Ayoola summons me with these words – Korede, I killed him.
I had hoped I would never hear these words again.
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MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER
By Oyinkan Braithwaite
226 pp. Doubleday. $22.95.
Sometimes we need to read a book twice to really appreciate it.
My initial review of “My Sister, the Serial Killer,” the debut novel by Nigerian author Oyinkan Braithwaite, was four out of five stars because I hate the ending and I shudder at the life choices of the protagonists. The novel is brilliant, however, and I conceded that readily.
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After seeing Moira Macdonald's interview with Oyinkan Braithwaite (Seattle Times, July 24, 2019), I had to re-read the novel, and now I'll rewrite my review, which began like this:
Stellar prose with a protagonist who narrates in present tense, with an authentic and compelling voice - tension, conflict, action, and surprises - yet I couldn't like a single person in this book, except maybe the coma patient and the janitor. Our narrator refers to the servant as "the house girl" - and by the end of the novel, I'd hoped, she would humanize this girl with a name, but she didn't. And that isn't the only thing about Korede I found off-putting. I realize this is set in another culture (Nigeria) where fathers can pimp their daughters to polygamists with impunity, the police are even more corrupt or incompetent than they are here in the U.S., and women have yet to hear "You've come a long way, baby" (referencing a retro Virginia Slims ad). I might become a homicidal maniac myself, were I to have born into a patriarchal society.
Trying to avoid spoilers, I'll say Korede not only knows that her sister is a murderer, but she also helps her dispose of the body and clean up the crime scene. Once, twice, and three times marks you as a serial killer. Korede is an accessory. The third victim is young, handsome, a poet. Does he really deserve the death sentence? Must his mother, sister, and other family suffer forever the not-knowing what has become of their loved one?
Macdonald writes,
The novel is told from the point of view of Korede, a nurse who lives with her family in Lagos, Nigeria. She’s a quiet, painfully tidy young woman who exists in the shadows of her beautiful, vivacious sister Ayoola, the favored child of their widowed mother. (“Ayoola’s loveliness is a phenomenon that took my mother by surprise,” muses Korede. “She was so thankful that she forgot to keep trying for a boy.”) Ayoola is the sort who expects others to clean up her messes — quite literally.
Macdonald also wrote,
Though she’s part of a strong recent line of Nigerian-born women authors — among them Ayebami Adebayo (“Stay With Me”), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (“Half of a Yellow Sun,” “Americanah”), Helen Oyeyemi (“Boy, Snow, Bird,” “Gingerbread”), and Chinelo Okparanta (“Under the Udala Trees”) — Braithwaite’s voice is unique; I’ve never read anything quite like “My Sister, the Serial Killer,” and I can’t wait to read more from this author.
From her home in Lagos, the novelist corresponded with book reviewer Macdonald via email.
Macdonald:
Here’s the place where I fell hopelessly in love with your book: page 12 (U.S. hardcover edition), when Korede — helping her murderer sister dispose of a body — expresses suspicion about the young mother who just misses the elevator: “What good could she be up to moving around at that hour, with a child in tow?” Did you initially set out to write a serial-killer thriller that was funny? Or did the wit emerge along the way?
Braithwaite:
Thank you! I didn’t realize the story was funny until the initial reviews started to come out! Prior to that, I would not have described it as a comedy, dark or otherwise. Though I think the humor came about because I was writing a dark tale, a novel, and I didn’t want to be immersed in darkness for that length of time. So my characters were very matter of fact about the horrific things taking place, and so was I.
Me again:
I have strong feelings about this novel. My sister was missing for months before her body was found (her killer has not been found out), so I'm biased toward the victims and their loved ones here, and not sympathetic toward Korede and Ayoola. Not that I believe the author intends for us to feel they are justified in their crimes.
There's a surprise twist that makes Korede seem less reliable as a narrator and less sympathetic as a character than we first think. I hated her for her petty act of vandalism and the thing she tossed into the lagoon (let's just say I still hate Rose in "The Titanic" for a symbolic gesture). I hated her even more for allowing another character to suffer the consequences of her (Korede's!) crime. This man did NOT have it coming.
After years of reviewing books, I still wonder how to discern the number of stars--four, or five?--a book deserves. It's ultimately a matter of personal preference. I'm pretty sure the author does not intend for readers to approve of all Korede's decisions. She is showing us, in cool and impartial prose, a character who is all too believable, too authentic, too real.
I do feel for Korede, the stick girl, the plain Jane, whose little sister is so beautiful, men lose all sense of reason around here. Including the doctor Korede is secretly in love with. Once Tade starts wooing Ayoola, he is quite likely to end up like Ayoola's previous boyfriend's. How will Korede protect Tade from her sister? Why is Tade just another stupid man after all, falling for a beautiful liar and manipulator? I really wanted to see the man who would see through Ayoola and fall for Korede.
Maybe in a sequel? Not likely.
I found the ending extremely unsatisfying. Korede fails to make the character arc I was hoping she would make, and this is all too believable but heartbreaking and maddening.
Braithwaite writes 5-star prose, but the ending moves this novel into the horror genre. If you're a horror fan, this is scarier than any mutant monsters or demons.
Moira Macdonald calls this a wickedly funny thriller (and it's longlisted for the Booker Prize). The dark humor, the surprise twists, make this novel a winner. I hated myself for liking Walt so much in "Breaking Bad," and I hate myself for liking this story so much, which is really the ultimate tribute to an author.
You'll find one- and two-star reviews of this novel at Amazon. You'll also find the reviewers openly admit they "just didn't get it." I never listen to podcasts, but if you do, here's one I found via Twitter:
Autumn and
talk to @OyinBraithwaite about her novel
MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER, from.
Have a listen wherever you get your podcasts! 🎧 https://buff.ly/30GGVXv
I will repeat, the prose is brilliant. Don't take my word for it. Download a sample chapter via Amazon. Or just buy the book from any of a number of sites, e.g. #indiebookstore #shoplocal #indielite http://ow.ly/aUWG50vwub8 .
NOMINATED FOR THE 2019 BOOKER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR MYSTERY/THRILLER
FINALIST FOR THE 2019 WOMEN'S PRIZE
A short, darkly funny, hand grenade of a novel about a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends ... Korede's practicality is the sisters' saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her "missing" boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.
Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she's exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola's phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she's willing to go to protect her.
Sharp as nails and full of deadpan wit, Oyinkan Braithwaite's deliciously deadly debut is as fun as it is frightening.
source: Indielite