In the span of 240 pages, you learn everything you need to know about sisters Korede and Ayoola only to realize you didn’t know them as well as you thought. In sharp, sardonic prose, Braithwaite brings these two opposites to life. Ayoola is a bright, shiny, peppy young woman leaving a bloody trail of suitors behind her with Korede, her beleaguered older sister, left to clean up her little sister’s messes. But hard-working, responsible Korede has needs and desires too. I’m a sucker for books that explore relationships between sisters. Sisterhood can produce a bond both deep and divisive. Braithwaite plays this dynamic and stereotypes about the roles of older and younger sisters with dark, vicious humor and makes it fresh.

I also love when a writer successfully leads me to rooting for villains, or at least villainous motivations. Perspective on why people do terrible things doesn’t come easily for most of us but it can turn a familiar trope on its head (say, that of the underappreciated older sister and the doted-upon younger sister) in some fun and interesting ways. This book gave me the kind of wicked delight I felt watching that ridiculous ’90s black comedy, So I Married an Axe Murderer, but this book is the movie’s smarter, more sophisticated sister.

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