A review by mrtvavrana
Stay with Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Stay With Me is one beautiful novel, but it was pretty hard for me to read it. I had had this book sitting on my shelf for over two years before I picked it up, but despite that I had not really looked up anything about it. Which is pretty usual for me, and I often come to regret it. It was not the case this time.

This book is a journey of tragedy, I would say. It was so much darker than I would have imagined, but in spite of that, the overall message this book gives the reader is, “There is always hope.”. This is a story about grief, but also a story of love and resilience.

Now, I do have some issues. Mainly how I wish some topics and moments were discussed in more detail. The story also flies by incredibly fast; there are also multiple time skips, some of which I did not find that necessary.

The story itself is quite tragic, as I have said before. I did not particularly mind it, but there were a couple of instances where what was happening got a little too intense.

The ending was too rushed for my liking, and I feel that the “big reveal” fell a bit flat. I do not think it had the strong emotional impact I have expected.

As for the characters, I think they were pretty well written, but I did struggle with connecting to their individual stories. I also don't think they were particularly likeable.

Overall, this was a nice read, and I do regret not picking this book up much sooner.