Book Review: "Cursed Daughters" by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Oyinkan Braithwaite’s debut novel, My Sister, the Serial Killer, caught me by complete surprise when I read it in 2018. I couldn’t wait to see what she wrote next—although she made me wait until the end of 2025! This book is very different from her first but it is more evidence that she is a writer to be reckoned with.

On the day that they bury her cousin Monife, Ebun gives birth to a baby girl. This baby, named Eniiyi, resembles Monife so much, the family is convinced she is the reincarnation of her late aunt. They believe Eniiyi will follow the same path Monife did in life, right down to her tragic end.

In addition to the belief that Eniiyi is fated to meet the same end as Monife, there’s also the family curse: “No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace...” This curse has left several generations of Falodun women brokenhearted.

When Eniiyi reaches womanhood, she saves a man from drowning and promptly falls in love with him. She then realizes the curse is hanging over her head. Her only recourse is to search for answers in the older parts of Lagos, to find a way out of her fated predicament. Can she break the curse and have the chance at happiness? Can she free the other women in her family?

There is such a vibrancy to the way Braithwaite writes. The city of Lagos is as much a character as Eniiyi and her family. The book follows each generation’s confrontation with the curse and the tragedy that befell Monife. It gets a little repetitive at times, but it was just so moving.