As I read more by African authors, set in Africa, I am made more and more aware of how class distinctions are such a part of everyday city life in places like Nigeria – as these cultures were hierarchal pre-Westernizarion, it seems somewhat inevitable that the people remain highly stratified, if not solely by birth than definitely by wealth. However, unlike authors in the USA, African writers do not shy away from making it very clear that their characters are very aware of their place in the social pecking order and throw that weight around without blinking. Having that weight is what makes this story workable.

This is a tale of two sisters, Ayoola and Korede: one strikingly beautiful, one not-so-much, born into an elite family that has made them into their adult selves: a sociopath and her enabler. Because they are sisters, they benefit from their class identities but are weighed down by their gender in a culture of machismo – so who among us can completely blame the sociopath for dealing with problematic males as she does … and then failing to feel remorse for her actions and going right back on the ‘gram to promote herself? The storyteller is the enabler, a nurse and all-around helpful & useful person who will never be valued as she should because her exterior, as a woman, is what determines worth in the shallowness of the post-colonial social media-obsessed Lagos that serves as our setting: not that these sisters couldn’t operate similarly in most any other place in our world where the cops are mostly corrupt and inept, the Rule of Law is so much lip service (yes, this includes the USA), and surfaces are everything.

Happily, the author is telling a singular story here that lets us feel Korede’s aggravation and desire to protect her sister as it can only happen to people living in Lagos. She also allows a pleasant dark humour to permeate since Korede is smart and smart people should always see and appreciate the ridiculous as well as the sublime. Though I do hope that someday Korede might relax enough to write a second entry in her TEDx-inspired notebook that was supposed to chronicle one thing that made her happy every day.

Warning: the only truly likable man in this tale is in a coma. Some days, this seems about correct.