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There are currently 23 member reviews
for Stay with Me
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Sharalynne P. (Valparaiso, IN)
Stay With Me
I really enjoyed this book and finished it in two days. It was a nice story line, sad but nice. I liked the style of the writing and character development and I didn't mind the chapters being narrated by different people. I really felt like I new them. I will be sharing this book with my book club. Best book I've read in a while.
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Dorothy H. (Folsom, CA)
Tale of childlessness and deception
I liked reading about the Yoruba Nigerian Culture and Political unrest from mid 1980 to mid 2000 as an under story to the main characters lives. The story is told from the perspectives of several family members over a 20 year span. It is interesting to see how the culture is blended in with modern life - ie multiple wives, medicine men etc.
I read the book in 2 days.
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Mal H. (Mountain House, CA)
Impressive
Instantly pulled in by the emotional turbulence Yejide is dealing with. You feel her pain and heartbreak, betrayal cutting with the sharpest blade. Her plight and pressure upon herself as well as from outsiders is affecting. She is a character stealing your every ounce of sympathy and empathy.
Yejide faces an array of emotions towards her husband. Her adoration tested by lies and betrayal. Finding herself walking a emotional tightrope she never imagined.
Yejide and Akin desire children beyond measure. The narrative alternates perspectives demonstrating the strain and leaps each will take to forge a family. Akin stretches your imagination, uncomfortable decisions and choices made in desperation and want.
The story unravels slowly with precision possessing incredibly strong punctuated twists. The rawness of this marriage garners your interest with the turn of every page.
Nigeria's 1980's political turbulence sets the backdrop for this evocative and emotionally rousing glimpse of a couple facing challenges conceiving as well as cultural and familia pressure in regards to this easily assumed expectation and obligation.
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Sue N
Hit and Miss
I started reading this book expecting to enjoy it, having read a glowing review. The setting of the book in Nigeria appealed to me—I haven't read any books by Nigerian authors and looked forward to learning more about Nigerian culture and society. In that regard, the book met my expectations. But in several other ways, the book did not live up to my expectations. Although I didn't mind the alternating voices in different chapters, it wasn't always immediately clear whose voice it was. And early on I was interested in the two main characters, but as the book went on they both became somewhat flat and clichéd. Finally, as the plot unfolded, it struck me more and more as something of a soap opera.
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Linda L. (Pickerington, OH)
Story of love and loss set in Nigeria
Set in Africa, this is the story of a marriage struggling to survive against the most heart breaking losses. The social mores of Nigerian culture toward infertility, polygamy and childbirth create a very troubled marriage for Yejide and Akin. Yejide shows such strength against the most unbelievable losses. Husband and wife share their viewpoints in alternating chapters. Nigerian phrases and terms are sprinkled generously throughout the book along with tales from African folklore. I applaud this very ambitious first novel by Adebayo. If you enjoy learning about other cultures, you will like Stay with Me. I wish I could have given Stay with Me five stars, but I struggled to fully empathize with some of the characters.
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Susan B. (Rutledge, MO)
Interesting in some ways; wanted to like it more than I did
This was fairly well written, and included interesting details of a society and culture I am not familiar with. Most intriguing to me was the sense of what it might be like living in a politically unstable country under military rule. Remarks about elections and continued lack of results were powerful in their understated-ness. Generally, though, I wanted to like this book much more than I actually did. I got the sense that I was missing a lot due to not being familiar with the culture. I did not enjoy reading about or relate to the intense pressure to have a child, the patriarchal aspects of the culture, or (what looked to me like) a great deal of lying and cruelty. Family seemed to be all-important, but the caring for its members did not seem genuine, done for show rather than actually caring. Perhaps if I understood the culture better I would have enjoyed the book more.
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Ginny B. (Lansdale, PA)
Mixed responses
I had a mixed response to this novel.The basic storyline and its' Nigerian cultural background was particularly interesting; a well-written novel frequently provides an easy and interesting way of learning about other cultures. The storyline, provided by many other reviewers, held my interest throughout. However, in spite of the interest the story engendered, for the most part (there were occasional exceptions) I felt very little connection to the characters and their story. I have personally experienced traumatic losses including losses specific to this novel, a topic that when it appears, always touches this mother's heart deeply, but yet failed to do so in this novel. I also found some of the particular lies/deceptions hard to accept & thus, the tragic consequences left me somewhat, although not entirely, unmoved. I wanted to care about these characters more than I did.
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