I own so many books that I haven't read that I've stopped taking advantage of the ARCs from NetGalley, to try to catch up on what I already have. However, I loved My Sister the Serial Killer so much that I immediately downloaded this ARC, and was thrilled to find this book even better.

It follows a family over two generations, who are torn between folklore and modern sensibility, their love for one another and frustration with their actions. The interweaving passages across time reveal the sometimes parallell lives of aunt and niece. The characters, setting and somewhat supernatural aspects bring to life a stunning story that, at the end, reduced me to tears. I highly recommend.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.