• About Me
  • Contact Me
  • Useful Articles
  • Word Of The Day
bookish-night-owl

Exploring everything Literature

  • Home
  • Useful Articles
  • Blog Articles
    • Wildest Dreams Book Subscription Unboxing – Coming soon!
    • Is YA fiction better than most?
    • Is TikTok the future of book culture?
    • Book Review: ‘The American Crusade’ by Mark Spivak
    • Isolation Must Reads
    • Book Review – ‘Hunted’ by Darcy Coates
    • Book Review: ‘The Holiday’ by T.M Logan
    • Why do we read?
    • Book Review: ‘My Sister The Serial Killer’ by Oyinkan Braithwaite
    • Books That Should Be On Your Summer Reading List
    • Are we ‘over’ vampire fiction?
    • Book Review ‘Capture or Kill’ by Tom Marcus
    • Classic Children’s Stories Vs Modern Children’s Fiction.
    • Words you never use but definitely should.
    • The impossibility of writing short stories…
    • Kindle vs Paperback
  • Word Of The Day
  • Contact Me
  • About Me
Book Reviews  /  May 30, 2019

Book Review: ‘My Sister The Serial Killer’ by Oyinkan Braithwaite

by glloyd88

I had read about this book online previously via Waterstones (yes, I’m one of THOSE people who has email alerts about new and promising books) and thought it looked interesting. Although it had excellent reviews from Waterstones, everywhere else the reviews seem fairly mixed. 

The main character, Korede is an underappreciated and overlooked woman who has spent much of her life being constantly overshadowed by her sister.  Ayoola is beautiful, vivacious and worshipped by all who encounter her….she is everything her older sister Korede is not. 

Unfortunately, Ayoola has a dreadful habit of killing whoever she happens to be seeing romantically at that time. Korede is always left to pick up the pieces until Ayoola’s object of interest happens to be the man Korede is in love with and desperately wishes would notice her. Suddenly, Korede’s conscience catches up with her and she is torn between family values and following her heart to protect the man she loves. 

I really enjoyed this book and was absorbed completely from the very first page. It seemed to be quite a quick book, possibly because it is shorter than others (only 240 pages) and with short chapters or because the story itself is very fast moving. 

I think the term ‘serial killer’ is used quite loosely in the story and although Ayoola does display some characteristics of a serial killer such as lack of empathy and a sudden change in mood, it could also be argued that these qualities are in fact due to the fact that she is just a spoilt and self-absorbed individual. 

I really liked the setting. It is fairly unusual to read thrillers which are set in Nigeria so I enjoyed the references to locations and cultural aspects which the author is clearly familiar with, being from the same place. 

Occasionally, some of the language was slightly unusual such as ‘she considered this for as long as it takes paper to burn’ and Nigerian words referenced in the speech but it all adds to the atmospheric and wonderfully created dimension by Braithwaite. 

There are opportunities for critical thinking  with various themes in the story such as the revelations regarding the girls’ father. Could this be part of the reason why Ayoola has become the person she is?

Even Korede’s character could be called in to question with such an interesting contrast with the person she appears to be and to some extent alot of her actions. She protects her sister and is consistently loyal but there are also other actions which could be likened to those of Ayoola, specifically towards the end of the book which make for interesting interpretations. 

The ending felt a little disappointing and definitely lacked finality. However, it was interesting to see the development of the characters and to witness the conclusion of all the events. 

Overall, I think this story may resonate for many as you question what you would do in that situation. If the person you loved the most committed a crime and needed help, would you turn them away? Or roll your sleeves up and start scrubbing away the evidence?

Bookish-Night-Owl

Post navigation

Books That Should Be On Your Summer Reading List
Why do we read?

Share your thoughts Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Wildest Dreams Book Subscription Unboxing – Coming soon!
  • Is TikTok the future of book culture?
  • Is YA fiction better than most?
  • Book Review: ‘The American Crusade’ by Mark Spivak
  • Isolation Must Reads

Recent Comments

  • glloyd88 on Are we ‘over’ vampire fiction?
  • Cliff mann on Are we ‘over’ vampire fiction?

Archives

  • June 2020
  • March 2020
  • August 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019

Categories

  • Blog Articles
  • Book Reviews
  • Linguistics
  • Short Stories

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Recent Comments

  • glloyd88 on Are we ‘over’ vampire fiction?
  • Cliff mann on Are we ‘over’ vampire fiction?

Pages

  • About Me
  • Contact Me
  • Useful Articles
  • Word Of The Day

Categories

  • Blog Articles
  • Book Reviews
  • Linguistics
  • Short Stories

Recent Posts

  • Wildest Dreams Book Subscription Unboxing – Coming soon!
  • Is TikTok the future of book culture?
  • Is YA fiction better than most?
  • Book Review: ‘The American Crusade’ by Mark Spivak
  • Isolation Must Reads

Archives

  • June 2020
  • March 2020
  • August 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • Elara by LyraThemes
  • Made by LyraThemes.com