Review: My Sister, the Serial Killer

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

Ayoola summons me with these words—Korede, I killed him. I had hoped I would never hear those words again. 

At just over 200 pages, with very short chapters and a first person dialogue that engages you, My Sister, The Serial Killer was a slice (no pun intended) of life story that will linger in my thoughts for a while. 

The story starts with Korede getting a call from her sister saying that she killed her latest boyfriend. Korede's reaction clues the reader into that fact that this isn't the first time, we learn that it is the third. As Korede takes charge in cleaning up the scene and disposing the body, Ayoola says that the man attacked her but as this is the third time, we start to see doubt creeping into Korede's thoughts. 

Korede's a nurse and as we follow her around, we learn she is in love with a doctor she works with and that she uses a coma patient as a pseudo-therapist, telling him about her serial killer sister. What pulled me into the story was Korede thinking back and "telling" us readers about her childhood and how their father was abusive and had a knife that he revered, the knife Ayoola uses to kill with. The descriptions of their childhood clearly lay-out why the sisters act the way they do. Korede was the older sister and always worked and was expected to protect Ayoola. Ayoola was the child beloved for her gorgeous looks and constantly leered at by men. There's also the way their father cheats on their mother and treats women as disposable. 

You will constantly be angry on Korede's behalf for the way Ayoola treats her, especially when she starts to date the doctor Korede wants a relationship with. For as selfish as Ayoola was, she says a line about showing Korede that the doctor is just like all other men and it puts the thought that in her warped way, she may be trying to protect Korede. I bumped my rating up because of a couple of these little lines that made the personalities of these sisters more complex and interesting to read about. At first glance and on the surface you could easily write them both off but those little lines made them more interesting. 

The story was pretty even paced, towards the end there is some excitement with the coma patient and the doctor but for the most part you're just riding along with Korede as she and me as the reader argue if she is trapped in a cage of her own making or life made it this way for her and she's just doing the best she can. 

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