My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

My Sister, the Serial Killer

by Oyinkan Braithwaite

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 book... Sharp, explosive, hilarious'

New York Times

'Glittering and funny... A stiletto slipped between the ribs and through the left ventricle of the heart' Financial Times
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When Korede's dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what's expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. This'll be the third boyfriend Ayoola's dispatched in, quote, self-defence and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Korede's long been in love with him, and isn't prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other...

Reviewed by readingwithwrin on

3 of 5 stars

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The main character Korede is a nurse who is on the way to becoming the head nurse in her hospital because she already handles everything and makes sure it all gets done. Along with her other job duties, she goes and talks to a coma patient because his family has stopped visiting him.
While she talks to him though she tells him about her life, and what her sister has been getting up to and how she doesn't know what to do about it. Talking to this patient is her way of venting because she has no one else to talk to about it because everyone thinks her sister Ayoola is the best and that she is just jealous of her. While in reality she is the one trying to keep Ayoola out of trouble and has from the time they were little kids.
Due to the choices Ayoola keeps making and dragging Korede into they now have to both live with certain things that have happened and that have the potential to end their family. Korede is not okay with these things, but also doesn't want her sister to get into trouble, or for anyone else to get hurt. She doesn't know what to do and as time goes on that becomes a problem.

Overall I did enjoy this book. Korede is a character that we see truly caught between family and what is right. It's a position that none of us truly know what we do in that situation until we're in it ourselves. Throughout the entire book, I felt bad for Korede because of how she was constantly being treated, and because of the hard choice, she was having to make. I liked her as a character and I wish the book was longer so we could have gotten to see more of her and what she did after certain things happened. I wish the best for her and I hope she gets to have her own life.
Like others who have read this book, I would like to see this turned into a movie of short mini-series because of how short the book was, and how it made you want more from it.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 27 June, 2020: Finished reading
  • 27 June, 2020: Reviewed