Reviews

Patience Is a Subtle Thief by Abi Ishola-Ayodeji

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jmiles758's review

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challenging emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

This was 2.5 for me. It was just okay. I did enjoy the vivid descriptions and narration was brilliant. Found it long-winded and dragging in the middle but still wanted to keep reading to see how it ended.

I did feel irritated that it was in 3rd person when main character and main story was Patience. That threw me off. A lot of “Patience said, Patience thought” could have been avoided.

The ending was disappointing after the massive build up. But at the same time can see how it’s a realistic portrayal of hope and disappointment. That made the story more poignant for me. Will definitely read another book from this author.

heidi_may91's review

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adventurous challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

moriahleigh's review

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reflective sad medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

beatlestar's review

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

natalieba's review against another edition

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adventurous informative sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

amakaazie's review

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4.0

3.5 stars

A long winded story, but I slowly got into it.
Patience is searching for her mother who her father told her left her because she “was mad”
She doesn’t believe it because she has memories of her mother.
Patience will do anything to see her mother in America.
She leaves school, runs away from her father and joins a group of criminals to help her get away from Nigeria to find her mother in America.
She’s naive and quite annoying sometimes but I generally rooted for her. The ending was quite anticlimactic.
I thought meeting her mother would be more interesting, but it was a flat reunion.
All in all, maintained my interest most of the time.
I’ll recommend

bukolayemi's review

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emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

June 12 1993 - MKO Abiola - if you were living in Nigeria at this time, you will remember where you were when you heard the news of the annulment of the election results.

We follow Patience, an eighteen year old daughter of a rich and influential politician in Ibadan as she tries to make her way in a politically unstable Nigeria. Her search for her mother and belonging is a consistent thread throughout the book.

Characters from different works of life, politicians, area boys, students and fraudsters, so well written that o found myself understanding their motivations.

An easy and enjoyable read which I enjoyed even more because it is partly set in the area of Lagos I grew up in.