Rating: 4/5
Review:
A very good first novel
I thought My Sister The Serial Killer was very good. It is original,
involving, dark and very well written.
The book opens in
present-day Lagos as Korede receives a phone call from her younger
sister Ayoola: “Korede, I killed him,” and Korede goes to help.
Not, it turns out, for the first time. Set in Lagos and narrated in
the first person by Korede, we learn of Ayoola’s exceptional
beauty, the sisters’ background and how Korede has always looked
after and protected Ayoola. Tension is well built as Korede’s
guilt and suppression of secrets cause her inner turmoil, added to by
Ayoola’s supreme indifference to the consequences of any of her
actions.
It’s a gripping
story which has at its heart a brilliant portrait of someone whose
sense of her own perfection and entitlement means that she does
largely what she wants, oblivious to the damage to anyone else, and
simply makes up a different story if the truth doesn’t suit her.
(An allegory for our times, perhaps?) There is also a tense plot,
shafts of wit and a good background of Nigerian society. I was
impressed – not least because the book is reasonably short and all
the more impactful for it. A very good first novel, which I can
recommend.
(My thanks to
Atlantic Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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