Date of Completion: 03/08/2020
This book captures the dysfunctional relationship a nurse (Korede) has with her younger sister (Ayoola) who is a serial killer. Now, although this sounds fairly dark and unsettling, Korede’s morbidly funny narrative makes this book surprising entertaining. In fact, the satirical nature of her narrative completely changes the tone of the book from a thriller into an amusing beach read.
As a Nigerian character, Korede’s narrative is also very uncommon and usual in books. Being a Nigerian myself, I was amazed to see how this influenced my perception of the book and my connection with the characters. It was as if almost all the books I had read before this were visualised in 2D but this book was in 3D. With just a few words and descriptions, I could fully picture each scene and the mannerisms of the characters. This was really surprising to me because I usually require strong world-building and descriptions (but not too much!) to achieve such clear visuals.
I must confess, I was hoping for a lot more drama, especially as this book is described as a thriller. Oyinkan had so many opportunities in the story to really take things further and ramp up the suspense.
I was also surprised by how things played out at the end of the book. This was mainly because I excepted Korede to make a different decision based on how unsettled she is throughout the book. Even so, the ending we get still feels fitting and reasonable given what is revealed about Korede’s past.
I am more haunted by her actions than she is.
The only problem I have with this book is how it unwittingly portrays having a wide nose and fat lips as unattractive. This really rubbed me the wrong way as these features are very common in black communities. However, I was a little appeased by the fact that “beautiful” Ayoola has dreads.
Apart from this personal peeve, I found the storyline to be unexpectedly provocative and this is why I love it so much. Oyinkan challenges readers to consider the role an individual’s outward appearance plays in “attraction” and how they are treated by others. She also challenges our perception of love and what it means to put family first.
The most loving parents and relatives commit murder with smiles on their faces. They force us to destroy the person we really are: a subtle kind of murder.
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[…] All things considered, ‘How to Kill Your Family‘ has a decent storyline, but, the fascinating main character was the highlight for me. There are no “good guys” or a “happy ending,” so the story does feel slightly unsatisfying, but it was still fun to read. A similar book would be My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. […]