Book Review: "My Sister, the Serial Killer" by Oyinkan Braithwaite
“My Sister, the Serial Killer” by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Synopsis: Korede's sister Ayoola is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola's third boyfriend in a row is dead, stabbed through the heart with Ayoola's knife. Korede's practicality is the sisters' saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood (bleach, bleach, and more bleach), the best way to move a body (wrap it in sheets like a mummy), and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures 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.
Rating: 4.5
Trigger warnings: abuse, murder, domestic violence
Review: Forgive me, book friends, for I have sinned: I’ve had this book on my “maybe/one day” list since it was released last summer, and it took our commitment to read more black authors for me to actually order it from Bookshop. I am mad at myself for waiting this long, as I devoured this book in one pool-adjacent reading session earlier this summer. Yes, it’s that engrossing, but it’s also a read that went almost too quickly.
We, the reader, are in Korede’s head for the whole story — and wow, what a spot to temporarily reside. She is the responsible older sister, forever cleaning up after her younger sister, even when that clean up means physically cleaning up after some casual murder. Yes, I know murder is not casual at all, but it is treated as such by our titular serial killer, Ayoola. The book opens as she offs her current suitor, and the rest of the book, we learn what it’s like to have to deal with her…dark proclivity?
It takes a true talent to take such a premise and make it not only compulsively readable but also laugh out loud funny. It is so sharp and so clever, and I am in awe of Oyinkan Braithwaite. I was worried when Ayoola encountered any person that should could ensnare in her web, and as a big sister, I weirdly resonated with Korede’s compulsion to take care of her little sister. I am the same way with my brother to a less homicidal degree. It is brilliant satire about what we will do to protect our closest family, and I just thought it was such a welcome entry into our literary vernacular.
I also loved getting a glimpse of life in Korede’s Nigeria. I have a great friend that lives in Abuja, and I need him to read this book so I can see how accurate it is (I’m guessing fairly true-to-life). While I’ve not spent much time in West Africa, I have spent a good deal of time on the continent, and it was like taking a mental vacation to some of my favorite places.
Finally, I couldn’t figure out how this book was going to be wrapped up in a way that felt both true to the story and emotionally satisfying after this adventure, but I should have trusted Oyinkan. The ending was absolutely pitch perfect, though it does make me worry for the men of Nigeria moving forward…
TL;DR: A wickedly funny book about our dark family secrets and how far we will go to protect those we love.
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