Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer is a thrilling read.
I don’t think I’ve ever read a book by a Nigerian author that centres on murder, and especially, on how to get away with it. And one with a serial killer theme too!
I found this book to be similar to the movie, Blood Sisters (2022).
Blood Sisters is a Nollywood movie about a lady in a physically and emotionally abusive relationship, who is about to get married to a wealthier, but particularly wicked family. The movie centers on this lady called Sarah and her best friend, Kemi.
Before the wedding, Sarah is being beaten by her fiancé when Kemi walks in and tries to stop him. Kemi fires a gun at Sarah’s fiancé, killing him instantly. Because they were afraid of the consequences of harming someone from such a powerful family, even in self-defense, they go on the run. You should definitely give that a watch. It was well acclaimed when it came out earlier this year.
But in the book My Sister, the Serial Killer, the two girls are actual sisters, they are the rich ones here and the murder victims are the innocent ones.
This story touches on scenarios conversant with a Nigerian society like love and lust, family disputes and greed; everyone wanting a share of the National cake. The elements touched in this piece are neglect, and the story also highlights the societal sexual stereotypes in Nigeria, and the complex privileges it affords to women. And finally but sadly blind love :(.
Oyinkan Braithwaite tells us that the serial killer is Ayoola, while Korede is her elder sister cum side- kick who helps Ayoola her cover up tracks and keep her sane (a bit).
Watch this interview by the Author here where she discusses the book.
The sisters are so different in their looks and character. The story particularly highlights that Ayoola is far more beautiful than her sister, so much that one would not believe they were related.
This reminds me of something I read on twitter that says ”No Two Kids Can Have the Same Parents” this is funny, but it is true. It means that although they are related biologically, they are brought up under different micro-environments because they are born in different eras of the parents’ marriage life, and their position – elder sister, younger sister - affects what their overall experience growing up will be like.
Growing up, they had a strict, authoritarian dad which affected their relationship with each other, as well as with their mum.
Because Korede mostly tries to shield her sister from the worst of her parents’ marriage, Ayoola becomes the free-spirited, attractive and care- free younger sister, who gets anything and anyone she wants. While Korede is calmer, mature and less likely to do something on impulse. As grown-ups, Korede often has to work hard to keep her sister out of trouble, especially with all of the serial killing she does ;)
The First Death And Its Aftermath.
So let’s jump right into the book’s plot.
One evening, Ayoola kills her boyfriend, Femi.
Korede becomes an accomplice in this crime because instead of seeking justice for Femi, she decides to protect Ayoola, and cleans the room where Femi’s murder took place.
Femi, a talented poet and helpless romantic is one of the unlucky guys wooed by Ayoola’s charm. She stabs him with a knife, leaving all of the blood pooling in the room.
But Korede swoops in to save her, and after cleaning up the evidence, they dump his body into the waters beneath Third Mainland bridge. Ayoola claimed that she didn’t mean to stab him; they had a fight and she reached for her knife to stab him in his heart to protect herself.
Because Femi is from a wealthy home, news that he is missing started flying around and Ayoola announces herself as the last person to have seen/dated him.
Ayoola is in deep water because of this, but she doesn’t seem to care, this is probably because this isn’t her first murder, and despite her comments, there is no way to pin any evidence on her.
Korede once said in the book
‘Femi makes three, you know. Three, and they label you a serial killer.’
It’s funny how their mum does not notice anything is up with her girls. If she had ever found out she’d definitely not believe the story.
Of course, unlike Ayoola, Korede feels guilty everyday about what took place.
One day, she was stopped by police officers while driving,
‘On a normal day, I would fight him, but I cannot draw attention to myself right now, not while I’m driving the car that transported Femi to his final resting place. My mind wanders to the ammonia blemish in the boot.’
She eventually bribed her way out of that encounter.
Korede thinks about the knife Ayoola uses to stab her victims. It is her dad’s.
Ayoola took it from him right before ‘his body was cold in the ground.’
Her dad literally worshipped his knife and always showed his guests his most prized possession.
At a point in time
‘Ayoola entered his study and found his desk drawer unlocked. She took the knife out to look, smearing it with chocolate she had just been eating. She was still in the room when he returned. He dragged her out by her hair, screaming. I (Korede) turned up just in time to witness him fling her across the hallway.’
This should tell us a bit about the dad.
Let Sleeping Patients Lie
Korede is a nurse.
In the hospital she works in, she is the only nurse willing to care for Mr. Muhtar Yautai who had been in a comatose state for five months following a car accident.
Room 313 is literally Korede’s solace because he is the only person she is able to communicate her feelings to without judgment (or fear of the repercussions of the law!).
Well because he is in a coma, Mr. Muhtar’s family only seems to care about his finances and how it passes through their hands. So Korede feels comfortable sharing her deepest secrets with him, including the ones related to Ayoola’s actions.
(Spoiler alert)
Here’s an uncomfortable plot twist I’d like to share with you; Korede’s ‘best friend’ Muhtar woke up from his coma. He however had remembered bits of what she had been telling him all the while,
‘So you remember a lot then?’ Korede asks him.
‘No. Not a lot. I know you like popcorn with syrup. You said I should try it sometime.’
He also tells her that he remembers her telling him that her sister was a serial killer. He is now a confidant of the secret that Korede holds.
Deeper Waters
Here is where the plot gets even more interesting.
Doctor Tade gets in a bad mess.
From what the books tells us, Tade is a doctor that works in the same hospital Korede works, which is St. Peters hospital.
Korede has a huge crush on Tade; she admires his charming smile, great voice and lovely personality. Now the reason why Tade is in a mess is because he somewhat fell in love with Ayoola, the charming serial killer.
Ayoola had decided one day to visit Korede at her hospital, and that was where she met Tade.
Korede is distraught seeing her sister together with Tade…
‘I just want you to stop talking to him, okay?’
Tade even wanted to propose to Ayoola soon after they started dating, although that plan didn’t surface. He was a hopeless romantic too like Ayoola’s previous boyfriends, oblivious to the red flags Korede had been hinting at to him.
Tade becomes Ayoola’s last victim in this book.
But lucky for him, it was only an attempted murder; Ayoola wasn’t able to stab her intended victim this time.
But afterwards, she twists the story in her favour; Ayoola claimed that as he proposed to her, she refused and he lost it so he tried to stab her. Tade got his practicing license is revoked and had to be in jail for some time.
Tade joins the list of people killed/ruined by Ayoola. She had earlier been involved with a married cheat named Gboyega. They had been seeing each other for a while. Gboyega took Ayoola on a trip to Dubai which would later become his doom as Ayoola claimed that his death was due to food poisoning. Wink wink.
My thoughts about the book
On the part of love there is Tade, Femi and even Korede and her sister and on the side of lust there is Gboyega and the chief who asked the girls’ father for Ayoola in exchange for a contract.
There’s the family disputes in Muhtar’s family, siblinghood, son and wife not getting along with the father. They were all being greedy and caring for their personal interests more.
There’s Korede’s father being more of a father and less of a dad. I would not say he neglected them, but he cared more about himself than his wife or kids. He was also someone who saw no wrong in whatever he did even if it went against normal moral principles like the scene where he brought a woman home, or when he had that agreement with the chief to hand over his own daughter in exchange for a contract.
Societal sexual stereotypes, beauty standards and privileges were in favor of Ayoola wherever she was found wanting. It would be unthinkable that a woman, a Nigerian woman, would be a serial killer. It just wasn’t likely then and now, so the law and society often ignored her as an actual suspect. Whether she was being questioned, accosted or suspected, that stereotype plus her great charm helps her work her way out.
Lastly there’s the blind love which has caused the ruin of these men. It is evident in our society, that there is no archetype for who could be a victim in a romantic relationship, everybody and anybody could be a victim.
I hope you get to read this amazing book and tell me about it.
The end!