My New Friend, "MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER," by Oyinkan Braithwaite

 

Me and my new friend, My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Hello. I'm Bobby Keniston, and my only friends are books. You might think this is a call for sympathy, but, the way I see it, books will never call you up unexpectedly and ask you to help clean up after a murder. 

Speaking of such things, my new friend I want to tell you about today is My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. This dark wonder of entertainment is a fascinating debut, and I have no doubt you will find it easy to make friends with it. 

HOW I MET MY NEW FRIEND

My Sister, the Serial Killer came up on a number of different book talks I watched on YouTube. Like most people with a pulse, I found the title more than a little intriguing, so I checked it out of my local library. 

ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

My Sister, the Serial Killer is a darkly comic first-person narrative about a Nigerian nurse named Korede who has a bit of a problem. The problem is not a spoiler, as it is laid out in the title. Korede's younger sister Ayoola is a serial killer. Before she was simply a killer, but 3 is the magic number to get one to the title of "serial killer".  The book begins with Korede helping her sister clean up the mess. I guess it is helpful that Korede is a bit of a cleaning freak. 

Korede feels responsible for taking care of Ayoola, and has since the very beginning. Ayoola is the beautiful one, the one who turns heads, the one their mother believes actually has a chance of being married. Ayoola is also very shallow, uses her looks to get what she wants, and, is a bit of a narcissist sociopath who never takes responsibility for her actions. 

But what can you do? Family is family. 

Korede is in love with a doctor named Tade. It seems the only respite she gets from her sister's shadow is at the hospital, where she works hard, runs a tight ship, but daydreams about Tade and confesses her sister's sins to a coma patient. 

But when Ayoola shows up at the hospital and Tade catches a glimpse of her, he is immediately smitten. This is no surprise to Korede--- people are always smitten with her sister. But how can she let the man she loves date a woman who may end up killing him?

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

Korede is a wonderful narrator, given a complex and believable voice by Braithwaite. More than the dark humor and violence at the core, this book is about a relationship between sisters. Korede is expected to always take care of her sister, the pretty one, the fair one, the one that men love and fawn over. One is immediately sympathetic to Korede. And though she feels this bitterness toward her sister (justifiably so, in my opinion), Braithwaite manages to make the reader believe that Korede will protect Ayoola, even after she kills. 

I love that the chapters are short. It keeps the pages turning, and, like with Vonnegut, each little chapter seems to be a compact, interesting moment that keeps the story building and building. If one is in a reading slump, I think the pace and structure of this book--- along with the fact that it is a quick read--- will help get you out if it. 

I also love the fact that Braithwaite examines the fact that people want to believe there is something deeper in a beautiful person who attracts them. Tade is a nice, sensitive character, but Korede witnesses him fall for his shallow sister. More than this, she sees him attribute more to Ayoola than what is truly a part of her personality. It is a kind of delusion and justification. Ayoola even tells Korede that Tade is no different than any man, and only wants her because she is beautiful. This is a fascinating theme to explore, and one that feels all too true at times in the real world. 

I also love the device of Korede confessing her feelings to a coma patient. It tells us so much about her as a character, and her need to connect with someone, in some way. 

FINAL TAKEAWAYS

Do yourself a favor, and make friends with My Sister, the Serial Killer. It won't take you long to read, and, if you're like me, once you're finished you will be eagerly wondering what Oyinkan Braithwaite will bring us next. 

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

My New Friend "DEVIL HOUSE" by John Darnielle

 

Here's the cover of my new friend. I like retro feel. But don't let this cover convince you this is a horror story--- it is not. 

Hello. My name is Bobby Keniston, and my only friends are books. Don't feel sorry for me. Though if you can't help being sorry for me, at least pronounce "sorry" like Canadians do, so that it will rhyme with "story."  I love a good story. That's why books are my only friends. 

I know that all of the readers following this blog... wait... I need a break for laughter....it's just funny imagining that there are any people actually following this blog....Sorry.  

I know that all of readers following this blog are probably tired of my little project consisting only of Maine authors, so I thought I would talk about my friend "Devil House" by John Darnielle, who is not a Maine author. "Devil House" is also the newest of my new friends. Its birthday was January 25th of 2022. I was happy to find it at my local library, where I meet many of my new friends. 

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

My new friend "Devil House" is the third novel from the multi-talented John Darnielle, following his second novel "Universal Harvester" (which I have read and enjoyed) and "Wolf In White Van" (which I have not read, but which was nominated for a National Book Award merely days after its publication date--- not bad, eh?). "Devil House" tells the story of Gage Chandler, a true crime writer who was always told by his mother that he was descended from kings. He wrote a very successful true crime book about "The White Witch of Morro Bay", which dealt with Diana Crane, a school teacher who killed two young men who broke into her house and then tried to dispose of the bodies. Chandler's book, much like "Devil House", deals with the mythology a community constructs around murders and tragedies, while the complexity of the truth seems to fade away. 

Gage Chandler, on a tip from his agent, moves into what the locals of Milptas  call "Devil House", the scene of a double homicide. Milpitas is also where the events depicted in the book and film  "River's Edge" took place, and that true crime story hangs over the book in some ways. Once in the "Devil House", Gage works meticulously to recreate the crime scene, to do his best to get into the nooks and crannies, every inch of the house, looking for the story... and the "truth". 

MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

My friend has many things going for it, not least of which is being written by John Darnielle. Darnielle is the songwriter and singer behind The Mountain Goats, and his songs are very creative, powerful and lyrical. His prose here is also impressive, and the way he writes the first section as a true crime book itself is intriguing and effective. Reading about Gage's methods keeps the pages turning. The second section about Diana Crane, the "White Witch" is also a page-turner. Darnielle does well humanizing not only the teacher, but the two young men who attack her. In fact, he is quite good with teenage characters, which serve him well for the sections about the "Devil House." 

I also appreciate how Darnielle touches upon the "Satanic Panic" of those days, and how the Devil House murders could have fallen into that hysteria had the folks of Milpitas not worked so hard to squash the story after the sensationalism of "River's Edge". 

CHALLENGES WITH MY NEW FRIEND

There is an interlude in the book about a medieval boy becoming king, complete in medieval font, which, while well-written and entertaining, did not fully convince me that it was necessary. Perhaps this is my failing and not my friend's, I don't know. The surprise twist ending is bold and brave (and something I wouldn't even think about spoiling here), but I am still not 100% sure how I feel about it. Still, in its defense, it makes Gage confront how, no matter how well-researched and well-intentioned, "true crime" is only ever partly true and never complete. 

FINAL TAKEAWAY

Readers, if they are like me, will want to make friends with "Devil House". But, I must reiterate my warning from the caption below the above picture: do not go into it expecting a horror novel, or you may well be disappointed. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. Come on back to see who I make friends with next...