Synopsis:

Satire meets slasher in this short, darkly funny hand grenade of a novel about a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends.

“Femi makes three, you know. Three and they label you a serial killer.”


Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead. Korede’s practicality is the sisters’ saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her “missing” boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.
A kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where Korede works, is the bright spot in her life. She dreams of the day when he will realize they’re perfect for each other. But one day Ayoola shows up to the hospital uninvited and he takes notice. When he asks Korede for Ayoola’s phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and what she will do about it.
Sharp as nails and full of deadpan wit, Oyinkan Braithwaite has written a deliciously deadly debut that’s as fun as it is frightening.

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This was a short and sweet book, but I can safely say that if this book sets the tone for my 2019 reads, I’m going to be one happy little bookdragon.

The story is written from the perspective of Korede, a very practical woman who has spent her life in the shadow of her beautiful younger sister, cleaning up the crime scenes she leaves behind when she consistently murders her boyfriends.
Korede resents Ayoola’s behaviour and the fact she gets away with (literal) murder because she’s physically attractive, but the family ties that bind them are strong so she feels she has to protect her and stand by while she goes about her sociopathic existence.
I really like Korede as a character, she isn’t a flawless martyr in this story at all which makes things much more interesting. All of the characters in this book have incredible depth and make this an absolute belter of a read.

As the story progresses, we find out more about the reasons behind why the sisters behave the way they do and the more I think about it, the more impressed I am with how the author managed to fit so many ingenious layers to this story in only 226 pages. It really is the gift that keeps on giving and has made it to my ‘read again’ list!

This book is more about the psychology and relationship of the two sisters than the murders themselves, so I think it’s a brilliant read for fans of serial killer novels who aren’t fans of gore.