My Sister, the Serial Killer (By Oyinkan Braithwaite)

"That's how it has always been. Ayoola would break a glass, and I would receive the blame for giving her the drink. Ayoola would fail a class, and I would be blamed for not coaching her. Ayoola would take an apple and leave the store without paying for it, and I would be blamed for letting her get hungry."

Publisher: Atlantic Books

I thoroughly enjoyed My Sister, The Serial Killer. It opened my horizons to crime and thriller books. It makes complete sense why it was the WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR MYSTERY/THRILLER, SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 WOMEN'S PRIZE, and most recently this book was awarded BOOK OF THE YEAR CRIME & THRILLER 2020. I am so happy that a book with all black characters has received such global recognition for its fresh and humorous approach to crime, rather than for its "exotic" or Nigerian origins. This is a momentous step for black writers; to be recognised for their works and not the "other-worldlines" of their books. It was a pleasure to read this book and an absolute joy to get to know these characters.

This book follows the perspective of a young woman named Korede, a nurse living in Lagos, Nigeria. Her sister Ayoola has been described as beautiful by absolutely everyone, she has also killed every boyfriend she has ever had, and Korede has always helped her clean up the mess (literally). She is the only person that stands between her little sister and jail. And as we can see from the quote above, if anything happened to Ayoola, then it would be Korede's fault. This book takes that phrase her sister's keeper, to a whole new level.

(Warning: Spoilers)

Korede is young, successful and protects her sister at all costs. Even when this costs her the man she loves. She is selfless to a fault and never thinks of her safety or mental wellbeing when Ayoola's might be in danger. We see this when she lets her sister date the man she is in love with and never said a single word. I think this level of compliance with her sister's whims and desires frustrated me. She was fiery and quick-witted when it came to her colleagues, but she made herself small and timid around her sister. Her inability to stand up for herself and total lack of self-preservation skills was by far her most detestable trait to me.

While, Ayoola is beautiful, self-absorbed and without contrition.

It is very obvious to the readers that everything is a game to Ayoola. Even dating the surgeon who Korede loved, was a game to Ayoola. She played with his interests in her and treated him with complete disregard. While they dated, she flew off on holiday with another man, and when she returned, the word sorry never escaped her lips. The man she left with was late found dead in the hotel room. We are never explicitly told that it was Ayoola, but with her track record, I think we can assume she had something to do with it. It seems that Ayoola shows no remorse at all for what she has done to those poor men, whose only error was blind lust.

Neither does Ayoola show any appreciation towards Korede for the risks she takes each time she helps Ayoola clean up the mess that she made.

The ending appears to come full circle. Ayoola was self-absorbed and still apathetically dating various men oblivious to her track record. Korede was still overwhelmingly selfless and protecting her sister at all costs. It seemed that so much had happened in 240 pages, but nothing had actually changed at all.