Sarah Tregay
Author of Love & Leftovers
About the Author
Image credit: Sarah Tregay, Author
Works by Sarah Tregay
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Sarah Tregay
- Legal name
- Sarah Beth Tregay
- Other names
- Sarah B. Tregay
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Rochester Institute of Technology, BFA, MFA
- Short biography
- Raised without television, I started writing my own middle grade novels after I had read all of the ones in the library. I later discovered YA books, but never did make it to the adult section. When I'm not jotting down poems at stoplights, I can be found hanging out with my "little sister" from Big Brothers Big Sisters or stressing over performance classes at a model horse show.
I have both a Bachelors and Masters of Fine Art in graphic design, and my obsession with typography and layout naturally translates into formatting poetry on the page.
I live in Eagle, Idaho with my husband, two Boston Terriers, and an appaloosa named Mr. Pots. - Places of residence
- Eagle, Idaho, USA
- Map Location
- USA
Members
Reviews
Love and Leftovers caught my eye with its cute cover and title, and discovering it’s a verse novel just clinched the deal. I’ve only read a handful of verse novels so far but have really fallen for the format. Usually the stories are quick but fulfilling reads, and impactful with the expressive, sparse prose. The style works well for this book because the main character Marcie writes short poetic entries in her journal, which becomes the format for the book.
Marcie and her mother beat a show more hasty retreat out of Idaho one summer and head to New Hampshire when her parent’s marriage dissolves. Marcie leaves behind her rocker boyfriend Linus and group of friends they have dubbed the Leftovers. Summer turns to fall and soon Marcie is starting a new school year in her new adopted home. She’s out of the Leftover group at her new school when popular football player JD starts to pay her some attention. Marcie has mixed feelings about her new life and her father and friends she left behind and tries her best to hold it together.
I like the idea of the Leftovers, the group of friends who don’t fit into one particular group. I always liked the Leftover, or Floater group in school and think that’s a fun group to be in. Marcie, though, makes it sound kind of negative and would rather join the popular group in her new school. Things get questionable when Marcie is less than honest with her loving boyfriend back home about her new life in New Hampshire.
Marcie is flawed and realistic, and I could relate to her even though I didn’t always agree with her way of handling things. I liked how she grew as a person throughout the book, and the way the relationships with her friends and family evolved. There are some great emotional and heartwarming scenes with the adults and friends in Marcie’s life.
Love and Leftovers is an enjoyable book, perfect for contemporary fans or for fans of verse novels. The characters, witty writing, and story are entertaining and make it a quick read. I would love to read more from Sarah Tregay. show less
Marcie and her mother beat a show more hasty retreat out of Idaho one summer and head to New Hampshire when her parent’s marriage dissolves. Marcie leaves behind her rocker boyfriend Linus and group of friends they have dubbed the Leftovers. Summer turns to fall and soon Marcie is starting a new school year in her new adopted home. She’s out of the Leftover group at her new school when popular football player JD starts to pay her some attention. Marcie has mixed feelings about her new life and her father and friends she left behind and tries her best to hold it together.
I like the idea of the Leftovers, the group of friends who don’t fit into one particular group. I always liked the Leftover, or Floater group in school and think that’s a fun group to be in. Marcie, though, makes it sound kind of negative and would rather join the popular group in her new school. Things get questionable when Marcie is less than honest with her loving boyfriend back home about her new life in New Hampshire.
Marcie is flawed and realistic, and I could relate to her even though I didn’t always agree with her way of handling things. I liked how she grew as a person throughout the book, and the way the relationships with her friends and family evolved. There are some great emotional and heartwarming scenes with the adults and friends in Marcie’s life.
Love and Leftovers is an enjoyable book, perfect for contemporary fans or for fans of verse novels. The characters, witty writing, and story are entertaining and make it a quick read. I would love to read more from Sarah Tregay. show less
Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales
Quick & Dirty: An excellent story about a teenage boy who is in love with his straight best friend.
Opening Sentence: “Nah,” I say about the brunette at the next table.
The Review:
Fan Art is unbelievably adorable and given the recent announcement in America, this is the perfect time for my review. Without sounding politically incorrect, this is the first book, let alone love story, I’ve read from a gay guy’s perspective. There’s probably plenty of show more them out there but because this was my first it’s set a very high benchmark for future books on the same topic. In recent years most YA books incorporate a gay character, usually the best friend, so he (it’s hardly ever a lesbian) is usually side lined. Reading the story from a gay teenage boy who is ‘in the closet’ was a unique experience.
The author doesn’t use the stereotypical version of being gay: overly feminine, very organised / super smart, excellent fashion taste and lots of female friends. Jamie isn’t feminine, squirms when girls come near him and his best, and only, friend is Mason.
“Oh,” she says, suddenly interested in the menu. “Sorry, I just thought we had something in common. I can totally relate, you know?”
This is why I don’t date girls. They’re weird. They talk about everything and assume you want to too. I don’t get it. It’s as if their bras are filled with words.
Jamie’s trepidation in coming out, more importantly, in coming out to his best friend came across so clearly that I felt Jamie’s emotions as my own. His confusion, the hurt he felt when seeing Bahti and Mason together, and the emotions the graphic art brought out were palpable.
Eden squeezes my hand back and says, “Sometimes I wish things weren’t so complex.”
“Like, so I wouldn’t have to come out? Yeah?”
“Like, if people didn’t care, if love was love.”
“Love is love,” I say, more to myself than to Eden, as I scan the room for Mason.
Although we think that our society has become more open minded and people are more accepting of our differences, this book highlights that we have a long way to go. The book isn’t just about Jamie’s dilemma of falling in love with his ‘straight’ best friend, it looks at other characters facing problems because of their sexual orientation. Eden, like Jamie, had come out to her family but not at school. Unlike Jamie’s supportive mother, Eden’s parents are trying to change her mind into becoming straight by encouraging her focus on religion. It pains me to think how others can judge someone else’s feelings and I hope that more people read this book to increase awareness and obviously because this is a fantastically awesome read!
Notable Scene:
No. No, no. No.
I did not just do that. I can’t believe I just did that! Mason and I have been friends since third grade, and I have never looked at him like that. Other guys, yeah, but not him. It should be in the Bible. Thou shalt not check out thy best friend.
I wait a minute to catch my breath and the last shred of my sanity before I follow Mason into the locker room. I head for the sinks and splash water onto my face in an attempt to straighten out my thoughts. I’m okay with my bent thoughts-I have them all the time-but checking out Mason? That’s going too far. He’s my best friend. And everyone knows best friend crushes are the worst-even guy-girl friend crushes-drama, angst, broken hearts, you name it. It’s bad-real bad. And straight-guy-gay-guy friend crushes? I don’t even want to think about that apocalypse.
FTC Advisory: Katherine Tegen Books/HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Fan Art. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. show less
Quick & Dirty: An excellent story about a teenage boy who is in love with his straight best friend.
Opening Sentence: “Nah,” I say about the brunette at the next table.
The Review:
Fan Art is unbelievably adorable and given the recent announcement in America, this is the perfect time for my review. Without sounding politically incorrect, this is the first book, let alone love story, I’ve read from a gay guy’s perspective. There’s probably plenty of show more them out there but because this was my first it’s set a very high benchmark for future books on the same topic. In recent years most YA books incorporate a gay character, usually the best friend, so he (it’s hardly ever a lesbian) is usually side lined. Reading the story from a gay teenage boy who is ‘in the closet’ was a unique experience.
The author doesn’t use the stereotypical version of being gay: overly feminine, very organised / super smart, excellent fashion taste and lots of female friends. Jamie isn’t feminine, squirms when girls come near him and his best, and only, friend is Mason.
“Oh,” she says, suddenly interested in the menu. “Sorry, I just thought we had something in common. I can totally relate, you know?”
This is why I don’t date girls. They’re weird. They talk about everything and assume you want to too. I don’t get it. It’s as if their bras are filled with words.
Jamie’s trepidation in coming out, more importantly, in coming out to his best friend came across so clearly that I felt Jamie’s emotions as my own. His confusion, the hurt he felt when seeing Bahti and Mason together, and the emotions the graphic art brought out were palpable.
Eden squeezes my hand back and says, “Sometimes I wish things weren’t so complex.”
“Like, so I wouldn’t have to come out? Yeah?”
“Like, if people didn’t care, if love was love.”
“Love is love,” I say, more to myself than to Eden, as I scan the room for Mason.
Although we think that our society has become more open minded and people are more accepting of our differences, this book highlights that we have a long way to go. The book isn’t just about Jamie’s dilemma of falling in love with his ‘straight’ best friend, it looks at other characters facing problems because of their sexual orientation. Eden, like Jamie, had come out to her family but not at school. Unlike Jamie’s supportive mother, Eden’s parents are trying to change her mind into becoming straight by encouraging her focus on religion. It pains me to think how others can judge someone else’s feelings and I hope that more people read this book to increase awareness and obviously because this is a fantastically awesome read!
Notable Scene:
No. No, no. No.
I did not just do that. I can’t believe I just did that! Mason and I have been friends since third grade, and I have never looked at him like that. Other guys, yeah, but not him. It should be in the Bible. Thou shalt not check out thy best friend.
I wait a minute to catch my breath and the last shred of my sanity before I follow Mason into the locker room. I head for the sinks and splash water onto my face in an attempt to straighten out my thoughts. I’m okay with my bent thoughts-I have them all the time-but checking out Mason? That’s going too far. He’s my best friend. And everyone knows best friend crushes are the worst-even guy-girl friend crushes-drama, angst, broken hearts, you name it. It’s bad-real bad. And straight-guy-gay-guy friend crushes? I don’t even want to think about that apocalypse.
FTC Advisory: Katherine Tegen Books/HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Fan Art. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. show less
Review first published on fefferbooks.com.
If you’re from Boise, Idaho, you need to read this book.
If you’re not from Boise, I still think you might need to read it.
Love and Leftovers is not quite like anything I’ve ever read before: a novel written in verse. No, no! Don’t go away! I promise it’s not as weird/boring/intimidating as it sounds. More on that in a minute.
Not at all a book of poetry, instead, Love and Leftovers is a coming-of-age story about Marcie: a Boise girl who’s show more ripped from her home when Mom decides it’s time to go on “vacation” in New Hampshire…and stay there. Marcie’s mom is falling apart, her parent’s marriage is clearly ending, and she misses her friends. She’s about to start a new school year without having met anyone, really, and her home life is kind of a wreck. The fun is in watching Marcie come into her own in New Hampshire, and find her way with her family and friends.
I’d not yet come across anything like Love and Leftovers, style-wise. The majority of the book is written in free verse, which means the poems don’t really rhyme or stick to a particular meter. This helps things along immensely–the idea of reading a book in rigid poetry form was really off-putting for me. Instead, L&L flows along without a lot of self-consciousness about itself. The story is told from Marcie’s point of view, and each page or two is a separate poem from her journal about what’s going on in her life. It’s really clever actually. But I found that the writing style didn’t really draw attention to itself, once I got going–I just found myself reading a story, like any other book. The brilliance of it, though, is that the verse style cuts right to the heart of each plot point and emotion. There’s just simply no room to say anything that’s not pivotal when you’re only writing 80 words per page. (Trust me, as a writer, that’s much more difficult than it sounds.)
There were a couple of things in this book that weren’t dead-on for me: I would have liked more J.D., frankly, and I wasn’t really sure what I thought of Linus and the way things wrapped with him. I understood Marcie’s choices, but I’m not so 100% behind Linus’ explanations for some of his behavior. There’s a good deal of sexuality in this book, too. Lots of frank discussion about the consequences, as well, and the mixed-up emotions that can be involved in it, but it’s not pulling very many punches. It’s not explicit, but the details it does share are extremely realistic. In some ways, it was cringe-worthy because the writing took me back so completely to some of my own experiences.
Speaking of which OMGOSH A BOOK SET IN BOISE! Author Sarah Tregay lives in the Boise area, and it’s so strange/awesome/mind-blowingly weird to see places I go all the time set in a novel. I know east-coasters have this experience constantly, and no big deal, but seriously–nothing is set in Boise, so it’s kind of amazing. The setting, alone, made this a really fun read for me.
All in all, the book was well-done, but I had a couple of reservations. I would definitely read another book by Sarah Tregay, though, and I’m so excited to have a real, live YA author here by me!
3.5 stars. Some language, some teen sexuality. I enjoyed it! show less
If you’re from Boise, Idaho, you need to read this book.
If you’re not from Boise, I still think you might need to read it.
Love and Leftovers is not quite like anything I’ve ever read before: a novel written in verse. No, no! Don’t go away! I promise it’s not as weird/boring/intimidating as it sounds. More on that in a minute.
Not at all a book of poetry, instead, Love and Leftovers is a coming-of-age story about Marcie: a Boise girl who’s show more ripped from her home when Mom decides it’s time to go on “vacation” in New Hampshire…and stay there. Marcie’s mom is falling apart, her parent’s marriage is clearly ending, and she misses her friends. She’s about to start a new school year without having met anyone, really, and her home life is kind of a wreck. The fun is in watching Marcie come into her own in New Hampshire, and find her way with her family and friends.
I’d not yet come across anything like Love and Leftovers, style-wise. The majority of the book is written in free verse, which means the poems don’t really rhyme or stick to a particular meter. This helps things along immensely–the idea of reading a book in rigid poetry form was really off-putting for me. Instead, L&L flows along without a lot of self-consciousness about itself. The story is told from Marcie’s point of view, and each page or two is a separate poem from her journal about what’s going on in her life. It’s really clever actually. But I found that the writing style didn’t really draw attention to itself, once I got going–I just found myself reading a story, like any other book. The brilliance of it, though, is that the verse style cuts right to the heart of each plot point and emotion. There’s just simply no room to say anything that’s not pivotal when you’re only writing 80 words per page. (Trust me, as a writer, that’s much more difficult than it sounds.)
There were a couple of things in this book that weren’t dead-on for me: I would have liked more J.D., frankly, and I wasn’t really sure what I thought of Linus and the way things wrapped with him. I understood Marcie’s choices, but I’m not so 100% behind Linus’ explanations for some of his behavior. There’s a good deal of sexuality in this book, too. Lots of frank discussion about the consequences, as well, and the mixed-up emotions that can be involved in it, but it’s not pulling very many punches. It’s not explicit, but the details it does share are extremely realistic. In some ways, it was cringe-worthy because the writing took me back so completely to some of my own experiences.
Speaking of which OMGOSH A BOOK SET IN BOISE! Author Sarah Tregay lives in the Boise area, and it’s so strange/awesome/mind-blowingly weird to see places I go all the time set in a novel. I know east-coasters have this experience constantly, and no big deal, but seriously–nothing is set in Boise, so it’s kind of amazing. The setting, alone, made this a really fun read for me.
All in all, the book was well-done, but I had a couple of reservations. I would definitely read another book by Sarah Tregay, though, and I’m so excited to have a real, live YA author here by me!
3.5 stars. Some language, some teen sexuality. I enjoyed it! show less
This is completely glorious. Beyond glorious. The characters were beautifully written, extremely dynamic, and, I felt, stayed well away from the stereotypes that seem to completely overwhelm queer young adult literature. It wasn't extremely unique, in the sense of the high school writing students telling the stories, but I felt like it dealt with a lot of things that I, personally, haven't seen handled well often in any book, let alone a young adult book, and I felt like Sarah Tregay did a show more very good job of dealing with friends and self and high school and morally vs ethically right in the text. I enjoyed every single thing about this novel and could not put it down this evening once I picked it up. show less
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