My Sister, the Serial Killer: A Novel

My Sister, the Serial Killer: A Novel by Oyinkan Braithwaite begins with these disturbing words: “Ayoola summons me with these words — Korede, I killed him. I had hoped I would never hear those words again.” Thus begins the tale of a serial killer that explores themes of sisterhood, love, and murder. Ayoola is not normal, and sick is a mild word to describe what she is. She is a monster — a serial killer —, but she enjoys the love and protection of her sister. When the novel starts, she has just killed one of her boyfriends again. In a row, she kills three of her boyfriends, stabbing them through the heart. And each time, her sister, Korede, helps to clean up and to surreptitiously move the bodies, leaving no traces behind. But things are about to change when the man that Korede loves deeply comes into the picture. She’s been in love with a kind doctor at the hospital where she works, and when he asks Korede for Ayoola’s phone number, she smells trouble. Can she protect the man she loves from her sister and for how long can she continue to hold her sister’s back?

It is dark, disturbing, and hauntingly absorbing. It begins with a powerful premise — Ayoola killing someone again and telling her sister in a voice that shows her cold-heartedness and lack of seriousness. Oyinkan Braithwaite has crafted a novel that grips the reader from the very first page and keeps them interested until the very last exhilarating page. It is fast-paced, written in an absorbing first person narrative voice that pulls the reader in irresistibly. It’s hard to be get engrossed in the story. The complex characters and the cunning plot make the novel a page-turner. The conflict builds around the protagonist’s dilemma, torn between a sister she loves and the man of her dreams from her.