Cursed Daughters A Read with Jenna P..., Oyinkan Braithwaite
Cursed Daughters A Read with Jenna P..., Oyinkan Braithwaite
List: $22.00 | Sale: $15.40
Club: $11.00

Cursed Daughters: A Read with Jenna Pick

Author: Oyinkan Braithwaite

Narrator: Diana Yekinni, Nnei Opia Clark, Weruche Opia

Unabridged: 9 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/04/2025


Synopsis

A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK • A young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry, and superstition from the author of the smash hit My Sister, the Serial Killer (“A bombshell of a book... Sharp, explosive, hilarious"—The New York Times)

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, NPR, USA TODAY

"A triumph: bold, searing, and utterly original. From the first page, it grips with an electric pulse. . . . Impossible to put down."
—Abi Daré, New York Times bestselling author of Girl with the Louding Voice

When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day they bury her cousin Monife, there is no denying the startling resemblance between the child and the dead woman. So begins the belief, fanned by the entire family, that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps.

There is also the matter of the family curse—“No man will call your house home. And if they try, they will not have peace...”—which has broken numerous hearts and caused three generations of abandoned Falodun women to live under the same roof. 

When Eniiyi falls in love, she can no longer run from her family’s history. Is she destined to live out her family's story of love and heartache? Or can she break the pattern, not only avoiding the spiral that led Monife to her lonely death but liberating herself from all the secrets and unspoken traumas that have dogged her steps since before she can remember?

Cursed Daughters is a brilliant cocktail of vibrant humor and hard-won wisdom, romantic love and familial obligation. It asks us what it means to be granted a second chance, and how to live both wisely and well with what we’ve been given.

About The Author

OYINKAN BRAITHWAITE is the author of My Sister, the Serial Killer. She was born in Lagos, Nigeria and raised there and in the UK. She currently lives in London with her family.


Reviews

Goodreads review by emma on November 05, 2025

i wish my family had a curse. or i did before this book. now it doesn't seem so fun. (thanks to the publisher for the arc)......more

Goodreads review by Laura on September 20, 2025

Cursed or Fear? Cursed Daughters is a darkly humoured novel about a young woman who must shake off the family curse that has been imposed on her blood line and deal with held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin. Poor Eniiyi! Baby girl couldn’t catch a break from the day she was bo......more

Goodreads review by Creya on August 18, 2025

Thank you to Doubleday for providing a physical copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Cursed Daughters is a very different book from Braithwaite's debut novel, but in a good way. I devoured My Sister, the Serial Killer, but her writing style and maturity have skyrocketed to new levels s......more

Goodreads review by BookOfCinz on September 22, 2025

Imagine being born the day your cousin is buried and being born with her exact face... Yes, this is just one of the curse happening in this book. Braithwaite knows how to write an interesting book and I love how she always center female characters who are likeable and unlikeable. This is definitely......more

Goodreads review by Kate on September 11, 2025

3.5 Cursed Daughters is the story of the Falodun family - or rather the women since it is they who carry a curse which condemns them to lives where their love lives will be a disaster. We begin the story shortly after Monife, the daughter of Bunmi and an absent father, has taken her own life. We then......more


Quotes

“Funny and fierce, this is a fast read that you won’t forget quickly.”
The Boston Globe

“A sweeping and sobering take on romantic fatalism . . . Braithwaite’s prose is lush and spooky. . . . Our three female protagonists are rich, full characters. We go deep into their worlds as they struggle to reconcile their love for their family and culture with their desire to be free of the curse. It’s fascinating to watch them bob and weave.”
The New York Times

“Infused with Nigerian culture and magical realism, the novel showcases Braithwaite’s rich characterizations, atmospheric settings and a daring premise. It also offers a multilayered story that makes Cursed Daughters a captivating, immersive read.”
—NPR

“Charming and wonderfully unpredictable . . . A portrait of human flailing for closure, for the answers to all of our mysteries . . . [Braithwaite is] a rising literary star.”
—Matthew Jackson, BookPage

“A delicious page-turner with characters who burst off the page . . . A lesson in fighting for the life you want.”
—Kristyn Kusek Lewis, Real Simple

“Braithwaite both confirms her gift for depicting complicated familial bonds among women and proves that her talents are not confined to any one style.”
—Judy Berman, TIME

“A virtuosic tour de force . . . Enchanting, sparkling with wit and tactfully straddling reality and the supernatural . . . A haunting meditation on moral ambiguity, the bonds of cousinhood, and the constraints of gender . . . Once I became immersed in ‘Cursed Daughters,’ I hardly wanted to leave Lagos.”
—Hudson Warm, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Cursed Daughters is both haunting and funny—a tale of superstition, faith, generational trauma, societal expectations, and the necessity of breaking painful patterns.”
—Lauren Puckett-Pope, ELLE


“Braithwaite delivers both a compulsively readable and deep story about love, grief, and the impossibilities of fate.”
Chicago Review of Books

“Braithwaite blends satire and high drama to deliver a spectacular saga glowing with romance and otherworldly intrigue. . . . Stellar storytelling is boosted by [Braithwaite’s] skillfully crafted characters.”
Shelf Awareness

“Equal parts bitingly funny, searingly perceptive and unabashedly magical, Cursed Daughters is a riveting, epic-in-scope novel from an ambitious but assured writer who can more than hold her own. . . . Surprisingly bighearted and tender, Cursed Daughters solidifies Braithwaite’s place in the literary scene.”
—Bookreporter

“Braithwaite’s newest has all the sharpness of her debut . . . alongside the complexity and character development a longer book permits, and my goodness was I desperate to talk about this story and its characters with someone after I put it down.”
—S. Zainab Williams, Book Riot

“I devoured Cursed Daughters and immediately wanted to start all over again. It’s a triumph: bold, searing, and utterly original. From the first page, it grips with an electric pulse. Funny and fearless, soaked in secrets, spirit, heartbreak, and love, it’s told in a voice as scalding as it is tender. I won’t soon forget Eniiyi, Grandma East, Grandma West, Ebun, and Monife—daring and luminous, as lost as she is unforgettable—the one who carved herself deepest into memory. This is a taut, feverish novel that burns itself into you. Impossible to put down.”
—Abi Daré, New York Times bestselling author of Girl with the Louding Voice