Opinion | My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

“The most loving parents and relatives commit murder with smiles on their faces. They force us to destroy the person we really are: a subtle kind of murder.”

 ☘    Opinião em Português    ☘ 

Oyinkan Braithwaite’s first book and it’s been nominated to the Booker Prize longlist in 2019.

It’s described as a satirical dark humour thriller, that portraits the life of two sisters – Korede and Ayoola – and Ayoola’s habit of killing her boyfriends and her sister cleaning it up.

I was excited with this reading, with the prospect of reading a dark humour thriller and I actually found quite disappointed.

Very slow action where there’re chapters simply portraying chores and simple every day actions while trying to use that to create a gloomy atmosphere, wrongly so.

If there was just one chapter, I might understand it but I’m talking about 60% of the book. The author could have used it to built up suspense or used Ayoola’s murders but I saw myself reading, again, another every day routine.

I understand that the author used that method to satire the lightness that they took the murders but making them carefree, but it didn’t work for me.

The book has a first-person narrative, by Korede, a nurse e I can tell you that I felt no empathy towards her nor by any of the characters – even the “good heart” one. I saw an attempt to show that Korede’s mind is uneasy with her sister’s actions when there’s nothing there… whatsoever.

The plot is quite simple and the writing straightforward and I loved the references to Nigeria and their culture, especially how feminism is seen in Nigeria and its modernization. There are two timelines switching between them as the girl’s childhood and the present.

I come to the conclusion that, with traumatic childhood, while one of them might be sociopathic, the other one certainly is. Although I understand the satirical and author’s message, I don’t think she succeeded.

I see a need for protection, by Korede’s part and a need of acceptance, by Ayoola’s, and both complement each other by one supporting what the other does. I find them completely deprived of remorse.

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

My rating: 2 of 5 stars