My Sister, the Serial Killer: The Sunday Times Bestseller

This is a funny novel and a short novel, two things that might make it very appealing to someone looking for a light and quick read. However, it has a darker side, and I’m not talking about the murders of (at least) three men. There are darker things than murders in this novel. In fact, it’s refreshing to have a young, attractive woman murdering men rather than the other way around.Did I say attractive? The narrator Korede (the plain sister) makes it clear that her younger sister Ayoola isn’t just attractive, she is sublimely beautiful and men – and women – are putty in her hands. In Half of a Yellow Sun we had the more beautiful sister as narrator, who cheats with her plainer sister’s man. Here the plainer sister is the narrator, doomed to remain an onlooker to her beautiful sister’s exciting life. Ayoola gets lots of bracelets, rings, flowers and trips to Dubai with adoring men. Korede gets lots of lip from her colleagues at the hospital where she works as a nurse.One disquieting feature of Ayoola’s beauty is her light skin and this is one of the things that makes the novel so disquieting. When it comes to female beauty, light skin is good and dark skin is unforgivably bad. Far more disturbing than murder is the way beauty determines a woman’s life, how she is perceived by others and her sense of self-worth. In this novel, insidiously, women aren’t just judged by men but by women as well. Ayoola has always been the mother’s favourite just because she is beautiful. And because Ayoola is beautiful, men brush past Korede in their haste to gaze on and worship her sister. The mother has given up any hope of Korede finding a husband but she has high hopes that Ayoola will catch a real good ‘un. At one hilarious point she serves a suitor a slice of upside down cake and when he says how delicious it is, she hurriedly points out that Ayoola baked it (great wife material). Meanwhile, Korede tells us that Ayoola couldn’t fry an egg and only ever goes in the kitchen to forage for snacks.Another disturbing feature of the novel is the role of patriarchy in squeezing women into a limited set of life chances and behaviours. Looming over Ayoola’s murders and the relationship between the sisters and their mother is the ghost of their long-dead tyrant of a father. In fact, during the novel, at the insistence of their aunt, the two sisters and their mother put on a tenth anniversary memorial service for the old beast. Then we learn that the aunt was involved in a plot by the father to gift the 14 year old Ayoola to some crusty old tribal chieftain in return for a lucrative business deal.However, we are not asked to believe that some childhood trauma can explain or justify Ayoola’s habit of killing her boyfriends. We are given a rather conventional correlation between beauty and narcissism, but this novel takes it further. Ayoola believes that everything will turn out well for her, no matter what she does. She can shape her own history and destiny. Nothing bad can possibly happen to her. And one reason for her optimism is that she knows that big sister has her back. After she’s done the deed, Korede will turn up with rubber gloves and bleach and clean up the mess. Literally.Some readers might find the ending annoying or frustrating. I found it tremendously satisfying. Suffice to say, sisters stick together.I do have one minor gripe about this book: for some mystifying reason it’s written in American. The author has spent part of her life in the UK, including secondary school and university, and has been back in Nigeria since 2012, so I can’t understand why she used US spelling, grammar and vocabulary. My son-in-law is Nigerian. Several members of my family are married to Nigerians and I have many Nigerian friends and colleagues. None of them speaks American. Half of a Yellow Sun is written in American but I can just about forgive that because Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been living in the US for years, but Oyinkan Braithwaite has no such excuse. I can only surmise that her American editor persuaded her that sales in the US would benefit.

My Sister, the Serial Killer makes for a fascinating read. This is the story of 2 sisters, sensible Korede and stunningly beautiful Ayoola. Ayoola has a slight problem in that, well, she kills her boyfriends. And then relies on Korede to clean up her mess, which Korede has done every time she has been called on. Whilst Korede juggles a normal life as a nurse, she is horrified to discover that Ayoola has her sights set firmly on a Doctor at the hospital who Korede just happens to have a crush on. Can she save him? and will she have to choose between her sister or her love?This is a seriously dark and twisted novel. The writing is great and Korede's voice is wonderfully concise. She seems to accept that this is the way Ayoola is, with a resigned sigh and not question her behaviour at all. Ayoola is fascinating , she has no filter, appears relatively unconcerned by the men she has killed and has no compunction about using her own family to get what she wants. And they all pander to this, not minding a jot if she can't cook and is untidy as her mother and sister will always clean up after her. There is never any explanation as to why she kills, it is treated in the same way as someone who buys far too many shoes.Korede is equally fascinating. On the outside she appears capable and accepting, but little clues are given that all is not well. She cleans obsessively (always handy when removing all traces of blood from a room). Her only friend is Muhtar, a man in a coma whom she pours her heart out to telling him all about her sister. I loved the relationship between Korede and Muhtar and if I'm honest, would have loved this exploring a little more. Both give each other strength and I loved Muhtar's gentility.I'm not sure if I was in a place of over-thinking, but I became obsessed with finding a twist. There isn't one. It is just a book about 2 sisters, one of whom just happens to kill men. I'm so pleased I read this, it is dark and full of humour, a very interesting and vibrant read.

Oyinkan Braithwaite's My Sister, the Serial Killer, is a surprisingly relatable dark comedy about two sisters: one a nurse, the other a serial killer.Korede, the nurse, has a problem with her sister, Ayoola. It's a familiar problem, really. Ayoola is beautiful, popular, vane, and selfish. Korede, ever the willing older sister, is always going above and beyond to help her. Ayoola is completely ungrateful, and more than that has those around them convinced that Korede is too harsh on her, not helpful enough.Beautiful people can get away with such things, as we learn throughout the novel. People are always willing to believe her, willing to see the best in her, even when it makes no sense.The difference here, of course, is that Ayoola isn't just a vane sister who has mistaken a social media following for an endorsement of every decision she makes. She's also a killer who keeps murdering her boyfriends.At the books opening, we join Korede as she does what she has become accustomed to doing, which is cleaning up the evidence of Ayoola's murders. Her skills as a nurse come in handy, but when her sister starts dating the doctor from the hospital that Korede liked herself, things get more complicated.The bizarrely relatable sibling relationship makes this book an entertaining read. The comedy is very real, even if the subject matter is grim at the best of times. The drama and the depth, however, is also strong, not something you can always say of this kind of book. The interludes where the reader gets a look at the sisters' controlling, unfaithful father are compelling and add genuine context to the story as it unfolds. The tension genuinely builds throughout the book, without undermining the tragicomedy of the whole.This is a story that deserves its popularity, and lives up to the eye-catching title. Highly recommended.

When Korede receives a call from her sister Ayoola she knows what to do. The same thing as the previous two times. She collects her cleaning things, drives to meet her and proceeds to get rid of the body of her sister’s boyfriend, who Ayoola has just dispatched in ‘self-defence’. Is it coincidence that Ayoola has had a string of bad boyfriends, who were such a threat she had to lethally defend herself three times? Will it be any different with Tade, the new man in her life, who just happens to be the man Korede is in love with?When I mentioned on social media that I had just bought this book, and that I was tempted to push it to the top of the to read pile, I received many comments advising me to do just that. I was told that this was a quick read and so I tried the first chapter to see. Those social media commentators were right. My Sister the Serial Killer is eminently easy to read, the short sharp chapters mean the reader flies through the book, which can easily be read in a morning. That is not to it’s detriment. There is dark humour littered throughout, with Korede and Ayoola’s response to the murders giving it a sharp edge.The reader soon becomes aware there is something amiss with Ayoola and Korede. Whilst Ayoola’s moral compass points in a completely different direction to everyone else, Korede’s is slightly out of sync. She knows what she is doing is wrong, but still does it. Ayoola on the other hand seems to think murder is her right, and the clean up of it someone else’s responsibility.Korede seems to justify Ayoola’s actions so that in turn, her own actions are reasonable. She blames her father for how he treated them both, her mother for pandering to Ayoola, her sister for being too beautiful, and the men for falling for her. She too is swayed by beauty. That of her sister, against whom she is always compared, and the men her sister kills. The first one to really haunt her is the man we see the sisters dispose of in the opening chapters. It is his looks that Korede can’t forget, his poetry. She shrugs off the first two men, who are barely mentioned but whose physical features don’t meet with Korede’s approval. Korede seems to resent Ayoola’s beauty but also uses it to excuse her behaviour. Ayoola’s killer instinct is used by Korede to feel important, and somewhat superior. She is the only person her sister will ever truly need. Whilst she is swayed by Ayoola’s looks, Korede comes to detest the trait in others, especially in Tade, the doctor who Korede is secretly in love with and who immediately falls for her sister when they meet.Both sisters suffered as children from abuse from their father, seen through the eyes of Korede as a mean, spiteful man, interested only in himself and his career. He died some years earlier and it becomes apparent that his death had a profound affect on both women, perhaps sowing the seeds for the future actions of both.I loved the setting of the novel. There is some commentary on the views of marriage, with the sisters mother pressing for both of her daughters to marry. The police and authorities are barely involved in the book but there are scenes where payments are made for infractions and the returning of property that are dealt with in such a way as to make these seem routine rather than corrupt.My Sister, the Serial Killer, is a darkly comic look at what happens after a murder and of misplaced loyalty. The question the reader is left with is who is worse, Ayoola for her actions or Korede for coldly covering for her.

Oh my, oh my! Korede really is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes Ayoola. Ayoola is her younger sister, her own blood, and Korede proves that she’ll do anything to protect her regardless of the doubt she carries.Opening with a bang, this book made my day vanish in a whoosh as if I’d entered a time slip. One minute, I’d just finished breakfast, the next - damn, I was burning the dinner in a race to finish the book.This really is a fresh take on the serial killer genre and I must say, I love it. All told in snappy chapters from nurse, Korede’s point of view, I got a deep sense of who she was as the details of Korede’s and Ayoola’s past was revealed.I felt for their house girl, such an uninspiring role in life but the author slaps the reader with these class differences. I don’t think she was even called by her name. Other references to this would be Mohammed the cleaner - you’ll have to read it. There was so much to explore between these pages. Other thoughts that come to mind after reading this book are misogyny, patriarchy, not facing up to consequences, expectation, deceit and corruption. Whoah! You might think that’s a lot for a shorter novel but believe me, not a word is wasted.Definitely one to add to the list if you love your psychological thrillers and crime reads. I think it will suitably appeal to readers who enjoy a little light horror too. This book is tense, slick and it’s boldness in style is impressive! A must read.