96 pages • 3 hours read
Oyinkan BraithwaiteMy Sister, the Serial Killer
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 17-31Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “Song”
Chapter 18 Summary: “Red”
Korede takes food she has prepared to Tade on their lunchbreak, which he appreciates. As she returns to the waiting room, Ayoola walks in “as though she has brought the sunshine in with her” (51). Korede’s colleagues cannot believe she is her sister. Korede tries to usher her out, but Ayoola and Tade meet, and his voice becomes “suddenly husky.”
Chapter 19 Summary: “School”
In school, students bullied Korede for her looks. She “was hardened and ready to protect my sister” (55), but when Ayoola started secondary school, a senior asked her on a date the very first day. In school, while the boys drew Korede “with lips that could belong to a gorilla and eyes that seemed to push every other feature out of the way” (54), Ayoola attracted the attention of older boys.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Stain”
Chapter 21 Summary: “Home”
Korede’s family cannot sell their large, impractical house. There is a painting of the house within the house, and Korede used to imagine an alternate family, a happier one, living there. Her father was a criminal. They used to have a dog, but when it peed in his office, he got rid of it.
Chapter 22 Summary: “Break”
Tade inquires about Korede’s sister and wonders why she never mentioned her. He would like to ask her out on a date, but she tells him Ayoola is taking a break from dating.
Chapter 23 Summary: “Flaw”
Yinka repeatedly disbelieves Korede and Ayoola are real sisters. Korede walks in on Mohammed flirting with nurse Gimpe and soon learns Ayoola has come to the hospital again. She is in Tade’s office, flirting. Korede coldly reminds Ayoola she is too busy to take her to lunch, so Tade offers to take her out.
Chapter 24 Summary: “Flapper”
At home that evening, Korede, without admitting that she likes Tade, asks Ayoola (who designs and models her own clothing line) not to come to her work again and not to see Tade. Ayoola warns Korede that “all he wants is a pretty face” (68), but she does not consent to her sister’s demand. Korede cannot resist tidying up Ayoola’s messy room.
Chapter 25 Summary: “Mascara”
Chapter 26 Summary: “Orchids”
Tade sends Ayoola “violently bright orchids” (74). Ayoola texts him that she prefers roses; at noon, he sends roses. Mother is smitten. Korede prevents Ayoola from posting a photo on Instagram since her boyfriend is missing and “she is supposed to be mourning” (75). Femi’s death “haunts” Korede because Ayoola shows no regret over his murder.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Roses”
Chapter 28 Summary: “Father”
Their father died 10 years ago, in the middle of brutalizing the girls; he “slumped, hitting his head against the glass coffee table as he fell to the floor” while the sisters watched him die: “For the first time, we were taller” (80). Now his sister Taiwo has come from Dubai to help arrange a commemorative service, which she wants to be very expensive and lavish. She gives them advice on how to catch a good husband.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Bracelet”
Tade comes to pick Ayoola up; she is not ready, “stretched out on her bed laughing at videos of auto-tuned cats” (83). Tade tells Mother about his investments in real estate. Korede serves him sweets and drinks, and Mother lies, saying Ayoola has prepared them. When she appears, Ayoola is gorgeous, and Tade gives her a bracelet.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Time”
Chapter 31 Summary: “The Patient”
Korede imagines a conversation with Muhtar about the first two men Ayoola has killed, repeating “I want to believe her […] But Femi…he was different” (88). Tade asks Korede to talk to Ayoola and find out what he has done wrong; Ayoola has not returned his calls in two weeks. Korede reluctantly agrees as “the warmth of his hands around mine makes me feel dizzy” (89).
Chapters 17-31 Analysis
Chapter 17 gives us a further glimpse not just into Tade but also into Korede’s feelings for him. Having always lived in the shadow of her beautiful sister, Korede has not had much romantic experience; she idolizes Tade, and over the course of her development, Korede learns how Tade is similar to other men and what makes him different. Chapter 18, symbolically entitled “Red,” depicts Korede seeing red when Ayoola finally meets Tade, as paradoxically “the blood cools within [Korede’s] body” (53). She understands well the power her sister has over men, which motivates Korede to keep her sister away from her workplace, the only thing that is truly only hers.
The meeting between Tade and Ayoola represents the novel’s discriminated occasion—a specific moment in the story that complicates the plot. Before Tade meets Ayoola, Korede brings him a tasty lunch that she has prepared, only to see it forgotten as he fawns over Ayoola. Tade’s preference for Ayoola threatens to break the alliance and pact of silence that the sisters have tacitly lived their whole lives, particularly after the death of their father. Chapter 28 relates his sudden demise in the midst of a bout of anger toward his daughters, which strengthens the sisters’ bond.
One of the novel’s main themes is the human—both male and female—reaction to physical beauty, and the frequent cognitive inability to look past the visual to grasp the essence beneath the surface. In Chapter 22, Korede tries to discourage Tade from pursuing her sister, to no avail; Korede realizes that Tade is now lost to her. People sometimes ascribe positive characteristics to beautiful people, as if their exterior reflects inner beauty. Ayoola, the beautiful female serial killer, is not beautiful on the inside.
In these chapters, Korede questions whether should she keep protecting her sister and whether her protection is useful. She wonders whether to pursue her love for Tade or give him up, and fears her dedication to her sister will always keep her from having a life of her own. Korede’s obsessive cleanliness and tidiness signify both the repressed and the oppressed within her character. In Chapter 27, Korede destroys the roses Tade has sent to Ayoola, a rare act of rebellion and a clear signal of aggression toward her sister. Her comment, “Ayoola knows I did it. I keep my head down, looking at the petals on the floor. Why did I leave them there? I abhor untidiness” (78), reveals Korede’s shame, her horror at the impulsiveness of her actions—impulsiveness is something she avoids throughout the novel—and Korede’s desire to communicate her feelings to Ayoola, albeit symbolically.
A victim of her family, Korede lives as a glorified servant to her sister’s needs and the enabler of Ayoola’s dark desires. She desperately needs to believe that her sister’s acts are justified, even though it is clear from her imagined conversation with Muhtar in Chapter 31 that she does not really believe in her sister’s repeated stories of self-defense. Korede is reaching a point where she will have to put her self-deceptions about her sister aside and accept what she is: a sociopath, just like their father.
