“Cursed Daughters”
By Oyinkan Braithwaite
Doubleday
Published Nov 4.
Dating in 2025 sucks so much that sometimes one can’t help but wonder if there’s something else pulling the strings to our misfortune. Maybe it’s written in the stars, or a higher power is intervening, but some of us can’t catch a break. The process of getting to know someone, talking, coupling, uncoupling and going to therapy (not necessarily in that order) is exhausting.
In Oyinkan Braithwaite’s “Cursed Daughters,” the family Falodun is actually cursed by the first wife of an ancestor who refused to pretend to be the help when the husband they shared introduced them for the first time.
“It will not be well with you,” the first wife declared. “No man will call your house, home. And if they try, they will not have peace.”
For generations, so it went. What started as the best of love stories turned into cautionary tales of betrayal and heartbreak, culminating in Monife who dies young following heartbreak at the begining of the book. Members of the family believe that her niece, Eniiyi, is the actual reincarnation of Monife because she passed away on the same day Eniiyi was born. When Eniiyi falls in love as an adult with a man who she rescues from drowining, she’s forced to confront her family curse, and try to outrun her destiny.
The story unfolds in a non-linear fashion, tracing the history of the family curse, mainly focusing on Monife and Eniiyi and their parallel lives. Despite Eniiyi’s mother’s best efforts, Eniiyi doesn’t just bear a striking resemblance to Monife – she ends up recreating some of her aunty’s relationship dynamics and mistakes as well.
Love stories are somehow both unique to each couple and formulaic, and “Cursed Daughters” explores how people end up learning the same hard lessons as those who come before them while also showcasing Braithwaite’s range as a writer. Her debut, “My Sister, the Serial Killer,” was an international best seller, and “Cursed Daughters” is brilliant as well, just in a completely different way. It’s Carolyn Huynh’s “The Fortunes of Jaded Women” comes to Lagos in a darker yet hopeful package. In “Cursed Daughters,” life circumstances are the product of years of history out of one’s control, not just one family member and obligation. It’s a lot less murder and a lot more figuring relationships out, trying to outrun the legacy of someone you’ve never met and beating fate.
To be sure, the curse feels real, and the situations that the Falodun women find themselves in are an above average amount of unfortunate, but it’s notable that the curse, especially for Eniiyi and her mother Ebun, feels far from destiny. The Falodun women may have terrible taste in men (many of whom are already married) and there are some extenuating circumstances, but the curse isn’t one that is randomly smiting people. The Falodun women are making choices, often bad ones, which makes the curse a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the later generations, the fear of the curse causes characters to act in anxiety, preemptively self-sabotaging or rejecting their partners before they can reject them.
In short, it’s not that different from modern dating. Relationships require vulnerability and interdependence, and after your heart is broken a few times, it’s natural to be on guard. The person you love may not love you back; the person you choose might make terrible choices. But if you’re always trying not to get hurt, you end up without anything real. Curse or not, the Falodun women choose to love, themselves and others. And that’s the real magic of the book.
