Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The highly anticipated sophomore novel from the author of My Sister, The Serial Killer is an enjoyable if politically thin read
Cursed Daughters, the much-anticipated second novel from Oyinkan Braithwaite, follows the story of the Falodun women across generations as they find themselves doomed to heartbreak by an old curse. The youngest of these women, Eniiyi, feels the weight of her ancestors’ grief even more strongly: she is suspected to be the reincarnation of her aunt Monife, whose life was taken by the curse just days before Eniiyi’s birth.
Engaging and well paced, Cursed Daughters is a quick and effortless read. It balances the melodrama of romantic pursuit and complex family dynamics with a sense of humour that, although often cheesy, adds lightness and texture to the novel. The plot might be rather predictable, but Braithwaite manages to sprinkle in a few mysteries, tying together the individual stories of the members of the Falodun family while keeping readers immersed until the end of the book. The gothic, whimsical tone throughout adds breadth to the narrative, and the persuasive portrayal of Nigerian society provides depth to an otherwise very straightforward novel about women whose main priority is to find husbands who won’t leave them.
Here lies the chief weakness of Cursed Daughters; for a book about women and their experiences, where the multiple protagonists are all female, neither the story at large nor the characters in it ultimately succeed at decentring men. The thematic arc leads nowhere in particular, and readers are left wondering if the androcentric curse will ever be broken.
