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REVIEW: Stay With Me and My Sister, the Serial Killer

Last February, I read two unique and surprising debut novels about family relationships by Nigerian authors. I have never read anything like either of these books before. Stay With Me  by Ayobami Adebayo is the story of Yejide and her husband, Akin, who married for love and want to break from the tradition of polygamy. But when Yejide is unable to get pregnant, Akin’s family pressures him to take a second wife. The characters are so complex… the events are unforgettable. I felt so many emotions reading this novel. I’m looking forward to reading anything this author writes. “Yejide would have a child and we would be happy forever. The cost didn't matter. It didn't matter how many rivers we had to cross. At the end of it all was this stretch of happiness that was supposed to begin only after we had children and not a minute before.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Stay With Me Ayobami Adebayo Published August 1st, 2017 by Knopf 288 pages   My Sister, the Serial Killer  is darkly humorous
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TBR: The Shell Collector by Hugh Howey

I have a huge TBR (to be read) pile. I’m not exaggerating. I have over 1700 books on there, and I do weed it periodically. This is a problem for me, because I want to read them all. My reading goal for this year is 100 books. I will probably achieve that, or come very close. But, do the math! It will take me 17 years to read all of those books, and only if I don’t add any more to my TBR (unlikely).

 Feeling overwhelmed and panicky about how many books there are is my motivation to start cleaning out my TBR list. So, I am starting at the bottom. This is the book that’s been on there the longest. I am hoping that writing about why I want to read it will push me to actually read this one, or move it to the DNF (did not finish) pile. One step closer to reading all the good books!


I am a huge fan of Hugh Howie’s Wool trilogy. The stories are character driven, and the plot is original and suspenseful. I am also impressed that Wool was originally self-published after Howey won NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). His books are mostly dystopian, but not cheesy or cliché.

 I picked up his novel Sand not long after reading Wool. That one didn’t appeal to me. DNF. I am still eager to give The Shell Collector a go. I love the cover, love stories about the ocean. I think the idea of looking for shells will resonate with me since I have spent every summer of my life on the beach.

 This book has been on my TBR since January 2015. Check back soon. I will either update this post saying I DNF or I will write my review because I loved it. Here’s to hoping it’s one of the good books!

 :) jeatherhane
The Shell Collector
Hugh Howey
Release date: November 2014
Publisher: Broad Reach Publishing
Genre: Dystopian Fiction
Pages: 282
Format: ebook

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