Spoiler Free Review of My Sister the Serial Killer

I am participating in Popsugar's 2019 Reading Challenge and I recommend trying it out if you haven't already. I did the challenge last year and I liked it because I ended up reading books that maybe I wouldn't have ordinarily read. This is how I came across My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.

One of the prompts this year involves reading a book that was written by an author from Asia, Africa, or South America. I belong to the Goodreads group associated with the Popsugar Challenge, so I looked there for suggestions. Someone suggested My Sister the Serial Killer. I wasn't so sure about reading it at first because I wasn't in the mood for something that was too scary. As much as I loved watching Dexter, I didn't feel like I was up to reading something like that but I was pleasantly surprised with this book. It was like nothing I have ever read before and I have read a lot of books.

This book is set in Nigeria and is about two sisters, one is a nurse and one is a serial killer. The book opens with the narrator's (Korede) sister Ayoola calling her to ask her to help her move the body of her boyfriend that she just killed. Other than the clean up of the body and dumping it, this is just about as scary as My Sister the Serial Killer gets. Occasionally, Korede does think about the body and the state it must currently be in, other than that, the book mainly follows the sister and their relationship to each other and the people in their lives.

Korede is employed at a hospital and is secretly in love with a doctor she works with there. He seems like the perfect man, until he takes interested in Ayoola, who drops by for a visit one day. This is hard for Korede for many reasons, the main two being that she wants the doctor for herself and she also does not want her sister to kill him. What a dilemma! This all happens within a few chapters of the book and it just gets better from there.

There was a lot I liked about this book, but for the sake of this review I will narrow it down to three things. If you read the book, let me know down below what you liked about this book and what you maybe didn't like.

I like that Nigeria was a character in the book. The country was not a main focus but it was mentioned at times how the police are there and how women are treated in the home. It was unique for me because I have never read a book set in Nigeria, and I got a feel for how modern Nigerians live.

This book is so relatable to anyone who has a sister. Sibling rivalry is real and Braithwaite does an excellent job detailing how it feels to love and hate your sister at the same time. Even if your sister is not a serial killer, or a regular kind of killer, it is easy to relate to the sisters. Korede can just look at her sister and know when she is lying, even when everyone else in the room is falling for her charms. Even though this infuriates her, she would still do anything that Ayoola asks her to do. Who can relate to this?

What is it about unrequited love that grabs my interest? Is it because we have all probably been there at some point in our lives? Korede loves Tade, the doctor she works with. He seems to respect her but I don't think he knows how she feels. It makes matters worse and makes this book much more interesting when he falls for her beautiful sister Ayoola. This brings things to the next level because she knows the truth about her seemingly perfect sister. The only way to warn Tade would be to reveal their darkest secret.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves reading popular fiction and finding new young authors at the beginning of their careers. I can't wait to see what else Braithwaite writes in the future.