Lets This Be Your First Dark Humor Book
Oyinkan Braithwaite's short debut novel is worth the hype
As I smashed the pillow into my sister’s face, I yelled at her, “I will hand you over to the police.” Of course, no one gives away their sister for borrowing their clothes and not returning it, but I couldn’t help but think to myself: Under different circumstances, would I ever turn in my sister to the police? Even if she carried out an unforgivable crime?
This thought arose out of the latest book I’d finished reading not long ago: Oyinkan Braithwaite’s “My Sister, the Serial Killer”. The book is Korede, the Nigerian nurse’s account of her sister Ayoola’s dissolute ways with life. Of course, one of her atrocities is killing people.
On the surface, I picked the book as a delightful Sunday read for three things:
- The prospect of a murder mystery
- The short length of the novel-240 pages
- The dark humor so many Goodreads reviews raved about
But as I dived in headlong into the award-winning debut novel, it took me by surprise. A lot of my misconceptions were answered in the first few chapters, the biggest one of which is that this book is not a serial killer’s chase. However, as I read through, I discovered the qualities that put the book in line for a Booker prize.
In this article, I expound on the elements that make this novel an unmissable read and one of the best dark humor books I’ve read in my life.
Beauty V/S Intellect
Rumor has it that she was asked out on her first day…She said no. But I received the message loud and clear.
A better-looking sibling is a mirror to your flaws. Korede’s shortcomings don’t trouble her as much standalone as they do when people compare her to Ayoola. Nurses at the hospital where Korede works refuse to believe they’re sisters. It is not just the skin color that accentuates Ayoola’s beauty. It is also the way in which she’s curved in places. Places in which the author describes Korede “all hard edges”.
Right from the school when boys tease Korede and senior boys acknowledge Ayoola, she learns that life is not all fair.
Korede can cook better, is a skilled nurse, and cleans up Ayoola’s bloody mess in a commendable way. Yet, it is Ayoola who the men choose to love unto death (quite literally). Korede also realizes that only Ayoola can blind men of all kinds into falling for her. That her beauty fails them from sensing what her soft, feminine nature is capable of. The smart Dr. Tade Korede is sure will see beneath the thin veneer of beauty that clouds the mind slips for Ayoola too.
Beauty favors the prettier sister even in her profession. Ayoola’s uses her feminine charm to sell the clothes she designs. For Korede, it is a marketing ploy. When people look at pretty people with great bodies, they are fooled into believing that they can mirror their beauty with the right combination of clothes and accessories.
Even their mother is inclined more towards favoring Ayoola.
Clearly, whoever said beauty runs skin deep wasn’t talking about the right kind of skin. The author leaves no stone unturned in the book to demonstrate, through examples, the disparity of the world we live in. The harsh reality that the world always favors fascist beauty above all.
The Changing Face of Patriarchal Abuse
The word “abuse” hasn’t been mentioned once throughout the book. However, it is apparent that the sisters are the way they are because of the patriarchal abuse they suffered at the hands of their father as children. For this feat itself, the author deserves applause.
Chapters marked “Father” unfold before your eyes the brutal scenes of physical, verbal, and emotional abuse the father inflicts on the family. The mother is barely capable of defending herself, let alone stand up for her daughters. This scenario is not uncommon patriarchal cultures where women are expected to obey their husbands at all costs. Also, they are discouraged from voicing their opinions against the wrong.
Much like their aunty Taiwo who stands by as the father beats the girls, women in many places in the world still choose to be mute spectators while their own kind suffers.
However, the younger generation takes a stand. Even as a child, Korede identifies the face of abuse and shields her sister from it. It is perhaps this survival instinct in the girls that shape them into eccentric personalities as adults. It explains why the pretty, ivory-skinned Ayoola keeps trapping gullible men into the entices of her love. Whilst at it, she also kept a knife close. To quote Korede,
You never knew with men, they wanted what they wanted when they wanted it.
It also explains why Korede keeps washing the blood off Ayoola’s hands, and in doing do, taints her own self in guilt.
Reference to Symbolism
Who is to say that an object does not come with its own agenda? Or that the collective agenda of its previous owners does not direct its purpose still?
Unlike numbers, Braithwaite denotes her chapters by object names. These objects denote a rich use of symbolism in the story. Father, The Patient, Birth, Coma, Market, Madness are some of the strongest and the most prominent instances of symbolism in the book.
While everything in the book, every person, every action, and especially inconspicuous everyday objects have a deeper, more than the literal meaning to them, a few objects especially stand out.
Femi’s Poetry
Femi is the latest in line of Ayoola’s murdered boyfriends. While the charming, tall young man floats disposed off under the third mainland bridge, the poems he wrote for his love denote his poetic existence even after death. Korede is drawn to these poems again and again. he replays in her mind how things could have turned differently for Femi if he had seen through Ayoola.
Ayoola’s Knife
I cannot imagine her resorting to stabbing if that particular knife were not in her hand; almost as if it were the knife and not her that was doing the killing.
Ayoola keeps a knife close to her at all times under the pretext of self-defense. She doesn’t hesitate to use it when circumstances demand. The knife stands for the protective wall a good-looking woman builds for around herself as she goes out into the prying world. It also signifies the characteristics of beauty. As long as it remains sheathed, it is a treat to the eyes but if put to use, can draw the life out of someone.
Tade’s Ring
Tade is a doctor in her hospital Korede adores. She destroys the ring he buys to propose Ayoola. It stands for every thing she can do to keep her love interest away from her sister. She assumes that if she destroys the ring, she would also crumble Tade’s will to propose to Ayoola.
Muhtar’s Coma
The coma patient Muhtar is Korede’s secret-keeper. He is the only one alive who knows about her sister’s serial killings. Muhtar stands for a longing of unconditional companionship we all seek outside our blood relations.
For we need someone to complain about our families too.
A Glimpse of the Local Nigerian Culture
The book’s language is lucid enough for a 12-year-old. However, I still had to resort to Google several times during the course of the book thanks to the rich cultural references. The author is a Nigerian descendant. The story is set in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest and most developed city.
The author roots the story in her identity. Rather than sticking to “clothes” or their description, we see people wearing the agbada-a flowing unisex kaftan with sleeves rolled.
I’m wearing a bubu and a turban-but whoever it is will have to take me as I am.
A bubu again is a loose flowing gown. A jalabia is a kaftan. The house girl has beaded cornrows on her head. I bet you didn’t know it stands for the famous symbolic African hairstyle. Or that an Aso ebi is family cloth usually worn during family gatherings.
Further, Muhtar sucks on an agbalumo, an African Star Apple. The Efo Riro, a rich vegetable soup native to the Yorubas of Western Nigeria, is best cooked in spinach.
And a girl bows down to her future in-laws in a tsugunnawa.
Needless to say, reading the book is a cultural trip to Nigeria.
Blood is Thicker than Water
Is it in the blood? But his blood is my blood and my blood is hers.
Despite every thing that Ayoola does and is, Korede yields unfailing support to her sister. She always chooses her, even above the man she loves. Through this unfailing loyalty, the author makes a strong point in favor of family bonding. Literature has always picked at our contempt towards people we’re bonded with by birth. Few contemporary books shed light on one’s unfailing loyalty to blood. This is one such book.
The author has used the flawed theme of modern family bonding to turn the book’s climax. In doing so, she reasserts the fact that mankind's primal instincts will always override his developed mind’s thinking. These instincts will always lead him to choose blood over duty.
The Pitch Black Humor Element
The author peppers dry humor skillfully throughout the book. She advises us to take even the most serious situations such as murder with a pinch of salt.
While disposing a dead body
I was tempted to pray, to beg that no door be opened as we journeyed from door to lift, but I’m fairly certain those are exactly the types of prayers He doesn’t answer. So I chose to rely on luck and speed.
On hospitals (rightly so)
If hospitals had a flag it would be white- the universal sign for surrender.
On ill-advising relatives
I know better than to take life directions from someone without a moral compass.
I can almost imagine the author saying these words with a straight face while I burst into admirable laughter. But I must stay silent. I’m looking at two Nigerian sisters go by transporting bodies. They’ve looked into my eyes, pressed their thin fingers to their lips, and have urged me to play accomplice in their dark secret.
Closing Notes
Oyinkan Braithwaite’s debut novel “My Sister, the Serial Killer” shatters all bounds of eccentricity. It is a small novel unlike anything that you’ve read or you will read in the days to come. It deserves the multiple awards and hype it is adorned with.
If you’ve got an afternoon to spare, this book won’t disappoint you. Sit back in ease and let Korede guide you into her world, the subject of which isn’t much of a secret.
The author has, after all, spelled it out loud on the cover of the book.
Quotes Reference
“My Sister, the Serial Killer” by Oyinkan Braithwaite
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