Book Review
Title: My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Rating: 3.75 Stars
The opening of My Sister, The Serial Killer definitely was gripping. We are introduced to Korede, who is phoned by her younger sister Ayoola because she has killed her current boyfriend, Femi. We know from the way Korede reacts that this isn't the first time she's had to clean up her sister's need but they had only been dating a month. Korede essentially gets rid of the evidence and the body herself with little help from her sister. After that Ayoola returns to Korede's place and she is instantly worried by her sister's behaviour.
Unlike a regular person Ayoola doesn't seem emotionally affected at all. In fact, just days after murdering Femi she make an emotional post on Instagram and take with Femi's mother much to Korede's disapproval. She warns her sister of the danger she had put herself in because the government and police won't ready them kindly if they are caught. However, Ayoola refuses to hand over the murder weapon, a hunting knife that belonged to their abusive father that Ayoola took shortly after he died. We also get to see into Korede's personal life where she works as a nurse and had a major crush on one of the Doctors e working there, Tade. The relationship between the sisters is stained at best right now as Korede is tied of Ayoola's actions but there isn't much she can do without implicating herself so she keeps her mouth closed.
However, when Ayoola begins showing up unannounced at the hospital Korede is furious especially when she sets her sights on Tade. At first she observed her sister's behaviour but when it becomes clear that she is honing in on the man she like Korede confronts her sister. She asks Ayoola to stay away from the hospital and Tade and she is meet with the response of n everyone gets what they want and Korede is already beginning to panic. I can already see that if Ayoola and Tade start dating it's going to end bad as she has already murdered three boyfriends but Korede's feelings for Tade won't allow her to sit back and do nothing so it will become a face-off between protecting the man she loves or her sister and I can't wait to see where it goes.
Things are getting even more complicated for the sisters, as Ayoola seems dead set on pursuing Tade even though she can clearly see Korede is against the idea because she has feelings for Tade even if she won’t admit them. Further complications arise when Femi’s family refuse to accept his death as something other than murder and the police find a bloody napkin in the apartment that Ayoola left behind and suspicion falls on the family. The sisters do pull together to get their story straight as they were seen leaving the apartment but Korede knows Ayoola is hiding something from her. The police also want to inspect Korede’s car since that is the one they used to get home but it is also the vehicle they transported Femi’s body in. Korede throughout this toys with the idea of turning her sister in and getting to take responsibility for what she has done but she knows her mother and her sister would never forgive her and dismisses the idea even though it means she has to put up with everything Ayoola is doing. I hate Ayoola as a character because she has no remorse for her actions, no guilt at all and she even had the audacity to ask how long she has to act sad about Femi before she can return to posting her usual things on the internet.
As time passes another man ends up dead at Ayoola’s hands although this time she doesn’t use her knife but drugs. The man was married with children and having an affair with Ayoola while she was cheating on Tade which infuriates Korede. However, when Ayoola returns from her trip and announces the man is dead, Korede knows she is lying about how he died and discovers the truth in the news and she begins to wonder what kinds of things Ayoola has at her disposal as she must have convinced the police to keep her name out of the papers. As the relationship between Ayoola and Tade seems to be getting more serious and their mother is adamant that he will be proposing soon, Korede beings coming apart as she has no one she can talk to except a coma patient at the hospital. Ayoola repeatedly asks her sister if she likes Tade when she knows that Korede loves him and uses every opportunity to rub Korede’s face in it despite all her sister has done for her and I pray that Korede snaps soon and turns Ayoola in because she deserves to rot not only for the murders but for the way she has treated her sister throughout all of it.
When the coma patient Korede has been talking to wakes up she realises how much danger she and her sister are in but he doesn’t say anything. When she asks him about his silence he tells her he understands what it means to be loyal to family but he urges her to protect the man Ayoola has her sights on if she truly cares for him and this brings a lot of questions and situations in Korede’s mind. She thinks about how their father treated them as children and if that had an effect on Ayoola that it didn’t on her, but when the man asks Korede to stay with him while his son pleads for permission to marry a girl which he refuses because of how his son has treated him in the past Korede realises the similarities between them and herself. When she asks him why he wanted her to stay he mentions it is because of her strength which he needed in that moment to break away from the loyalty that had bound him to his son for years and it seems that Korede knows what she has to do and I am excited to be see what happens in the final section of the novel. The main question I have moving into the final section is whether Korede will once again protect Ayoola when she kills Tade or whether she will protect Tade from her sister even if it means turning her in once and for all.
Korede gets the call she has been dreading when Ayoola phones her from Tade’s home. However, when she arrives it is Ayoola who is bleeding out after trying to attack Tade. As she gets her sister to the hospital she learns that she tried to attack Tade out of nowhere and he defended himself but when Ayoola comes out of surgery she tells her sister she has to pick a side, defend her or protect Tade. The one thing I don’t agree with in this novel is the ending as Korede once again protects her sister and destroys the life of an innocent man who was just defending himself. I felt the ending would have been better if Korede had followed advice given to her and broken away from her sister and at the end of the novel we get to see the cycle start again. Overall, I did enjoy My Sister, The Serial Killer but the ending was a cop-out and left me furious which is the reason for my low rating. It is also labelled as comedy but it doesn’t have any comedic elements at all as it tackles serious topics.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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