Cursed Daughter by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Intriguing premise, underseasoned delivery: A supernatural saga that swaps mystery for Nollywood-style melodrama.
I just didn’t get the hype on this one. After thoroughly enjoying My Sister, the Serial Killer, I was ready for another intriguing, reflective, and darkly funny story. Instead, Cursed Daughter felt less like a mystical supernatural tale and more like a melodramatic Nollywood TV show or a telly novella.
The magical realism elements had so much potential: a bloodline of women doomed by a curse to never find “happy endings” with men, and a baby cousin born on a funeral day. Really interesting premise for story, however the Faladon Family Curse elements were treated like a topline summary. I wanted to feel the weight of the curse, but the writing delivered it as an overview, leaving me with zero emotional connection to the history or the characters.
I went in expecting a haunting, mysterious novel about cursed women. What I got was a romance with a slight nod to a multi-generational saga.
While I usually enjoy non-linear timelines (like in Black Cake), I hit the one-third mark here and felt like the plot had stalled completely. There was no suspense, and I honestly only soldiered on so I could discuss it in full with my book club.
After a dragging middle, the ending felt rushed. Like a book’s worth of payoff was just added into the final chapters.
For a story centered on a curse regarding romantic partners, the relationships felt remarkably thin. The “banter + physical attraction = soulmates” trope felt very basic. Worse, the tone felt so juvenile that I spent the first half of the book thinking Monife and “Golden Boy” were teenagers. I was shocked to realize they were in their mid-twenties; their dialogue and “playground” dynamics simply didn’t match their ages. It lacked the romantic gravitas you expect from a story about a life-altering curse.
This felt is the third novel I’ve read from Oyinkan Braithwait but it left me underwhelmed. The plot felt a bit undercooked, underseasoned. I wanted to see more passion. love, mystery, magic ✨ and more of that sharp reflection I’ve come to expect. Instead, it felt like a script for a telly novella that missed the mark.