#there's like. one plot beat that doesn't work. my friend korede would be more competent than that

[lilliankillthisman]

I didn't post about it because I read the whole thing on kindle over two slow train journeys with limited internet, but I read My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite at the weekend. I'd bought it... last spring, or maybe summer 2022, but didn't get very far in; very glad I eventually went back to it.

It follows Korede, a competent, unattractive young woman with a strong sense of responsibility and a job as a senior nurse at a hospital, and her younger sister Ayoola, who has no morals and no life skills except being ridiculously attractive and charismatic, and has killed one of her boyfriends for the third time when the novel starts. Korede has always covered for her, keeps covering for her, and has to grapple with what it means to keep covering for her as the book goes on and it becomes obvious that Ayoola is going to keep killing.

Or that's what she's grappling with on paper. The moral element gets... noticeably less focus than how frustrating it is to be the responsible older sister when your awful but very cute little sister is never criticised, never faces consequences, and doesn't appreciate that you're the one protecting her from those consequences. There's jealousy, there's feelings of inadequacy, there's some very well-executed childhood backstory. There are just enough signs that Ayoola loves her sister in her own way that she doesn't come off as a caricature of a twisted cycle path*.

It's a great exploration of love and it doesn't pull any punches; I can think of half a dozen ways this book could have turned out less than it is and Braithwaite avoids all of them. She captures a unique and very interesting tone, enough that I'm surprised the British Book Awards named it Crime and Thriller Novel of the Year 2020 instead of handing the award to some unthreatening twee garbage from Richard Osman.

The book isn't primarily a comedy, but Braithwaite does lean into humour and she does so very well; there's nothing that reads as a joke but doesn't land. She also absolutely nails an ambiguous ending. Like, better than anything I've read in a long while.

*Ayoola is absolutely a caricature of a sociopathic killer but she manages to come off as remarkably deep and not particularly evil, which given what she's actually up to is an achievement.