Cursed Daughters: Poor approaches to relationships are pretty universal
A literary novel shows that lies and trickery are not likely to be a successful approach to romance.
Cursed Daughters
By Oyinkan Braithwaite
Published by Doubleday
Release date: November 4, 2025
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The absurd complexities of romantic relationships are a common theme in fiction. In fact, that’s pretty much what the entire romance genre is based on. The difficulty of finding the right romantic partner and building a healthy relationship is something that is pretty universally recognizable. But it’s interesting to see a different sort of perspective on these ideas through a narrative that’s centered in a culture outside of what we’re used to in the Western world. That’s what Oyinkan Braithwaite gives us in Cursed Daughters, building a multi-generational family saga that demonstrates the way that stunningly wrongheaded ideas about romance can be perpetuated.
Braithwaite’s first novel, My Sister, the Serial Killer, was a memorable combination of thriller and family drama taking place in the vibrant setting of Lagos, Nigeria. With her second book, Braithwaite returns to Lagos, and she takes a more expansive view of family drama, one that’s less murderous, focusing instead on certain types of emotional violence. Through a narrative that jumps around in time, she tells the story of the Falodun family, which has been suffering from a perceived curse in which women are always unlucky in love. While this curse may or may not have actual supernatural origins, it has become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, with each generation of women passing it on to the next and causing their daughters to act in unhelpful ways as they try and fail to form lasting relationships.
The story does detail some of the travails of past generations, going back to the woman who was originally cursed when she tricked a married man into taking her as a second wife, spurring conflict with his first wife. However, its main focus is on three women: cousins Monife and Ebun, who live together with their mothers in the Falodun family home, and Ebun’s daughter Eniiyi. The book opens with Monife’s death by suicide in the year 2000, which is immediately followed by Eniiyi’s birth. Then it divides its narrative among the three of them, following Monife throughout the 1990s to see the events leading up to her death, seeing Ebun raise Eniiyi throughout the 2000s and 2010s, and jumping forward to the 2020s to see how Eniiyi, now grown, is still dealing with the effects of the actions of her mother and aunt.
Monife’s story is the one that features the most heartbreak, which makes sense, given that we know how it ended up. She falls in love with a young man that she refers to as Golden Boy, partially because he has lighter skin, but also because he comes from a rich family. While things start out well for them due to the usual attitudes that young people have in which they believe that they can conquer any obstacle they may face, events soon transpire to disrupt their happiness, including parental interference and jealousy. Before long, Monife is capitulating to her mother’s superstitious beliefs and trying to use “juju” to keep her man.
The tragedy suffered by Monife casts a long shadow over both Ebun and Eniiyi, especially when the latter seems to be the spitting image of her aunt. Throughout Eniiyi’s childhood, Ebun has to fend off the attitudes of Monife’s mother, who believes that her daughter has been reincarnated. This idea continues to affect Eniiyi once she reaches adulthood, especially when she begins her own romance with a light-skinned boy from a rich family who seems perfect for her. Will she be able to break the cycle and end the curse, or is she doomed to a similar fate as Monife?
All of this makes for excellent drama, with family secrets looming over every relationship these women have as they struggle to deal with longstanding beliefs and traditions while trying to strike out on their own and succeed where their progenitors have failed. Braithwaite maintains a sense of uncertainty about whether there really is a curse and whether Eniiyi really is the reincarnation of Monife, occasionally hinting that there may be supernatural elements to everything that is happening but also demonstrating that the problems affecting the characters are based on real emotions and the effects of their actions.
Ultimately, the story shows the importance of building real relationships rather than focusing on schemes or superstition to try to defeat a perceived curse. The examples set by previous generations show that the various methods women use to try to catch and keep men are doomed to fail. When women try to ignore their own needs in order to be the wives that they believe their husbands want, allow men to cheat so that they don’t feel tied down in their marriages, or treat relationships like transactions in which they use sex and companionship to obtain money or other benefits, they’re not building partnerships that are going to last, and they’re always going to be disappointed. The characters ultimately need to recognize that in order to break the cycle and end the curse, they will need to defeat unhealthy attitudes and treat the men in their lives as real people rather than prizes to be won.
Fortunately, Braithwaite makes the journey toward that moral a compelling one, delivering plenty of good drama between the characters and building to some very effective emotional moments as we learn exactly why Monife did what she did and the lessons that the other characters should be able to learn from her mistakes. Braithwaite’s depictions of Nigerian families, their cultural practices, the ways they drop Yoruba language into their conversations, and other aspects of their lives are vibrant and engaging. She makes you care about the characters and feel the weight of their actions across decades and generations. This is excellent literary writing, the kind of family drama that draws you in and keeps you invested, hoping that the characters will be able to get out of their own way and find the happiness they are trying so hard to achieve.
If her first two books are any indication, Braithwaite should have a long career ahead of her as she provides readers with the opportunity to experience life in cultures that are both exotic and recognizable. Even though her work is well outside of the genres that I usually read, her writing is good enough that I’ll be sure to check out whatever she decides to write.