book review: stay with me by ayobami adebayo

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo 

❤️LOVED❤️ will be in my top 10% for 2021, was left crying

STORY ✔️

CHARACTERS ✔️

PROSE ✔️

Goodreads rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis: we learn the story of Yejide and Akin as they struggle to create a family under pressure from elders and a polygamist tradition.

One-sentence review: Heartbreak shapes us and strengthens us in ways we don’t always see (or benefit from) right away. 

Overall storytelling/structure: Told by Yejide and her husband, Akin, jumping from present to past as they tell the story of their marriage revealing cracks through the years. The story builds up slowly, then pow! Like a thriller, it reveals bits and pieces of story changing truths along the way.

Writing style/prose: beautiful writing, had me pulled in immediately. 

Characters: characters were troubled and conflicted and desperate for love, which is why you can’t help but be in their corner and hope they can all find what they are looking for. 

Mood: certainly a heavy but important read. Themes such as sexual intimacy, child death, and verbal abuse. 

Books Similar/Read if you like: Girl, Woman, Other, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps the House, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, and Yaa Gyasi.