My Sister, the Serial Killer
SynopsisPlot
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.
Story
About this book
Korede works as a nurse at a Lagos hospital, keeps her life orderly, and has spent years cleaning up after her younger sister Ayoola. The cleanup is not metaphorical. Ayoola's third boyfriend has just turned up dead, and Korede is once again the one scrubbing blood and disposing of evidence. Ayoola, the family favorite and effortlessly beautiful, shows little remorse. Korede, plain-spoken and practical, keeps everything running while receiving none of the gratitude.
The situation tightens when a doctor Korede has quietly loved for some time meets Ayoola and asks for her phone number. Korede now faces a problem she cannot solve with bleach and a car trunk: warning the doctor means exposing her sister, but staying silent may put him in real danger. The novel is set in contemporary Lagos, and its clipped, deadpan narration draws dark comedy from sibling loyalty, family favoritism, and the question of how far obligation should stretch.
Oyinkan Braithwaite's debut is notably short and tightly constructed, running under 230 pages. It moves between Korede's present-tense dilemmas and her memories of growing up alongside Ayoola, layering their history without slowing the forward pressure of the plot.
