Review: My Sister, the Serial Killer

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really admire the author's grasp of psychology in this fascinating novel. As a psychology major in time past and a long-time autodidact of this subject, I was quickly riveted. Set in an unfamiliar locale (Lagos, Nigeria) with intermittent dialogue in the local vernacular, yet the characters shine with such clarity I would recognize them if we passed on the street, or if they lived next door.


Ayoola is pure egotistical, solipsistic Narcissist. She is literally the queen and only focus of her universe. Child of an unspeakably sadistic sociopathic father and a mother for whom Denial is not just a river in Egypt, Ayoola is the younger sister of a clever and diligent enabler, Korede. Ayoola acts and reacts, unthinking; Korede disposes. The guilt should be Ayoola's; but like the young killer in Poe's "The Telltale Heart," it is Korede who suffers, whose nightmares and waking hours are populated by Ayoola's possibly innocent victims. Ayoola dances through life like a marvelous untouchable butterfly; all who see her are drawn like moths to her fatal flame.

View all my reviews