My Sister, the Serial Killer is a novel by Oyinkan Braithwaite.
Finished on: 1.11.2020

Plot:
Korede and Ayoola are sisters, though they are very different. Korede is rather calm and conscientous, working as a nurse and has been pining after one of the doctors at the hospital – Tade. Ayoola, on the other hand, is lively, super-pretty and seems to do not much more than dating one guy after the other. The thing is, three of her boyfriends already ended up dead – stabbed by Ayoola. Supposedly in self-defense, but Korede – whom Ayoola always called to help with the clean-up – isn’t too sure about that self-defense part. Maybe Ayoola is just a psychopath. When Ayoola comes to the hospital and meets Tade, Korede has to work out her options, urgently.

My Sister, the Serial Killer was an entertaining and very quick read that I really enjoyed. It does have a couple of issues, but they are easy to forgive, especially since it’s a debut novel.

[Slight SPOILERS]

Usually when people say that familiy comes first, they do draw the line at things like murder. And My Sister, the Serial Killer is all about how Korede has to figure out where she draws the line – or if there is no line at all between sisters. Ayoola doesn’t make this decision easy for her, but it is a decision that is almost independent of Ayoola’s behavior anyway. Watching Korede figure things out for herself is probably the strongest part of the novel, her relationship with Ayoola is just so vivid. And I, for one, really liked her decision in the end.

The book is a quick read – at times almost too quick. I think here and there it would have profited from taking a little more time and taking a breath. But being too short is probably the lesser problem than being too long, and it never got so fast that it became incomprehensible or hard to follow.

What I took a bit more of an issue with was the comatose guy that Korede confides in. I thought how things develop there was both cheesy and contrived and I would have liked it if Braithwaite would have found another solution for the function he has in the story.

But if that is my only real complaint – and it is – there really isn’t much wrong with the novel. I definitely liked it and had fun with it.

Summarizing: Good.