unconventional. Because of this, I'm not sure that I can judge this book on a good/bad binary system like I try to do, so instead I think I'll dive into just one theme that I thought about constantly.
I think the concept that I toyed with the most while reading was the meaning of freedom and the functionality of idealism. There's an underlying tension between absolute freedom of choice and the constraints of life's givens. The book is concerned with freedom and what it means to be free, but also the ethics of that freedom. The more that each woman attempts to justify their individual concerns and goals, the more that they are unable to accept each other and deny the others freedom in order to validate their attempt to give their life meaning. Freedom isn't just a plot of private property in which you kick out the world. It isn't just living up to a subjective and but ultimately external goal. And it isn't an ideal world free of conflict. I think the book's focus is freedom as a process, rather than an outcome, and that the pursuit of one's own freedom is also conditional on the freedom of others. Which necessitates a system that recognizes and evaluates conflicts - to stay and fight through competing interests and choices rather than to run away, to oppress the freedom of others, or to shut down. Ultimately, all four of the POV characters comes to terms with freedom as a process through a different angle.
June 30, 2022
my expectations were very low when I started the book but holy shit. I think this might be a new favourite. This book was so interesting, well written, beautiful. I think my friends are extremely bored of me talking about this book by now. The ‘found family’ that’s usually glorified in books wasn’t glorified here, it was realistic and messy and that’s what makes this book so good.
10/10 would recommend to everyone
10/10 would recommend to everyone
July 26, 2019
Was this book amazing or insane? I still have no idea but I couldn’t put it down and I am still thinking about it. 1 Star for gross snakes and the vague quick wrap up at the end and for characters who just wont get off their asses not to be stupid. 5 stars for writing and telling a fascinating story I haven’t read before in quite this was and for being unputdownable.
January 11, 2020
This book was excellent, and unlike anything I've read. Great characters, strong writing, and a story that I was thinking about constantly (still am). Also, the title makes a good mantra. ;) Never did I imagine myself googling black rat snakes, and I very much fear the popup ads I'll be subjected to, but I don't regret a thing. SUPERB.
October 22, 2020
I have so many thoughts about this book. First, I appreciate that the author is trying to show a more diverse group of people living in Appalachia. I appreciate that most of the main characters are female told from their perspective. But my issues with this book are long. For me, none of the characters were likeable. The women were all either too whiney or argumentative or obstinate for the sake of obstinance - all which come off like stereotypes of women that we'd like to shake. And most of the characters were not born and raised in Appalachia, but chose to move there for reasons that more revolved around some romanticized concept of living off of the land, escaping the rules and expectations that life places on you, The Man, etc. I get it... but the three women who the story centralized on lived in absolute squalor and called it choice. Lilly was dominated by both her life partner Karen, and Helen ("mean Aunt") to the point where she's starving and begging to go to the store to get food, but forced to rely on what the outcome of rolling the "survival dice" is (should they go to the store for food or should they continue to forge for mushrooms and acorns that week?). And when Lilly gives birth to their son Perley, it gets more complicated. I tried to be open minded to the women's beliefs and ideals and life choices - but I can't help but feel it was wrong to bring up a child in those conditions. It may be their adult choices to make, but unfair to make that choice for a child. I also don't like the idea that being poor means you have to live in filth. Yes, it happens, but it doesn't make them people with whom it's easy to empathize. Maybe that was the point. When social services takes the boy away after he's bit in the face by a snake and finds their home to be nothing more than a snake and rodent-infested shack with no plumbing or electricity, and with parents who didn't really believe that he should ever see a doctor, dentist, or go to school, I couldn't help but be relieved. Was the reader supposed to be sad that he was taken away? Well... yes, it IS sad. It's horrible that a child should ever be separated from its parents. Maybe the point of the book was to push the reader's views on how they judge others. I tried not to, but I judged these people hard. I also didn't like that they were three women who banded together to build something of their own... and screwed up so royally. I suppose it happens, just like the men in the book who also had screwed up their lives royally.
Structurally the book was odd - I liked that it jumped from the perspective of the three women and Perley (his narration was the best IMO, as told through the perspective and language of a 6 year old boy). I think there were parts of the book that went off on tangents and side stories that were unnecessary. I think the author was trying to showcase many sides of Appalachia and the people who lived there (the Native American non-union workers, the drunken lawyer guy, the pipeline storyline) but it was too much.
Ugh I really didn't like this book but pushed myself to finish. The end was ok, but... now what? They will all find their way back to each other, as family should, which is good... and I'm a judgmental B, but find somewhere safe and clean for your child to live.
Structurally the book was odd - I liked that it jumped from the perspective of the three women and Perley (his narration was the best IMO, as told through the perspective and language of a 6 year old boy). I think there were parts of the book that went off on tangents and side stories that were unnecessary. I think the author was trying to showcase many sides of Appalachia and the people who lived there (the Native American non-union workers, the drunken lawyer guy, the pipeline storyline) but it was too much.
Ugh I really didn't like this book but pushed myself to finish. The end was ok, but... now what? They will all find their way back to each other, as family should, which is good... and I'm a judgmental B, but find somewhere safe and clean for your child to live.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 5, 2019
4.5 rounded up. I was actually really startled by how much I ended up enjoying this book. The writing was crisp and clean yet evocative. The shifting first-person POV really worked for me and I absolutely loved the way the differing personalities were revealed through the eyes of others. I even found the child narrator charming and hilarious, and I usually find child narrators deeply annoying. (Yes, even in Room! That's how good this was.) The one thing that kept coming up again and again is that everyone was an unreliable narrator towards their own life; everybody saw themselves completely differently to how the other characters saw them, and that felt very true to life while also being actually a pretty original way to tell a story like this, despite the fact that I've described it so poorly that I'm sure it sounds run-of-the-mill here. Perhaps for this reason, the book this actually ended up reminding me most of was Heartbreaker by Claudia Dey, which also had a really unique approach to multiple narrators, and also featured strong female familial relationships sketched across a brutally harsh natural landscape. (Of course that book is a dystopia, and this book is set in our regular old world. But still.)
This came up again in the main plot of the novel; I kept jumping back and forth and back and forth as to whose side I was on, as I'm sure I was intended to do. All the characters were vivid and written with a sense of deep love and empathy despite how critically flawed they all were, and that made for an uncomfortably conflicted yet brilliant read at times. Characters that initially seemed villainous to me seemed increasingly reasonable as I delved deeper into the storyline, and then tilted back towards antagonism. Everyone seems to have the best of intentions but nobody is totally sympathetic, and I really liked that the whole novel really lived in that moral grey area.
The setting of the story was another highlight. It had a vivid sense of place and the descriptions of the natural landscape and the family's homestead were beautifully detailed. There were so many small details that still managed to make a big impression and really brought the whole scene to life.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This came up again in the main plot of the novel; I kept jumping back and forth and back and forth as to whose side I was on, as I'm sure I was intended to do. All the characters were vivid and written with a sense of deep love and empathy despite how critically flawed they all were, and that made for an uncomfortably conflicted yet brilliant read at times. Characters that initially seemed villainous to me seemed increasingly reasonable as I delved deeper into the storyline, and then tilted back towards antagonism. Everyone seems to have the best of intentions but nobody is totally sympathetic, and I really liked that the whole novel really lived in that moral grey area.
The setting of the story was another highlight. It had a vivid sense of place and the descriptions of the natural landscape and the family's homestead were beautifully detailed. There were so many small details that still managed to make a big impression and really brought the whole scene to life.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
February 6, 2020
I wanted to love this book way more than I did end up liking it. There’s, on page, awesome themes that really call to me: women-loving-women couple, queer family, families of choice, rejecting societal pressure to conform in relationship and habitat, living off the land, making one’s way in the world, conflicting personalities working alongside, marrying the practical with the fantastic, moral grey zones, good intentions vs impact, social justice issues, lgbtqia issues, anti-capitalism, unreliable PoV, multiple solid main female characters. Excellent audiobook narrator. These were all delightful.
It also had very clunky dialogues and dialogue tags. (I listen to a lot of audiobooks. The words “he/she/they said” are awesome. There’s a limit though, and this book broke mine.)
The pacing is very odd. Some things unfold way too slowly, many too quickly. There’s whole years that just disappears in the middle that I wished we knew more about, because it felt as if the characters also skipped them, in terms of development and relationship.
The real breaking point though was the plot of the second half of the book. It had characters so flawed that I, to my actual horror, wished for social services to come take away the child of queer parents. As a queer parent myself, this made me feel absolutely wretched. I hated everything about the characters, the story, my reactions to the story. I need to read at lot of books about *good* queer parents before I’m ready for books about bad parents. So I really, really wasn’t ready for this one. Not without any warning whatsoever, and especially not with a blurb that implied this book was humorous. It really, really isn’t. Unless you are prepared to laugh at the characters, perhaps, or as a cry-laugh, but that’s too cold for me.
I believe the author knew what they were doing, and are very probably part of the communities and mindset included in this book. It wasn’t written poorly, and possibly not meanly. But the blurb absolutely fails at playing up the real strengths of this book and at foreshadowing how critical it would slam the characters, relationships and communities it built. I would also have loved to know who this book was aimed for.
Honestly it felt like it was a good book as a response or revolt to something, but it couldn’t settle on what, much like the characters themselves. It gave me a lot of mixed feelings, and I had to settle on a 3 stars because of how close I came to not finishing it vs how delighted I was to see such wonderful themes depicted.
It also had very clunky dialogues and dialogue tags. (I listen to a lot of audiobooks. The words “he/she/they said” are awesome. There’s a limit though, and this book broke mine.)
The pacing is very odd. Some things unfold way too slowly, many too quickly. There’s whole years that just disappears in the middle that I wished we knew more about, because it felt as if the characters also skipped them, in terms of development and relationship.
The real breaking point though was the plot of the second half of the book. It had characters so flawed that I, to my actual horror, wished for social services to come take away the child of queer parents. As a queer parent myself, this made me feel absolutely wretched. I hated everything about the characters, the story, my reactions to the story. I need to read at lot of books about *good* queer parents before I’m ready for books about bad parents. So I really, really wasn’t ready for this one. Not without any warning whatsoever, and especially not with a blurb that implied this book was humorous. It really, really isn’t. Unless you are prepared to laugh at the characters, perhaps, or as a cry-laugh, but that’s too cold for me.
I believe the author knew what they were doing, and are very probably part of the communities and mindset included in this book. It wasn’t written poorly, and possibly not meanly. But the blurb absolutely fails at playing up the real strengths of this book and at foreshadowing how critical it would slam the characters, relationships and communities it built. I would also have loved to know who this book was aimed for.
Honestly it felt like it was a good book as a response or revolt to something, but it couldn’t settle on what, much like the characters themselves. It gave me a lot of mixed feelings, and I had to settle on a 3 stars because of how close I came to not finishing it vs how delighted I was to see such wonderful themes depicted.
January 28, 2019
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
3.75 but rounding up.
Let me begin by saying I don't think the blurb was accurate. NOT at all "hilarious." Certainly some humor, but... Definitely a novel about family and independent spirit. Also described as a protest novel--again, not a conventional protest per se, but an alternate lifestyle--way out of the mainstream.
Populated by strong, stubborn women--not necessarily likeable. Told in the voices of the main characters--Helen [Mean Aunt--who starts the novel], Lily and Karen [partners]; and their son, Perley--via sperm donor. Other, peripheral characters--one laughs the most at the descriptions of Rudy [in particular] and Aldi.
A story of love, persistence, and emotional and physical survival in the hils of Appalachia/West Virginia. A hardscrabble, basic life--by choice. Their diet and living conditions appalling. I didn't particularly care for the ending, but I'm not sure how I would have ended it/wanted it done differently.
I loved Perley--his world of elves and the wolves. His naivete. His fantasy/reality was, however, somewhat offputting because his [their] lives were [to me] dysfunctional--though it worked for them--to a point. Poor Perley, so out of sync, insulted/isolated. He wants to go to school; his moms resist, but he goes, at age 7--setting the latter part of the novel in motion.
And the snakes--who inhabited all the women's and Perley's lives. They too have a significant and vivid role in this story.
Some great descriptions:
Rudy: "...hairy face so full of sawdust it looked like he'd been breaded."
"I smiled to hide my heart, struggling to escape from my chest. My cheeks broke ice when they lifted."
"The loneliness was as insulating as a layer of snow."
"...rode to work listening to Springsteen, the only boss Jay said he could stand." Ha!
I recommend this book, but it's not for everyone.
3.75 but rounding up.
Let me begin by saying I don't think the blurb was accurate. NOT at all "hilarious." Certainly some humor, but... Definitely a novel about family and independent spirit. Also described as a protest novel--again, not a conventional protest per se, but an alternate lifestyle--way out of the mainstream.
Populated by strong, stubborn women--not necessarily likeable. Told in the voices of the main characters--Helen [Mean Aunt--who starts the novel], Lily and Karen [partners]; and their son, Perley--via sperm donor. Other, peripheral characters--one laughs the most at the descriptions of Rudy [in particular] and Aldi.
A story of love, persistence, and emotional and physical survival in the hils of Appalachia/West Virginia. A hardscrabble, basic life--by choice. Their diet and living conditions appalling. I didn't particularly care for the ending, but I'm not sure how I would have ended it/wanted it done differently.
I loved Perley--his world of elves and the wolves. His naivete. His fantasy/reality was, however, somewhat offputting because his [their] lives were [to me] dysfunctional--though it worked for them--to a point. Poor Perley, so out of sync, insulted/isolated. He wants to go to school; his moms resist, but he goes, at age 7--setting the latter part of the novel in motion.
And the snakes--who inhabited all the women's and Perley's lives. They too have a significant and vivid role in this story.
Some great descriptions:
Rudy: "...hairy face so full of sawdust it looked like he'd been breaded."
"I smiled to hide my heart, struggling to escape from my chest. My cheeks broke ice when they lifted."
"The loneliness was as insulating as a layer of snow."
"...rode to work listening to Springsteen, the only boss Jay said he could stand." Ha!
I recommend this book, but it's not for everyone.
April 25, 2020
This is a story about how society, through the government and institutions, condemns the attempt of five people to live off the grid in Appalachia. The characters include a lesbian couple, their son, a recently-dumped straight woman, and an alcoholic loner of a man who suffers from seasonal affective disorder. All they want to do is be left alone on their 20 acres of land in West Virginia, living in the house the women built, even though it is filled with black snakes, and eat the food they collect and grow, even though their meals include acorns with worms.
But the land contains a pipeline easement. And the son wants to go to school. Suddenly, the group finds themselves contending with corporate and state interests that conflict with their values.
The characters are rich and authentic, especially when the story is told through the eyes of the son. He lives in a comic book world of elves and wolves. The state attempts to bring him back to "reality" but little Perley's "training" kicks in and he fights back, retreating to the world of nature, elves, and wolves that he learned from his mother Karen.
Others fight back. Perley's biological mother Lily fights back through knitting. And Karen, Lily's partner fights back against the encroaching corporate interests with violence. Ffitch touches upon racism when Native Americans try to teach Karen that it is impossible to fight against the white man, but she doesn't listen. She stays and fights. Everyone stays and fights.
The writing is beautiful. A worthwhile read, especially with the current political situation where civil rights and nature are threatened.
But the land contains a pipeline easement. And the son wants to go to school. Suddenly, the group finds themselves contending with corporate and state interests that conflict with their values.
The characters are rich and authentic, especially when the story is told through the eyes of the son. He lives in a comic book world of elves and wolves. The state attempts to bring him back to "reality" but little Perley's "training" kicks in and he fights back, retreating to the world of nature, elves, and wolves that he learned from his mother Karen.
Others fight back. Perley's biological mother Lily fights back through knitting. And Karen, Lily's partner fights back against the encroaching corporate interests with violence. Ffitch touches upon racism when Native Americans try to teach Karen that it is impossible to fight against the white man, but she doesn't listen. She stays and fights. Everyone stays and fights.
The writing is beautiful. A worthwhile read, especially with the current political situation where civil rights and nature are threatened.
February 6, 2019
Let me start by saying that while I enjoyed this book overall (and more on that in a minute), it isn’t exactly how it was first marketed to me. The pitch claims it is a humorous book, and sure, there are humorous moments, but I really wouldn’t suggest this one to a reader looking for something funny. The story also claims to be about Helen and her boyfriend leaving her, but it is much more than that, and I think that the reader should go into it thinking little of the boyfriend, because honestly, it seems to do the novel a disservice.
Really, Stay and Fight is not about a dissolving romance (or even about Helen herself, really, for it shifts the spotlight quite a bit), but a growing family. Essentially, three very different women come together to raise a child and they meet various other characters along the way while chronicling their struggles through their different voices and views. Additionally, their son, Perley, narrates several chapters, and in my opinion, he is far too precocious, but the manner in which Ffitch writes is so unique it is bearable.
Honestly, this is the main thing that kept me going, because personally, I found all the characters to be quite annoying, and yet, somehow I wanted to stay — this is certainly a testament to Ffitch’s abilities. While this story wasn’t my cup of tea, I know it is someone else’s, and I would be interested to see what else Ffitch writes.
Really, Stay and Fight is not about a dissolving romance (or even about Helen herself, really, for it shifts the spotlight quite a bit), but a growing family. Essentially, three very different women come together to raise a child and they meet various other characters along the way while chronicling their struggles through their different voices and views. Additionally, their son, Perley, narrates several chapters, and in my opinion, he is far too precocious, but the manner in which Ffitch writes is so unique it is bearable.
Honestly, this is the main thing that kept me going, because personally, I found all the characters to be quite annoying, and yet, somehow I wanted to stay — this is certainly a testament to Ffitch’s abilities. While this story wasn’t my cup of tea, I know it is someone else’s, and I would be interested to see what else Ffitch writes.
February 22, 2019
'Hilarious, truth-telling?' The most hilarious thing about this book is Goodreads’ description of it: ‘A rightful heir to great American novels from A Confederacy of Dunces to The Grapes of Wrath to LaRose'. Ha, not even close. That’s not to say I didn’t (eventually) get caught up in this unconventional, off-the-grid family saga. But a couple of situations such as the one the social worker walked into on a welfare check were so ridiculous they undermined any chance I had of seeing this as the ‘new understanding of the American landscape and what it means to be free’ I was led to expect. 2 1/2 stars
I received this book for free from Goodreads Giveaways.
February 17, 2019
Highly recommend. couldn't stop reading this great story.
Set in a region known for its independent spirit, Madeline Ffitch’s Stay and Fight shakes up what it means to be a family, to live well, to make peace with nature and make deals with the system. It is a protest novel that challenges the viability of strategic action. It is a family novel that refuses to limit the possibilities of love. And it is a debut that both breaks with tradition and celebrates it.
Set in a region known for its independent spirit, Madeline Ffitch’s Stay and Fight shakes up what it means to be a family, to live well, to make peace with nature and make deals with the system. It is a protest novel that challenges the viability of strategic action. It is a family novel that refuses to limit the possibilities of love. And it is a debut that both breaks with tradition and celebrates it.
May 13, 2022
A book about child neglect marketed as being independent and fighting the system? Nope.
April 20, 2022
3.5 STARS
November 17, 2022
This was pitched to me (via Tiktok, so not, like, me PERSONALLY, but the general me) as, "You know how queer people are always saying they want to just move out to the middle of nowhere and live off the grid? This is a book about a group of queer people who actually do that!"
...except it's not. Two of the three women who live in the middle of nowhere in Appalachia, Karen and Lily, are lesbians who are already together, living in a cabin they built on a women's land collective. There's no aspect of their story about being city mice who make a go of it in the wilderness; they were born this way. Helen, the third woman, buys land with her boyfriend who runs away after he has a traumatizing day at his logging job. Once alone, she has to figure out how to survive the winter and eventually invites Karen and Lily to join her on her acre of land.
The three butt heads with their personalities, Lily gives birth to a boy, there's an eight year time skip to reveal...they have in no way changed in 8 years. Helen is still bull-headed in that she thinks having read something in a book is a substitute for actually doing the thing (and she apparently hasn't actually done much in 8 years), Karen still seethes at Helen because Karen knows better but likes seeing Helen fail, even when Helen's failure means EVERYONE GOES HUNGRY.
And then in the final third of the book, our story takes a sharp turn into the world of child protective services! The boy goes to school, is quickly reported to CPS who takes him away and gives him to a kindly old woman, and put on prescription drugs for possibly ADHD (they don't name anything, but in his 1st-person POV sections, he mentions being able to pay more attention, but that he no longer has imagination).
Basically everyone is at best an asshole and at worst an actively cruel person committing hate crimes. This isn't about a group of queer people who decide to make it on their own in the woods. This is about a group of people who constantly make whatever the worst possible decision is, learn nothing, and then the book ends abruptly with what I think it means to be a happy ending.
...except it's not. Two of the three women who live in the middle of nowhere in Appalachia, Karen and Lily, are lesbians who are already together, living in a cabin they built on a women's land collective. There's no aspect of their story about being city mice who make a go of it in the wilderness; they were born this way. Helen, the third woman, buys land with her boyfriend who runs away after he has a traumatizing day at his logging job. Once alone, she has to figure out how to survive the winter and eventually invites Karen and Lily to join her on her acre of land.
The three butt heads with their personalities, Lily gives birth to a boy, there's an eight year time skip to reveal...they have in no way changed in 8 years. Helen is still bull-headed in that she thinks having read something in a book is a substitute for actually doing the thing (and she apparently hasn't actually done much in 8 years), Karen still seethes at Helen because Karen knows better but likes seeing Helen fail, even when Helen's failure means EVERYONE GOES HUNGRY.
And then in the final third of the book, our story takes a sharp turn into the world of child protective services! The boy goes to school, is quickly reported to CPS who takes him away and gives him to a kindly old woman, and put on prescription drugs for possibly ADHD (they don't name anything, but in his 1st-person POV sections, he mentions being able to pay more attention, but that he no longer has imagination).
Basically everyone is at best an asshole and at worst an actively cruel person committing hate crimes. This isn't about a group of queer people who decide to make it on their own in the woods. This is about a group of people who constantly make whatever the worst possible decision is, learn nothing, and then the book ends abruptly with what I think it means to be a happy ending.
March 19, 2023
This book was one of those that every free moment you get you’re like I need to get back to reading my FREAKING BOOK SOS but then once you’re reading it you’re so engrossed it’s actually kind of dangerous like I was reading it at the doctors office and they asked me what my birthday was and I was fully still in the world of this story and told them the wrong day. If you’re reading this review I want you to read this book and then call me to talk about it. PLEASE.
December 16, 2019
One of the best books I've read in a long time, and definitely the best book I read this year. It woke my brain up after months and months of exhaustion from writing, and from reading a bunch of things I wasn't that crazy about. Funny, tough, detailed, muddy, wild, emotionally satisfying. AND THE LANGUAGE! I'm in love with this book.
November 8, 2022
Why is the story opening with a psychotic woman hater with classic mommy issues getting a terrible life threatening infection on his ballsack?? Like what in the actual hell did I just read on this overcast rainy Tuesday morning? No thank you ma'am, moving on...
DNF'ing mid-chapter 3 🖕
DNF'ing mid-chapter 3 🖕
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