I've wanted to read this book for a while, but I kept forgetting about it until I went to a local bookstore, BookPeople, in Austin, Texas, and picked it up. (Support local businesses, especially if you're going in). I'm really glad that I decided to pick it up because it was actually really good.
The author, Oyinkan Braithwaite is from Nigeria and that is where the book takes place. The style of writing is a bit different from what I'm used to but I found it very refreshing and perfect for the story. This story is told by Korede who is the older sister to Ayoola, who has killed 3 of her boyfriends. When Ayoola kills a boyfriend, she calls Korede to clean up the mess. This time though, Ayoola's killed the wrong man and his family has the police investigate it. The pressure is rising on the sisters when Ayoola decides to visit Korede at the hospital she works at and catches the eye of the doctor Korede is in love with.
As a relationship develops between Ayoola and Korede's crush, Korede becomes increasingly distrustful of her younger sister. She begins to question if these murders were really self-defense. This is a book that made me question how far should one go for their loved one. Korede does everything for her sister, but at the end of the book I was left wondering if that was the right thing for her to do. This is a very interesting book with occasional flashbacks to Korede and Ayoola's father, who was a cruel man. I found myself rooting for Korede, but I wonder if I should have been. Her situation was very unfair, but sometimes that's the draw of birth.
If you are looking for an interesting book with a lot of darkness, I highly recommend checking this one out. If you're like me and looking for more books to read by people of color this year, again this is a book to check out. For content warnings, there is murder, blood, abuse, and more. For a full list of content warnings, check out StoryGraph.
As always, happy reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment