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Book Reviewed by:A short, darkly funny, hand grenade of a novel about a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends.
"Femi makes three, you know. Three and they label you a serial killer."
Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola's third boyfriend in a row is dead.
Korede's practicality is the sisters' saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her "missing" boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.
Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she's exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola's phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she's willing to go to protect her.
Sharp as nails and full of deadpan wit, Oyinkan Braithwaite's deliciously deadly debut is as fun as it is frightening.
As a character study, My Sister, the Serial Killer is captivating. Korede is being squeezed in a vise of uncertainty as her loyalty and morality are put to the ultimate test. However, with so much focus on the narrator, the secondary characters are barely sketched in. This lack of development is particularly discernible with regard to Ayoola. Given no access to her mind or details about her personality, one wonders what makes her tick, and how she feels about the things she has done. Guilty? Justified? Who knows. The sisters' backstory includes a hint at motive, but it would have been nice to know more. Nevertheless, Braithewaite has constructed a taut narrative, rich in psychological intrigue with just enough dark humor to break the tension...continued
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(Reviewed by Lisa Butts).
In My Sister, the Serial Killer, the narrator Korede protects her younger sister Ayoola at great cost, despite her feelings of bitterness that Ayoola has always been favored by their mother and admired everywhere for her beauty. Sibling rivalry has long been a source of inspiration for conflict in great literature.
Here are a few popular titles about sibling conflict (but be forewarned, there may be some plot spoilers):
Shakespeare explored this subject in King Lear, a tragedy about a mad king who demands his daughters compete to show him love in order to win a heftier share of the kingdom when he dies. His youngest daughter Cordelia refuses to flatter her father with exaggerated declarations of affection and is consequently banished...
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If you liked My Sister, the Serial Killer, try these:
A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage
by Asia Mackay
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Two former serial killers trying to keep their past buried realize that old habits die hard in this "wildly original, razor-sharp thriller" (Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All the Colors of the Dark).
by Gayl Jones
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Legendary writer Gayl Jones returns with a stunning new novel about Black American artists in exile.
Ayobami Adebayo, author of Stay With Me
Disturbing, sly and delicious, Braithwaite's novel compels us to consider the limits of loyalty and the insidious weight of silence.
