My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

RATING: ★★★★★

Hello everyone,

if you are still on this blog, you need some kind of award for sticking with me while not updating. It’s been over a year and it’s truly been the most crazy year of my life.

However, I missed book blogging and I’ve had some great ideas for new things to do with this blog. All will be revealed in due time, but I decided that there is no better way to get back into than by reading some of the books on the Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist. Throughout my two years of barely posting, I’ve kept reading and now I want to share my thoughts with you again!

Today, the winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019 will be revealed, so it seemed like the perfect time to discuss my favourite of the shortlisted novels with you! So lets delve right in with My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.

My Sister, the Serial Killer is the story of Korede and Ayoola. They are sisters (as revealed in the title) and the novel starts with Ayoola calling Korede to help her get rid of her dead boyfriend’s body. This is the third time Ayoola has called a boyfriend and that Korede has been summoned to help. When Ayoola starts dating the guy that Korede has a crush on, Korede gets confused about where her allegiance lays and struggles with trying to prevent her sister from killing her crush.

When I heard about this novel from the Women’s Prize longlist, I immediately bought it and finished it all within the same day. Literary awards are great opportunities for people to get to know new books and I loved that this was a book that I had never heard of, yet that seemed so perfect for me.

Korede is our narrator and I connected to her right away. She’s incredibly loyal to her sister, but also wants to protect the man she loves. Her voice is unique and I could truly connect with her, even though she is far from perfect. Ayoola has a great arc, from a character that you can’t really understand - because Korede doesn’t understand her - to someone you can also connect with, but again she keeps her flaws. I enjoyed how this isn’t a redemption story, but just an investigation into two sisters with very different personalities that somehow have to connect due to their biological situation.

I saw on Goodreads that many people complained about the sparse writing style of Braithwaite, so I feel like it’s worth the mention. The chapters are short in this book and you can easily read it in one day. This book is not a book for someone who wants to read pages of description. The story takes place in Nigeria and though that is important for the cultural context of the characters, we don’t see much of Nigeria. I didn’t mind this, because I believe this is a character novel - one that focuses on how family members interact with each other.

Personally, I enjoyed that the book left a lot of things open. You don’t need to tell me every single detail of every room or even every single emotion a character feels. Due to the amazing writing, I felt connected to Korede and I could fill in some of the blanks myself - I actually really enjoyed doing that.

For me, this is the kind of book that should win the Women’s Prize for Fiction. It is innovative in its writing style and explores a pretty uncommon subject in an unique way. I don’t know how these awards are chosen, but I think that My Sister, the Serial Killer has a pretty good chance of winning.

Some of my 2018 reading!

Well hello to 2018!

Like a month late. As usual, life has taken all my time away from blogging, but I've read such amazing books lately that I had to fill you all in on at least these two!

Small Great Things - Jodi Picoult

My first book of the year was Jodi Picoult's Small Great Things, which was released last year and has been getting rave reviews since. I love Picoult's writing and always enjoy how she plays with different perspectives on social issues.

Small Great Things starts with Ruth, an African-American labor and delivery nurse. One day she goes to attend to a new-born baby. One of the parents of the baby is Turk and he is a white supremacist who does not want Ruth to touch his baby. Ruth is removed from the care of the child, but she is forced to keep an eye on him when all the other nurses are called away during an emergency. During this time with Ruth, the baby suddenly dies and Turk blames Ruth and sues her. Even though Ruth is innocent, it seems like everyone, including all her friends, are against her suddenly.

The topic of this novel is extremely timely, considering the political climate America is currently in. I have had no desire previously to learn the perspective of a white supremacist, but Picoult makes the whole story engaging enough that I was even interested in Turk. The great thing is that she never tries to make Turk "nice" or "understandable" - he is clearly in the wrong throughout the novel, but she allows his story to stand on its own and to let the reader into the head of someone we all try to avoid.

Small Great Things isn't always an easy read, but it's an important one. If you want to start this year with thinking about our society, and how we respond to certain situations, this book is a great start. As a white woman, this novel showed me how we can be racist, even if we are so convinced we are not, and how to be better allies in the fight for equality.

Daphne - Justine Picardie

Okay, confession time: I've been in a Daphne du Maurier stanning mood. Ever since I've read Rebecca, I've loved her writing, but lately I just can't stop. I'm reading Mary Anne right now and read My Cousin Rachel last year (spoiler alert: it was fantastic). Justine Picardie wrote a novel about Daphne's research into Branwell Bronte, the brother of the famous Bronte sisters. When I read the summary of this novel, I knew I'd get my fix of Daphne and the Brother siblings.

Similar to Small Great Things, this novel has different narratives as well. There is Daphne du Maurier's narrative as she is trying to write a Branwell biography, while dealing with the infidelity and mental breakdown of her husband. She writes to Bronte scholar J.A. Symington and we follow his story of how he is struggling with old age and how he lost all the respect of his fellow Bronte researchers. And then there is a current story of a young PHD student living in Hampstead, near Daphne's childhood home, who is trying to write a thesis about the Bronte sisters. Her story does not only interact with the same research as Daphne was doing, but she is markedly never named and is married to an older man who still has traces of his ex-wife all over the house.

This modern story immediately makes a reader think of Rebecca and Wuthering Heights. Picardie is amazing at throwing in literary references that make readers think of all the other books they've read. My TBR has grown considerably while reading this novel, but I have to say that the plot of the book is a spoiler for Rebecca, so I suggest not reading this until you have read Rebecca, or have seen the movie.

Though the plot is often difficult, Picardie guides the reader through it with ease. It was so easy to read and I could really lose myself in all the different narratives. Obviously, since I've been on a Daphne du Maurier binge, I preferred her story the best, but the other narratives only enhance her story.

If you want to get motivated about your studies or learn more about Daphne and Branwell Bronte, I'd highly suggest this book. On my reading list for this month is The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte, written by Daphne du Maurier. Now that I've seen the process behind this novel, there is no way I can't pick it up.

Have you read any of these? Did you like them? Let me know in the comments!

Hopefully soon there will be a post about the amazing YA i've read so far in 2018!