My Sister the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite

 

 

This was an incredibly frustrating book. I wanted to love it but it was just too unsatisfactory.

It is set in Lagos, Korede is a nurse and her sister is .... well... a serial killer. Korede helps her clean up after the killings and cover up what she's done. I mean the premise sounds great, right? Or at least like it might make for some amusing shenanigans. But no. It just somehow fails to raise more than a vague (very) occasional smirk.

Ayoola, the sister, is just the most unsympathetic and unlikeable character. Yes, yes... she's a serial killer, they're not known for their jovial friendly personalities. But there's nothing there. She's just vapid and self-centred, no idea of or care about the effect of her behaviour on anyone else around her. I suppose it's a representation of a narcissitic personality disorder which is fine but you're left completely bemused by the motivation of Korede in protecting her.

A background is referred to. There's something with the father, who has died before the book starts. But it's never explained, just vaguely hinted at. You feel there's something there in the past to make you feel some sympathy with the characters but the story is never fully told. Now, I know not everything needs to be explained, books don't need to hand everything to you on a word plate. But it'd be nice to have SOME things concluded or finished. If I wanted to imagine everything for myself I'd write my own bloody book!

According to Wikipedia, "The novel won the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Mystery/Thriller,^[3] the 2019 Amazon Publishing Reader’s Award for Best Debut Novel,^[4] the 2019 Anthony Award for Best First Novel,^[5] and the 2020 British Book Award for Crime & Thriller Book of the Year.^[6] The novel was longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize and was the second-highest best-selling title on the list as of July 2019, with 13,052 units sold according to Nielsen BookScan.^[7]". 

But I was just left feeling a bit empty and like something was missing. Like the next 100 concluding pages maybe.