Stay (original 2002; edition 2002)

11/2012 The ice is cracking in Aud. She's so sure she's got all the answers in the first book, and in this one she doesn't even know how to frame the question. I love the growth, the way the plot unspools, and all the fully-fleshed out minor characters. Not to mention the Narnia bits.

6/2009 In this book Aud becomes more human. Coping with tragedy, she begins to realize that it's not all black and white, not all controllable. She's still superhuman, still incredibly compelling to me, and Griffith's writing shines. It's taut and gripping, the situations are sordid but plenty believable, and the resolution satisfactory. I keep thinking maybe if I believe hard enough in Aud she will become real, like the Velveteen Rabbit. ( )

I really am liking this series. Its a strange hybrid, occasional bouts of considerable violence, beautiful lyrical prose, interesting character development, I'm not quite sure what to make of it all. Its very certainly not a conventional mystery or thriller. But whatever it is, I'm having fun and will continue.

( )

Aud Torvingen blames herself for her lover's death from gunfire a few months ago (Aud wasn't fast enough, wasn't clever enough, and most of all, wasn't sufficiently aware of anyone but herself when the fight started up). She's been living apart from civilization, focused on the tangible project of making an old cabin habitable again, and seeing visions of Julia as she was before she died. When an old friend asks Aud to investigate the disappearance of his fiancee -- a woman Aud has never even liked -- she's torn between following her final promise to Julia to stay in the world, and continuing to mourn in isolation. In pursuing the mystery, Aud discovers what has happened and works to make it right, while battling personal demons and anxieties about much more than Julia's death.

Stay is violent and suffused with grief and abuse, but our hero triumphs in both plot and personal progress. The final emotions of the book are much more uplifting book than those of its predecessor, but the rest of the book is much darker. The whole thing felt to me like 20% Marlen Haushofer's The Wall and 70% Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (neither of which was actually an influence on this book). If either the former's focus on physical labor to avoid heartbreak and facing life's futility or the latter's abuse and detective mystery appealed to you, you should consider checking this book out. I loved it, but this is one of those books for which I expect my reaction may not be entirely representative of the population at large. ( )

The protagonist of the piece is recovering from the death of her lover. She takes herself off to do the hermit thing in Silver John country. No monsters of the supernatural variety though, but a friend who wants her help in finding his own ex-lover.

The problem is, there's a bad guy too, a serial abuser. And more than one person in trouble. Cue capably violent antihero thanks to past training when necessary.

http://freesf.strandedinoz.com/wordpress/2011/08/stay-nicola-griffith/ ( )

Third in a series of books featuring Aud Torvingen, who started out seeming like a sort of lesbian James Bond, but is evolving more complexity by this book. This is a well-crafted novel with two intertwined plots -- a "stay up too late to finish it" sort of novel. ( )