My Sister the Serial Killer

My Sister The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Sharp, silky, stinging, sweet. Caustic and sarcastic, bloody and lovely. My Sister the Serial Killer is at once everything that is pungent and sardonic and everything that is pink and gorgeous, an exercise in bringing together the qualities that most communities and societies still insist on seeing as distinct if not contradictory.

Set in Lagos, the debut novel tells the story of Korede, a meticulous and responsible worker recently promoted to Head Nurse at the hospital, and her younger sister Ayoola, an attractive and self-confident fashion designer. Whereas Korede has long nurtured an unspoken and unrequited love for a doctor, Tade, at her hospital, Ayoola has no reservations with taking up new lovers—nor any reservations about killing them. For, as Korede realizes after helping her sister clean up after she kills her third boyfriend, committing three murders launches a person into the category of “serial killer,” and Korede sees no indication that Ayoola will break her pattern. Despite her increasing fears around Ayoola’s behavior, which are heightened still further as Ayoola begins to court her beloved Tade, Korede is ultimately as much a figure of solidarity with Ayoola as she is one of contrast and conflict.

I loved that this novel could hold contradictions and multiple truths together at once. When Ayoola kills her suitor Femi, Korede is simultaneously able to wipe all evidence of his death from the scene of the crime and spend hours reading the poetry Femi put up on his personal blog before his death. When tables turn and it is Ayoola who finds herself in harm’s way, all of Korede’s bitterness towards and sense of being taken for granted by her sister don’t prevent her from acting as her savior and defender. As Oyinkan Braithwaite skillfully reveals the roots of this complex blend of pain, annoyance, love, and solidarity between her two central characters, the novel comes into its own. Not only an engrossing and fashionably-written satire, My Sister the Serial Killer is a love letter to sisterhood and resilience and an indictment of the undervaluing of the femme and the feminine in all the ways--powerful, silly, sensual, harsh, gorgeous, and devastating--that these ways of being can manifest.