✨ARC approved by @Atlantic Books via @NetGalley

‘…No man will call your house, home. And if they try, they will not have peace. Your daughters are cursed…’

📚The Falodun women believe they are cursed— the trail of failed relationships and marriages that lead them back to their father’s house proves it.

📚Eniiyi has always been called the reincarnation of her dead aunt Monife (buried on the same day Eniiyi was born) because of the uncanny resemblance. When she returns home after several years away, she starts having vivid dreams about dead Monife by the sea.
After she saves a drowning man (Zubby), two things happen: her dreams intensify, and she inexplicably starts falling for Zubby.

👀Will she be the Falodun descendant to break finally the curse, or will history repeat itself?

📚Told from multiple POVs and timelines, Cursed Daughters is an emotional story sprinkled with humour about secrets, betrayal, love, loss, hope, and regrets. The story was beautifully woven with dramatic twists and turns, and as things unfolded, I was captivated. Every time I had to pause to do something else, it lingered on my mind, and I couldn’t wait to get back to it. Just when you think you’ve got an inkling of what’s going on, another revelation surfaces. There were parts of this book that stressed me (in a good way).

👌🏾
- The chapters were not long, and the author’s writing style was straightforward.
- The author’s ability to skillfully keep the reader interested, even though there were multiple POVs and timelines, was chef’s kiss.
- Flawed characters that’ll frustrate you because of their questionable decisions, but you’ll care and root for them.
- I had no issues with the story’s pace.

❓Questions that came to mind:

- If the women ignored the curse, would things have taken a different turn?
- Where do you draw the line between fate and self-sabotage?

📚I enjoyed the book so much, but that’s not to say it was flawless. There were aspects of the plot that were questionable (not saying much to avoid spoilers), but it didn’t dull the brilliance of this book.

👌🏾This is definitely one to get your hands on when it is released in November.

“She shed tears for herself, the girl who spent her entire life trying not to be a ghost”

This book gave me the chills! It was mysterious, emotional, and written with so much depth and cultural knowledge. We follow the story of a family of women and the curse placed upon them, and the actions they take to prevent it from taking hold and the ways they fell prey to it. Braithwaite uses her cultural background and folklore to give the readers a deeper understanding of ways generational trauma can impact individuals, families and the way they interact with each other and the world. It brings the story alive and makes for a very engaging read.

Mo, Eniyii, and Ebun (as well as Grandma West and East) are all strong female characters, well developed, and they each make the story what it is. Their relationships are so intertwined, complex, and tragic, but it always comes back to the love they hold for each other. Whether that be between mother and daughter or cousins.

This story had so many twists, so I would recommend it to those who enjoy a mystery. But more importantly, it opens up the question of predestined fates. Are we in control of the lives we live? Do we have a choice in the things that happen to us, or are we simply following a path that has been laid down before us? Overall, it was a great book, and I’ll be thinking about it forever!

“You have to let me move on now. But either way, I’m done being your vessel.”

A mysterious, emotional book using a family curse to explore generational trauma and family conflict. I loved the cast of characters and the dramatic tension that the curse brings to every relationship as it develops. I don't know that I loved this quite as much as My Sister, the Serial Killer, but that was always going to be a tough act to follow, and I would still woleheartedly recommend picking this one up as a great read.

I really enjoyed “My Sister the Serial Killer” and this was even better. Set in Lagos, the curse is a compelling idea: Is this a self-fulfilling prophecy? Or a metaphor for intergenerational trauma?Whatever the subtext, this is an utterly engaging story about four women that I found hard to put down.

Author Oyinkan Braithwaite explores family bonds, fate and determinism, as well as society’s obsession with marriage, love and relationships with the conferred status it lends. The curse, like so many fairy tale or biblical curses is bestowed on a woman who is judged to be over- reaching her status in life but how to shift this judgement? And how to be yourself amidst family expectations? Hugely atmospheric and immersive, this is a must read.

Like a lot of other readers, I couldn’t wait to read this book because I loved My Sister the Serial Killer and it did not disappoint.

This novel explores is a multigenerational tale of the Falodan family, the women believe that there has been a curse put on all of the daughters making them destined to never know true love with a man and will instead only know tragedy and heartbreak.
The story begins when Ebun gives birth to Eniiyi, on the same day she has buried her beloved cousin Monife. As she grows up, Eniiyi is followed by the feeling that she could be the reincarnation of her aunt, and plagued by the superstitions that can’t seem to escape her family.

We gradually come to know what happened to Monife and by the end of the novel I was completely absorbed with this family’s history and the twists and turns.

This is a book about love, family bonds, superstition and growth and I cannot recommend this book enough!!

I enjoyed “My Sister the Serial Killer” but I adored this! It’s a compelling idea and well executed with a nice amount of ambiguity on the supernatural elements in the novel which I love in fiction. It explored big themes like family, sisterhood, fate and determinism, as well as (I believe) thinking about the larger picture of women’s obsession with love and relationships and men, and the status it lends them in the world, with a focus on Nigeria. Overall though it was just entertaining and I read it in one day!

Beautifully crafted, beautifully told. The stories of these women break your heart as they navigate the 'curse' placed on the family. Tender relationships are portrayed despite the tensions between the characters.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this title.

I've been waiting for another book by Oyinkan Braithwaite in what feels like forever. I loved My Sister the Serial Killer and have been keeping an eye out for a second book by her so, as soon as I was approved to download this I stopped reading my other books and bumped this up to the top of the list.

Safe to say, I devoured this one. Cursed Daughters is incredible. It's tragic and devastating, yet still has Braithwaite's signature dark humour and cast of strong female characters. It's a story about intergenerational trauma, cursed loved and fighting to be seen/heard. I don't want to say too much without giving it away (although it isn't necessarily the type of book where you'd have 'spoilers') but I will say the wait was worth it. I was genuinely surprised by how haunting and touching this was.

This is easily one of the top 5 books I've read this year!

I loved My Sister The Serial Killer and so when I got the opportunity to read Cursed Daughters I jumped at it.

Yes they are by the same author but that’s where the similarities end. Where Serial Killer was bright and funny, Daughters is very melancholy, mystical but ultimately about hope.

Set in Lagos, it tells the story of a family of women that believe they have had a family curse handed down through generations - that they will never be able to hold on to a man and no matter how much they think they are in love, their relationships are destined to fail.

And now it’s the turn of Eniiyi, who due to her remarkable resemblance to her dead aunt Monife, has lived her whole life with her families strange and ancient beliefs as well as them believing she is the reincarnation of Monife.

When Eniiyi saves a man from drowning and finds herself falling in love with him, can she break the supposed family curse of is she pre destined to fail?

This one took a while to get going as I got to grips with what was going on but once I did I was totally sucked in to these women’s lives, their beliefs and eventually their secrets.
Told from multiple points of view in different time lines, it’s straight fiction really with a sprinkling of supernatural.

The further I got into the book, the more I enjoyed it. Just as you think you have a grip on the story something else is revealed that just keeps adding layers to the story.

It’s hard to pin point the overall tone of the book. Melancholy is my best effort at describing it but I’m not even sure that sums it up as it’s also about hope, secrets and the human condition.

A stunning read. Posssibly my book of the year so far.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.

The narrative jumped around between time periods and characters and it took me a while to get a handle on who was who, but this feeling didn't last long and it was a great read.

Eniiyi comes from generations of women who are cursed to lose the man they fall in love with. As she grows up and eventually falls in love will she manage to escape the curse? I loved the relationships between Eniiyi and her mother and aunt, and also the flashbacks where we hear about her deceased aunt Monife who she deeply resembles.

This is the story of two pairs of star-crossed lovers:
Monife loves Kalu but her mother/grandmother/aunt/cousin are dead against the match because the women in their family have been cursed to lose their men. There’s also the more mundane problem of Kalu being betrothed to another.
Eniiyi loves Zubby but her mother/grandmother/aunt/cousin are dead against the match because the women in their family have been cursed to lose their men. And because Eniiyi is the spitting image of her dead aunt… Monife.
Across two timelines – modern day and twenty-five years earlier – we follow the lives, loves and fights for independence of these two women. The curse over them moves the book into folklore territory. However, this is more about familial expectation and secrets and how a life can be blighted when close family are obsessed with seeing traits of an ancestor in a child.
There were lots of relatives to keep track of – for example, a mother and a sister in one timeline became a grandmother and aunt in the other – but when I stopped worrying about who was who and concentrated on the engaging characters of Monife and Eniiyi, this well-written story came alive for me.
With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.
On publication I will post this review on my blog and NetGalley.

With Cursed Daughters, Oyinkan Braithwaite deftly departs from the sharp satire of My Sister, the Serial Killer and delivers something altogether more haunting, layered, and emotionally resonant. This is a novel steeped in generational sorrow, Nigerian folklore, and the quiet devastation of inherited trauma.

Told across multiple perspectives and time periods, the story traces the lives of the women in the Falodun family—believed to be cursed, doomed never to keep a man. What could easily be a tale of superstition becomes, in Braithwaite’s hands, an elegant exploration of the self-fulfilling nature of belief and the subtle ways family mythologies shape our identities. At the heart of it is Eniiyi, born the day her aunt Monife died, and burdened with the uncomfortable suspicion that she might be her aunt reborn.

The writing is restrained but potent—never overindulgent, but rich with implication. There are moments of dry humour and piercing emotional clarity, and Braithwaite has a gift for showing the absurdity and heartbreak of family dynamics in a single beat. Lagos is not just a backdrop, but a living, breathing presence—vivid, unrelenting, and full of contradictions.

While the supernatural elements are handled with a light, almost folkloric touch, they add a sense of unease and ambiguity that lingers long after the final page. The "curse" itself becomes a powerful metaphor: for grief passed down like heirlooms, for women's stories too long dismissed, and for the ache of being shaped by things you never chose.

It’s a quieter, more introspective novel than its predecessor, but no less compelling. Cursed Daughters is a thoughtful, emotionally charged read with strong female voices at its core—and a poignant reminder that breaking a curse sometimes means confronting the parts of ourselves we’d rather not see.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the ARC.

A captivating read about intergenerational trauma and how the curse at the root of it is still being battled against today. With a cast of strong female characters, the men become innocent casualties and one can’t help but grieve for them as well. Set against a vividly depicted Nigerian background, the story is strong, often dark, and truly difficult to put down.

An intergenerational tale about a Nigerian family where the women are considered cursed, being unable to sustain long-term relationships with men, this is a saga that touches upon cultural beliefs and taboos, as well as the entrenched conservatism of certain social structures.

We come to realise that although the members of the Falodun family deal with the perceived curse differently, the trauma continues to be handed down from generation to generation - something we understand most clearly from the experience of Eniiyi, who's experienced what might be considered the double curse of being believed to be a reincarnation of her aunt Monife.

It was always going to be difficult to follow up a book like My Sister, the Serial Killer, which I loved, but the writer does a pretty good job with this novel. Sad, nuanced and interesting, as always, this is well worth checking out if the storyline appeals to you.

I was so excited to read Braithwaite's next book and I was not disappointed! An engaging multi generational story that had me hooked from the very start. The small hints of the supernatural were a unique addition and adds a unique slant on tragic love stories. Full of interesting, strong and colourful characters, but quite dark at times.

A strange, hauntingly beautiful book. I read this in one sitting, I couldn’t put it down.

Oyinkan Braithwaite weaves a sad, albeit addictive, tale of generational trauma and self fulfilling prophecies with a hint of magical realism that I feel leaves the book open to multiple interpretations by the reader. The characters are so human, with their flaws and complexities laid bare. Just stunning.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic books for the ARC!

A 2nd book from the author of My Sister the Serial Killer. Set in Lagos, Nigeria and featuring strong female characters. Eniiyi who was born on the same day as the funeral of the aunt whose image she favours, tries to break free of the "curse" given generations ago to the female line in the family. A great book, that challenges the idea of a curse that will shape the course of your life and how superstition can subconsciously alter how we feel and live.

I've never requested a book faster. If My Sister, the Serial Killer is a wicked, razorsharp thriller about sisterly ties, Cursed Daughters is an emotional, layered story of generational trauma. Colourful and bursting with both life and death, this is a beautiful, haunting story following the lives of the cursed women, and the weak men in their lives, of one family.

Cursed Daughters is nimble, layered, and quietly devastating—a novel that lets its strangeness and sadness accumulate gently, like dust you only notice when the light hits a certain way. It’s ostensibly about a curse passed through generations of women—“No man will ever call your house his home”—but it’s also about the subtler, more insidious inheritances: grief left unresolved, rituals carried out half-believing, and the ache of never quite belonging even to your own story.

Eniiyi, born the day her aunt Mo dies, grows up in the long shadow of family myth, considered not quite herself but not quite someone else either. The novel follows her, and the women around her—mothers, aunts, cousins—as they all negotiate the line between superstition and survival. There’s a weight to the prose that never turns heavy; Braithwaite writes with elegant economy, each scene cleanly cut but rich with implication. The humour is wry and bone-dry, never at the expense of the characters’ inner lives, and there are frequent moments where the absurd gives way to genuine heartbreak.

There’s also a wonderful tension between the characters’ desire to break away from inherited beliefs and the fear that, maybe, there’s something to them after all. The sea – vivid, shifting, never quite safe – mirrors that ambiguity: familiar and unknowable at once.

I really loved the way the book deals with the curse—not as a spectacle, but as something that tightens the margins of everyday life. It’s as much about the weight of other people’s expectations as it is about fate. That tension builds beautifully and left me unsettled in the best way.

Funny, quietly furious, and beautifully observed, Cursed Daughters more than lives up to its promise.

This sights, sounds and smells of Lagos, Nigeria are quickly established in this new novel by Oyinkan Braithwaite who also wrote the excellent 'My Sister the Serial Killer'. The personalities and, importantly, the looks, of the main characters, three generations of the women of the Falodun family, are also set up at the start so that it is easy for the reader to follow the time shifts and key character shifts in the narrative. The women of the family have for generations believed that they are victims of a curse put on one of their ancestors that they would never be able to keep a man. The two older sisters in this tale still believe this curse and fight it in their own ways, one by invoking 'juju' and one by getting as much as she can from as many men as possible. Their daughters, Monife and Ebun, are more sceptical although some life events do lead them to consider the curse may have some truth to it. However the main contemporary character is the third generation Eniiyi who has had to fight not only the family history of the curse but also the belief by her great aunt that she is in fact the reincarnation of her dead aunt Monife..
There are many family secrets here which by the end are all out in the open. There is sadness, anger and despair but in the end a feeling of hopefulness. I read this book very quickly. The narrative flows really well and I wanted to know how things would turn out for Eniiyi particularly. I recommend this novel to readers who enjoy a well crafted, interesting novel with strong female characters, well described setting and an interesting plot.
My thanks to the publisher Atlantic Books for providing an ARC of this book via Net Galley.