My Sister, the Serial Killer
Book description
Sunday Times bestseller and The Times #1 bestseller
Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2019
Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019
Winner of the 2019 LA Times Award for Best Crime Thriller
Capital Crime Debut Author of the Year 2019
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'A literary sensation'
Guardian
'A bombshell of a…
Why read it?
13 authors picked My Sister, the Serial Killer as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Why people lie is often as interesting as the lie itself for me. This book lays this out as Korede finds herself being a protective big sister to the beautiful Ayoola, a woman with an unfortunate hobby of bumping off men she dates. Despite the darkness of the subject matter, it’s a story full of humor as Korede finds herself telling lie after lie and getting in way over her head to cover up her sister’s murders.
I’ve got two sisters (none of us serial killers!), and it’s funny how much of this tale is relatable! It’s fresh and sharp,…
From Barbara's list on books told by liars.
It’s always refreshing to read portrayals of unconventional female relationships, something I’m particularly interested in when writing my own novels. Because our relationships are rarely straightforward or predictable, are they?
As the title suggests, the relationship between Korede and her serial killer sister, Ayoola, is far from conventional…and while the story delves into some dark and gruesome places, it is a thriller that had me laughing as much as covering my eyes in horror. This accomplished debut goes firmly on my ‘couldn’t put it down’ list – it’s warm, funny, and page-turningly good!
From Isabel's list on sinister sisters and strange sisterhoods.
Not a situation I’d find myself in. Neither, I hope, will you. Korede’s problem in this quirky book is dark and unusual: having to protect a sister who kills her suitors.
The plot goes from unpredictable to weird. The older sister, a nurse committed to saving lives, has to choose between her code of ethics and her love for her pretty, precocious sister, who keeps killing her boyfriends.
A story this morbid, narrated with straight-faced, deadpan humour, has made this book one of my picks.
From Jane's list on books to make you laugh when you’re trying to look serious.
If you love My Sister, the Serial Killer...
There’s so much I love about this book: the setting of Lagos, Nigeria, the vignette-style chapters that toggle between poetic insights of the titular sisters, a crime novel unlike any that I’ve read, and the questions it asks about how far you’ll go to protect the people you love.
This book had me riveted, turning pages as fast as I could. Despite being dark, it also made me laugh—which is a really tough combination to pull off! I gulped it down in about two sittings—the story had me that hooked.
From Halley's list on female-driven noir novels.
This novel follows Ayoola, a beautiful murderer, and her put-upon sister, Korede, who helps clean up her crime scenes. Korede is loyal to a fault, willing to help cover up her sister’s crimes, but what makes the relationship feel authentic and lived-in is the way petty resentment boils around minor slights and the perpetual issue of the sisters’ disparate beauty. 7
The book is a slender, efficient, and funny look at the psychology of sisterhood that happens to take the form of a thriller.
From Kate's list on books that capture the love/hate relationship of sisters.
The title and all the glowing reviews made me pick this book up, but the sisters Korene and Ayoola kept me reading. This book actually made me wonder exactly how far I’d go for one of my sisters. It also made me think about how much many women give up to be the caretakers (as Korene the nurse is), especially of the men in our lives. Korene not only figuratively has to clean up after her little sister, she has to literally don plastic gloves and grab the bleach. Is it horrible to think a little Ayoola-style “self-defense” would make…
From Kelly's list on celebrating sisterhood through time.
If you love Oyinkan Braithwaite...
This book is stunning because it’s so original. The narrator is the sister of a woman who regularly falls for the wrong man and then kills him when she finds out. Not only that, but she expects her sister to help her clean up the murder scene. It’s superficially unbelievable, but Braithwaite’s brilliance makes it entirely believable because of the family’s background and the suffocatingly close bond between the two sisters. True, the Nigerian police miss a few points that a US police detective would pick up, but that’s how they operate. Some great thrillers are coming out of Nigeria…
From Michael's list on African noir thrillers.
How far would you go to protect a family member? Who will take the blame for repeated murders? Do we have a psychological Siamese twin in our lives? My Sister, the Serial Killer blends murder with the diverse and fascinating Nigerian culture. A layered story of need, family loyalty, and abuse.
From Felicia's list on thrillers with a Gothic theme.
Of all family relationships, I am particularly intrigued by the bond between sisters—think: Little Women, Sense and Sensibility, The Vanishing Half. In Braithwaite’s debut novel, older and more practical sister Korede is hopelessly devoted to younger and more impetuous sister Ayoola. This familiar family dynamic is given a fresh and fabulous take when it turns out Ayoola’s boyfriends keep ending up dead, leaving Korede to clean up the mess. Sister melodrama and serial murder—what could be more fun, right?
From A.H.'s list on putting the fun into dysfunctional families.
If you love My Sister, the Serial Killer...
I read Nigerian writer Braithwaite’s slim, fast-paced debut in a single day. This is the story of two women, here, sisters. One beautiful, charming, sensual, self-absorbed, and sociopathic—the one actually doing the stabbing—and the other, mousey, responsible, loyal to a fault—the one cleaning everything up. As moral grounds become murkier we are left to wonder, which is worse?
From Madeline's list on in protest of women’s “likability”.
If you love My Sister, the Serial Killer...
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