The Love of a Sister Transcends Legality

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Pages: 226 Genre: thriller

Rating: 3 Star

Kindle Highlights

Korede isn't expecting to spend her night helping her sister, Ayoola, get rid of a body ... another body. But when she gets a distress call at the beginning of dinner, that's what she does. Korede is used to this, and while she knows she should probably report them to the Nigerian police, her loyalty to her sister comes first. But things get complicated when Ayoola sets her sights on a man that Korede works with. He's a doctor at the same hospital where Korede is a nurse, and she's in love with him (not that she's told him yet). But saving one of them means betraying the other.

I enjoyed this book, but I'm worried it was overhyped and that hindered my enjoyment. I liked it for what it was, but by the end it felt hollow. It was fine, and it had a lot of potential, but it was too surface-level for what it was trying to do.

A lot of the time in the already very short book was spent on social commentary, which I love. I enjoyed all of this. Particularly the conflicting experiences of Korede and Ayoola in regards to racism (specifically colorism) and misogyny. I liked unpacking the duality of Korede's jealously toward her sister that often causes her to unfairly mischaracterize Ayoola's behavior and the very correct awareness that people treat them differently which, in turn, makes Ayoola treat Korede differently than she might otherwise. This was a fascinating idea, and I thought it was really well-used in this novel.

However, this never actually built into anything. While it was the main discussion, it was just sort of dropped in the end. It makes it feel as Korede lacked any actual development, since she just ends the book doing all the same things as she was in the beginning despite spending 200 pages contemplating her relationship with Ayoola.

Overall, the book would've been improved had the social commentary been more interwoven in the plot. Ayoola's motives and intentions are really vague for the entire book, despite the title presenting it as if the book is about her serial killer-ness. If this had been intentional and artfully executed, I wouldn't really mind (vagueness in books is not always bad, especially thrillers), but as it was, it just felt like a neglected part of the story.

Honestly, had the book been a little bit longer, I think it would've been a lot better. The story was too much for the length.

And it's a shame, because I did like it. The writing, the style choices, and the overall plot were all engaging and fun to read. But when I finished, all I could think was, "That's it?" For a thriller especially, it needed to pack more of a punch.