How far should someone go to back up a family member? That's the premise behind the story of two sisters who are a study in contrasts. Korede is a nurse who is orderly and clean to the point of OCD. Her carefree, far more beautiful sister, Ayoola, has a problem with men. She keeps killing them.
My Sister, the Serial Killer is a satiric, entertaining and affecting look at family ties. In less than 250 pages, Oyinkan Braithwaite shows us the lives of the sisters, going back to childhood, and how things will proceed going forward at the close of the novel.
It begins with Ayoola calling Korede. She's killed another suitor and needs her sister to clean up the crime scene and help remove the body. Good thing she has Korede, because she is methodical and thorough. But this makes three. Which officially makes Ayoola a serial killer.
And this man seemed different to Korede, even though Ayoola has the same story about him attacking her and she acted to defend herself. This one, Korede tells the reader, seemed nice. His poetry remains online. It is sweet. Why would a sweet poet attack her sister?
In the meantime, Korede has her actual job to do. There are co-workers more interested in each other than the patients. But even all-business Korede is smitten by Tade, one of the doctors at her hospital. He, too, is a kind man who even sings to the children to calm them down when it's time for their vaccinations.
Good thing Korede can talk to a comatose patient about all this.
When it looks like Ayoola may get caught for one of her crimes, Braithwaite uses the situation to comment on sections of Nigerian society and family life in Lagos. We see the mundane and the sublime. Braithwaite also shows skill in creating Hitchcock-worthy suspense. Is Ayoola going to get caught? Will Korede be accused instead? And if that happens, would she take the fall for her sister? It's certainly what their mother would expect. The three of them have relied on each other since the days the sisters, as children, realized just how cruel the girls' father was.
What is great about this novel is that it is easy to see why everyone loves Ayoola, including her sister. If Korede ever told the truth about her sister, would she even be believed? When things play themselves out, what happens fits the characters and shows how things go on. And it not only makes sense, it shows that family loyalty is both complex and simple. It shows that you can't sit on the fence forever. And it shows whether telling the truth or choosing sides is more important.
I'll see you in the new year with more reading to share. One of my great hopes for all of us is that the world begins to right itself so that we can once talk widely and deeply about literature. Along with music and other forms of art, it is one of the ways in which we can assure ourselves that what we think and feel matters, and can make a positive impact.