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 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.

This book. A quick read but one that will have you hooked and devouring it. Oyinkan has an incredible talent for writing that pulls you in. I loved it. One of my favourite books I've read this year.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atlantic Books for this arc in exchange for an honest review. I loved the premise of this eccentric genre-blending and subversive book. I devoured this fast-paced and quirky story.
This is narrated from the POV of Korede, who gets a frenzied phone call from her younger sister, Ayoola, one night. Ayoola has stabbed her boyfriend in self-defence. Calm and collected Korede goes over to help her sister: she wraps the body up and they drive to a bridge and toss it into the river, then they return to the boyfriend’s flat and clean it up. This isn’t the first boyfriend Ayoola has stabbed...
Korede works in a hospital in Lagos, has a crush on her colleague, Tade, and lives with her mother and Ayoola who is doted on. Korede’s life, however, is thrown off balance when Ayoola pursues a relationship with Tade, and she finds herself consumed with envy and torn: protect Ayoola or protect Tade?
This was a quick easy read, with an original premise. I loved the sister relationship, especially the flashbacks to their childhood. Amidst a heavily saturated genre I found the voice of Korede gripping and the setting of Lagos, especially refreshing and to me this book really stood out. It’s a pacy and addictive psychological suspense to be consumed in one sitting. 4.5/5

Korede and her sister Ayoola live in Lagos together with their mother since their father dies. Korede, who works at a hospital as a nurse, is a decent, but rather plain young woman whereas Ayoola always has all the looks on her. Even though the sisters couldn’t hardly be more different, they are sister after all so when Ayoola calls her, it is without any question that Korede shows up with some bleach to wipe away the mess of another murder. They have done it before and will also succeed this time. Why does she have to kill all her boyfriends? Korede wonders but since none of the was really important to her, she remains secret and the sister she is supposed to be. But when Ayoola starts dating to one man Korede really likes, things become a bit more complicated.

Oyinkan Braithwaite’s debut novel is a hilarious read full of absurd situations and fantastic characters. The author, who graduated in Creative Writing and was a 2016 finalist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, surely knows how to create outstanding characters and how to combine humour with an actually very serious topic. What I appreciated most is how she, on the surface, wrote a funny story that, beneath, offers so much crucial and grave issues. What it all comes down to after all is the well-known fact that blood is thicker than water and that without any question, you know which side you have to be on.

Ayoola is a serial killer – absurd as it may sound, the title is absolutely clear about it and after the opening scene, you know all about her killings. Yet, this is one of the least interesting aspects, much more remarkable is the sisters’ relationship: jealousy, love, anger, hatred, support – the full spectrum of emotions. Of course, it is Korede that the reader commiserates, she is obviously the good girls that nobody notices, neither their parents nor the men. I wondered if Ayoola suffered from some kind of mental illness, she somehow does not really seem to realise what she does, but she definitely is rather egocentric and not very considerate when it comes to other people’s feelings.

“My sister, the Serial Killer” is a black comedy that should not be taken too seriously I guess. It is a great read that I utterly enjoyed. I am absolutely looking forward to reading more from the author.

One of the best books of the year. A darkly comic exploration of family ties and loyalty. I cannot recommend this highly enough

Great read.Ayoola is a beautiful serial killer and the story is told from her long-suffering sister's point of view.Surprisingly light given the subject matter!

'My Sister the Serial Killer' has a plot as sharp as the knife which Ayoola (the titular serial killer) carries around with her, I devoured this in one dark and delicious gulp. It's so rare to read a book where a serial killer is both a) a woman and b) isn't set in Europe or the USA and this one deserves all the plaudits which have been showered on it.

The relationship between the two sisters feels incredibly real - a mix of rage, jealousy and protectiveness - and Ayoola herself is fantastic. Both stunningly beautiful and stunningly wicked, the story captures just how manipulative she can be to those around her. And her sister (and the book's narrator) Korede isn't taken in by any of it.

The perfect thing to read if you've got a spare few hours and fancy something wickedly readable (as well as just plain wicked.)