A really different kind of read for
me. It was a dark fast paced
story which starts in the middle of the action - a murder. Black humour was clever, I’d recommend this book

2.5 Stars - An interesting and rather funny read at times. A fast paced read full of never-ending killing and a sister that just won't take no for an answer.

This is a sharp, satirical book about two sisters in Lagos, Nigeria, who dutifully cover up the murders of one sister by expertly cleaning the crime scenes and distancing themselves. At the beginning of the novel, one of the sisters has just killed a third person, which by definition makes her a serial killer, yet she seems to struggle with the concept of 'actions having consequences'. She's obsessed with social media and has little common sense when it comes to sharing personal content that could link her to the crime. Her sister is the total opposite- paranoid, conscientious, sure that they might be find out but wanting to protect her naïve sister as much as possible.
This book is getting rave reviews, but I honestly just found it be okay. The narrative style is quite choppy and short- the chapters are never more than a few pages long- with lots of characters dropping in and out. I struggled to immerse myself entirely in the book, but the writing was clever and strong throughout.

I thought My Sister The Serial Killer was very good. It is original, involving, dark and very well written.

The book opens in present-day Lagos as Korede receives a phone call from her younger sister Ayoola: “Korede, I killed him,” and Korede goes to help. Not, it turns out, for the first time. Set in Lagos and narrated in the first person by Korede, we learn of Ayoola’s exceptional beauty, the sisters’ background and how Korede has always looked after and protected Ayoola. Tension is well built as Korede’s guilt and suppression of secrets cause her inner turmoil, added to by Ayoola’s supreme indifference to the consequences of any of her actions.

It’s a gripping story which has at its heart a brilliant portrait of someone whose sense of her own perfection and entitlement means that she does largely what she wants, oblivious to the damage to anyone else, and simply makes up a different story if the truth doesn’t suit her. (An allegory for our times, perhaps?) There is also a tense plot, shafts of wit and a good background of Nigerian society. I was impressed – not least because the book is reasonably short and all the more impactful for it. A very good first novel, which I can recommend.

(My thanks to Atlantic Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)

A unique read .... dark humour lends itself to a story of family loyalty - I really enjoyed this book but did struggle a little with the grammar at times.

This was a fantastic read! Family dynamics and loyalty are brought into sharp focus as they play out against crime and attempts at normal life. I loved the Nigerian setting, although it wasn't a focus of the story, but it gave it extra interest than if it was set in say, London or New York. It was an easy read and very funny in places. My only complaint is that it was too short! I'll definitely be looking out for the author's future work.

I envy anyone who hasn’t read this book yet because you really are in for a treat. Sharp, absorbing and electric, My Sister the Serial Killer has to be one of the most original and dazzling novels I’ve read recently from a truly exciting author.

Korede is a nurse living in Nigeria with her mother and younger sister, Ayoola. Ayoola is as troublesome as younger sisters can be, but with one difference, she has a tendency to murder her boyfriends. After a call one night from Ayoola asking her to help clean up a crime scene, Korede starts to wonder how long she can keep tidying up her little sister’s messes. Her troubles are exacerbated when Ayoola shows an interest in Korede’s colleague and long time crush, Tade.

This is such an excellent book for so many reasons. Korede and Ayoola are opposites in so many ways and the sibling rivalry dynamic plays out perfectly on the page. Korede is diligent in her work and her home life while Ayoola is flighty and spoiled by their mother. Ayoola’s quick loss of interest in her dead boyfriend and eagerness to get back on social media while Korede chides her for her tactlessness pretty much sums up their relationship. Their abusive father may be dead, but his shadow still looms large over their lives and Korede’s memories of him cast a light on the sisters relationship.

I absolutely raced through this book. It’s a brief 240 pages and at times feels almost like reading a classic noir novel, it’s that good. There’s a lot of layers to this book and it seems incredible to me that so much was fit into under 300 pages. It’s a story of loyalty and family, of betrayal and honesty. It’s a tremendous book and I’m certain we’ll be hearing a lot more from the author.

I received a ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

I absolutely loved this book. At just under 300 pages, I found the writing very witty, clever and good fun, despite the gruesome nature of the book. I found Ayoola a captivating character who's every move fascinated me. I rated the book four stars and would recommend for anyone looking to read something a little bit different with dark humour.

The title of this fast paced and darkly humorous book tells you all you need to know!. Based in Nigeria, it describes the relationship between 2 sisters once one of them has murdered their 3rd man and can therefore be officially classed as a serial killer. Peopled with believable characters facing less believable situations the author carried the story really well and I was happy to go along for the ride. It had added interest as I can't recall reading other books set in Nigeria and I look forward to more books by Ms Brathwaite.

A seriously caustic comedy - so easy to imagine this thriller as an amazing Netflix series. Two sisters, one a nurse the other a drop dead gorgeous type, lashing out in a manner that at first seems unpredictable. I enjoyed the setting and kept faith that Korede would somehow turn this situation around, hoping hard for the silver lining to her myriad troubles. The ending was proper satisfying, with the family's history rounding out the tale.

There is no guessing or detection to be done here as the reader knows from the beginning who the killer is but you are made to wonder whether the main character's loyalties to her sister will be strong enough for her to maintain her secret or will she be forced to tell all to save the lives of others?
For fans of black humour this provides a cynical will she? won't she? conundrum set against a barely believable story-line.
I obviously, however, have a different view of what makes a gripping entertaining read to the majority of other reviewers. I didn't like the style of writing from the start as, although full of thought and feelings expressed by the main character, it was too shallow for me. Perhaps it was the lack of description or perhaps I was just trying to take this too seriously?

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

A fascinating premise, but this ultimately missed the mark for me. While it is incredibly fast paced and a very quick read, it didn't make compulsive reading - the short chapters meant we only got a tiny slice of the action, and the killing was all kind of senseless and the characters unconvincing.

Quite well written but not really much of a story. There's not really much else to say that the title doesn't say. Her sister's a serial killer. The end! There's a small bit about their father, a bit about an infatuation with a co-worker, but nothing really breath taking or shocking. Sorry, but this was a bit of a quick, disappointing read.

With a title that intrigues from the start, this was an interesting slant on an old concept. Told from the point of view of an unwilling accomplice, Korede is the stable, hard working sister to the shining star that is Ayoola. Her sister. A serial killer.

I enjoyed this book but would have liked it to go further. Is there hope for Korede with Muhtar? It would have brought some optimism to the story. And can Ayoola really get away with denying she tried to stab Tade, when she has been associated with two previous deaths? And the father's back story is never finished.

An enjoyable read, but I was left with questions.

My Sister, the Serial Killer is an interesting narrative experience. It felt quite unique. Set in Lagos, it provided an African perspective on life and family relationships. This element of the book was brilliant. You can feel the connection between the sisters, their relationship to their mother and how they understand the world around them.

Whilst Ayoola is, technically, a serial killer; She doesn’t appear to have any motive for killing. The killings just happen around her. This is where a felt a disconnect with the book. She feels no reprocussions, and no remorse. Most importantly Aylooa doesn’t seem to care how much her attitudes and her behaviours affect Korede. Korede never stands up to Ayoola, and rarely questions her.

I enjoyed the book for the first three quarters but unfortunately the ending was a let down. I’m quite disappointed as I don’t think the book was presented especially well on the blurb, It was described as funny but I didn’t find it that way. I felt strongly for Korede, Ayoola was disrespectful. However like Koede I am an older sister, with a younger sister who can be quite like Ayoola - murdering aside. Perhaps this why I didn’t connect with the book.

Truly brilliant. Funny and addictive, I love the way this story was told and couldn’t put the book down.

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Published by @atlanticbooks
Publication Date 3rd January 2019

Firstly I just love the cover- The very bold and vivid green for the titles I thought looks great.

What an amazing book- I just loved everything about it.
It is fast paced which I loved and I just wanted to know what happened next.

The book/story is set in Nigeria- Korede has a younger sister Ayoola-who uses her beauty and popularity to date men who fall for her but they then end up dead.

What I enjoyed about this book is that there is an excellent balance of dark and light undertones to it which really works.

Oyinkans writing is simply brilliant. Cannot wait to read her future work.
Save your Christmas money for this book out 3rd January 2019

Excellent Read.
🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉/5

Thank you Atlantic Books for sending me this great book.

I absolutely loved the opening chapter to My Sister, the Serial Killer which is, in its entirety:
"Ayoola summons me with these words – Korede, I killed him.
I had hoped I would never hear those words again."
In this way, Braithwaite drops the reader straight in at the deep end, as we, along with Korede, are called to the scene of a stabbing that Korede is required to clean up. It tells the reader so much more than those 20 little words might suggest, in that it’s clear that this is not the first time this has happened. I thought that this was brilliantly clever, and I was immediately hooked, and I wanted to know more – not least why Korede had experienced such as unusual summons before.

This is a relatively short novel, but it doesn’t skimp on character development, and I loved Korede. She seems like such a good person, yet one who is caught up in the ties of sisterly loyalty which have been tested to the limit. She seems accepting of her lot in life, and while she is not jealous of Ayoola, it’s difficult for her not to feel some resentment when Tade, the handsome doctor she has her eye on, falls for Ayoola’s charms. this leaves Korede with something of a dilemma – should she follow her heart and try to protect Tade from the inevitable, or should she stand by Ayoola and let her do her thing?

Ayoola is also an interesting character, although very different to Korede. She comes across as a modern-day black widow, and her beauty and glamour mean that she has no shortage of men offering to be her next boyfriend. Ayoola pushes the idea of sisterly loyalty to the extremes, expecting Korede to help her cover up her crimes, and Korede, as the eldest, has had it drummed into her from an early age that she is responsible for her sister. While reading, it wasn’t entirely clear to me why Ayoola acts as she does. The novel is told from Korede’s point of view, and so we don’t get the insight in Ayoola’s thoughts directly, but as I learnt more of their background, I came to understand her motives which aren’t stated explicitly, but revealed indirectly as Korede shares more of their history.

Told in short, sharp chapters that keep the reader engaged, this is a brilliantly dark yet amusing novel that I really enjoyed.

Thanks to NetGalley and to Atlantic Books (Doubleday) for providing me an ARC copy of this book that I freely chose to review.
The title of this book hooked me. The fact that it was set in Lagos, Nigeria, made it more attractive. I could not resist the cover. And then I started reading and got hit by this first paragraph:
“Ayoola summons me with these words —Korede, I killed him. I had hoped I would never hear those words again.”
Told in the first person by Korede, the book narrates her story and that of her “complex” relationship with her younger sister, Ayoola, beautiful, graceful, a successful designer, beloved of social media, irresistible to men, the favourite of everybody… She’s almost perfect. But, there is a big but, which you will have guessed from the title. She is a serial killer.
This is a short and very funny book, although it requires a certain kind of sense of humour on the part of the reader. You need to be able to appreciate sarcasm and dark humour (very dark) to find it funny, but if you do, this is a fresh voice and a different take on what has become an extremely popular genre recently, domestic noir. I kept thinking about the many novels I had read where I had commented on the setting of the book and how well the author had captured it. There are no lengthy descriptions in this novel, but it manages to capture the beat and the rhythm of Lagos (a place where I’ve never been, I must admit) and makes us appreciate what life must be like for the protagonists. Because, although Ayoola is a murderer, life goes on, and Korede has to keep working as a nurse, she is still in love (or so she thinks) with one of the doctors at the hospital, their mother still suffers from her headaches, Ayoola wants to carry on posting on Snapchat, the patient in coma Korede confides in needs to be looked after, the police need to be seen to be doing something, and there are more men keen on spending time with beautiful Ayoola…
I found Korede understandable, although I doubt that we are meant to empathise with her full-heartedly. At some points, she seems to be on a victim, trapped in a situation she has no control over. At others, we realise that we only have her own opinion of her sister’s behaviour, and she has enabled the murderous activities of her sibling, in a strange symbiotic relationship where neither one of them can imagine life without the other. We learn of their traumatic past, and we can’t help but wonder what would we do faced with such a situation? If your sister was a psychopath (not a real psychiatric diagnosis, but I’m sure she’d score quite high in the psychopathy scale if her sister’s description is accurate) who kept getting into trouble, always blaming it on others, would you believe her and support her? Would you help her hide her crimes? Is blood stronger than everything else?
I loved the setting, the wonderful little scenes (like when Tade, the attractive doctor, sings and the whole city stops to listen, or when the police take away Korede’s car to submit it to forensic testing and then make her pay to return it to her, all dirty and in disarray), the voice of the narrator and her approach to things (very matter-of-fact, fully acknowledging her weaknesses, her less-than-endearing personality, sometimes lacking in insight but also caring and reflective at times), and the ending as well. I also enjoyed the writing style. Short chapters, peppered with Yoruba terms, vivid and engaging, it flows well and it makes it feel even briefer than it is.
If you enjoy books with a strong sense of morality and providing deep lessons, this novel is not for you. Good and bad are not black and white in this novel, and there is an undercurrent of flippancy about the subject that might appeal to fans of Dexter more than to those who love conventional thrillers or mysteries. But if you want to discover a fresh new voice, love black humour, and are looking for an unusual setting, give it a go. I challenge you to check a sample and see…

I really enjoyed reading this book, I loved the dark humour and the focus on Nigerian life. I really liked the characters and I enjoyed the style in which it was written. It's a short book so it was fun to whizz through it. I did feel a little dissatisfied by the ending which I felt was a little abrupt and gave no closure to the story. But it was definitely an enjoyable read.