Cursed Daughters
The RIVETING bestselling heartbreaker, from the author of My Sister, the Serial Killer
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4.3 • 66 Ratings
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- £8.99
Publisher Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO AWARD 2026
Readers are falling hard for Cursed Daughters...
'ABSOLUTELY RIVETING!!'
'Will hook you from start to finish... I read in two days!'
'Oh my gosh this book is so good!''
'I cannot express how much I adored this book - like truly, madly, deeply adored it'
Your daughters are cursed. They will pursue men, but the men will be like water in their palms. Your granddaughters will love in vain. Your daughters, your daughter's daughters, and all the women to come will suffer for man's sake...
Eniiyi has heard about the family curse her whole life. She's never believed in it. She's also heard, her whole life, that she is the reincarnation of her dead aunt, Monife. Same eyes, same left hand, same scar in the same place. She's never believed in that, either.
Then she falls in love with a handsome local boy, and Monife begins to appear to Eniiyi: in her dreams, on the beach, in the mirror, pulling her, it seems, towards the same terrible fate. Can Eniiyi live her life on her own terms, or is history - and the curse - repeating itself?
'Funny and fearless, soaked in secrets, spirit, heartbreak, and love... Impossible to put down' Abi Daré
'A rich and absorbing tale of destiny versus self-determinism... I lost myself within its gorgeous pages' Jennie Godfrey
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
“Your daughters are cursed—they will pursue men, but the men will be like water in their palms.” This is the hex placed generations ago on the Falodun family in Lagos, Nigeria, and the tantalising premise of Cursed Daughters, British-Nigerian author Oyinkan Braithwaite’s second novel. The curse has blighted its female members’ relationships ever since. But has it met its match in Eniiyi, who doesn’t believe in it, and has fallen in love with a man she saved from drowning? Braithwaite’s first novel, My Sister, The Serial Killer, became a huge bestseller after it was published in 2018, and its follow-up is well worth the seven-year wait. Along with the intriguing superstition of the curse, it also explores the subtler lore woven through most families, such as unresolved grief and beliefs that hold us back. Often wryly funny but deeply empathetic to its characters, it’s a book to immerse yourself in.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this scintillating saga from Braithwaite (My Sister, the Serial Killer), generations of women in a Lagos family contend with a curse that prevents them from securing husbands. The nonlinear narrative begins in 2000 when 25-year-old Monife Falodun drowns herself after losing the love of her life, Kalu. Braithwaite then rewinds to unspool Monife and Kalu's passionate and ill-fated love story, eventually revealing how they were separated. Along the way, she interweaves Monife's story with that of Monife's niece Eniiyi, born on the day of Monife's funeral. Eniiyi looks so much like Monife that their family believes Eniiyi is Monife reincarnated. Indeed, the girl shares certain characteristics with her aunt, such as a desire for love and the hope to break their family's curse, which was placed on their ancestor Feranmi by the first wife of Feranmi's husband, who said, "No man will call your house, home." Eniiyi has recurring dreams of Monife by the sea where she drowned, but Monife never speaks in the dreams until after Eniiyi, now a recent college graduate, rescues a handsome boy named Zubby from drowning. Afterward, Monife turns to Eniiyi in a dream and mysteriously says, "Not again." As Eniiyi falls for Zubby, she discovers a connection between him and Monife's past. Braithwaite's use of magical realism is effortless and vivid, as when the dream version of Monife speaks to Eniiyi in Eniiyi's own voice. She also sustains the strange mystery of whether Eniiyi is in fact Monife, all while exploring the family's painful cycle of abandonment. This is riveting.
Customer Reviews
What a refreshing story.
This is a fresh take on the doomed lovers trope with an additional spin that makes it even more compelling. The reason I’ve given it a star less than 5 stars is that the time period reference of Lagos in the 90s & early 2000s was a little watery. Except that, this was a compelling story & hard to put down.
Very beautifully written book
Finished reading this in less than 24 hours. I enjoyed the different themes in the book - relationship, generational trauma, dementia, etc. - that show what families (I know well of African families) grapple with. It reminds me of an art exhibition I saw at the African American museum “we are all made of stories”.
The words were beautifully written too and kept me going for more.
Had me up past midnight
I was breathless reading this novel. I loved it!