When you’re ill and subjected to bed rest, there’s only so much rest your body can take. After all the drug induced sleeps, the bouts of weaknesses that assail you on waking, the next best thing to do, is on your phone. It was in this situation that I’d picked up the book ‘My Sister, the serial killer’ written by Oyinkan Braithwaite, and read it in one sitting.
My Sister, The Serial Killer is a 183 paged book that tells the story of Kehinde and Ayoola. Being the older sibling, Kehinde is expected to make up for every of Ayoola’s shortcomings. She’s never had a problem, cleaning up Ayoola’s messes till it starts to involve bodies.
It’s the third time Kehinde has been called by her sister, to clean up the body of a man she’s been romantically involved with. The third time, Ayoola has claimed she was the victim in a situation that she came out unscathed, while the other person ended up dead. Doubts are beginning to form in Korede’s mind as to her sister’s true personality, but is she willing to go down the rabbit hole of betrayal, guilt, and even jail time?
Reading this was such a thrill ride. I wanted a book that bordered on mystery and this book delivered no doubt. It came as a mystery/thriller, with a touch of drama. With Oyinkan’s writing style, serial killing didn’t seem as intense as it actually is. Rather, it appeared as the lesser theme, with drama as the main. Making the book much less predictable. It started with high expectations, and when you reach the end, you’ll be looking forward to something that seems only normal to happen. Something ended up happening truly, but it isn’t what you expected.
I really don’t get why many of the characters did what they did. Korede loved to a fault, and that to me, was her undoing. She’s that character that’s too slow to decipher what’s going on right in their front. Always waiting for it to be spelt out by someone else. Since every part of the book was written from her point of view, she made reading some parts of the book hard.
There was her sister Ayoola, who was oblivious to everything everyone around her felt. From how she was glorified, and how everything worked in her favour, you could simply tell she was the author’s favorite. She acted rashly, and it always ended up well for her. That wasn’t such a nice thing to read happening over and over again. Ayoola is just that character you just don’t know how to help, or what to do with. Aside these two, there were supporting characters who succeeded in adding more drama into the story. However, they aren’t that noteworthy.
I finished reading this book, and shutting it, I inhaled. You know when a book ends with a new scene, but because you’ve been with the characters for a while, and thanks to the proper character development that was employed into the story, you can just tell how that situation is going to play out, and I don’t mean this in a good way, lol. While it was fun imagining, I love to get closure after every read, except for series of course, so this style of ending wasn’t it for me. It simply felt like a glimpse into a sequel that’s nonexistent.
I’ll rate this book a 7.5/10. I expected so much more from it however, it was as fun as it was unsettling. I absolutely recommend to mystery/thriller lovers, who wouldn’t mind a bit of drama while reading these intense topics.
Thanks for reading.
Image above is a screenshot taken by me from my e-library.