Thank you PRH Audio for the ALC and Doubleday #partner, for the advanced copy of Cursed Daughters in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Doubleday / Random House Audio
Published: November 4, 2025
Summary:
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’–New York Times)
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, fostered and fanned by the entire family, that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps in all ways, including that tragic end.
There is also the matter of the family curse: “No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace…” which has been handed down from generation to generation, breaking hearts and causing three generations of abandoned Falodun women to live under the same roof.
When Eniiyi falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family’s history. As several women in her family have done before, she ill-advisedly seeks answers in older, darker spiritual corners of Lagos, demanding solutions. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak? Or can she break the pattern once and for all, not only avoiding the spiral that led Monife to her lonely death, but liberating herself from all the family secrets and unspoken traumas that have dogged her steps since before she could remember?
Cursed Daughters is a brilliant cocktail of modernity and superstition, vibrant humor and hard-won wisdom, romantic love and familial obligation. With it’s unforgettable cast of characters, it asks us what it means to be given a second chance and how to live both wisely and well with what we’ve been given.
My thoughts:
I loved this book! Family sagas are always a favorite, and this one just hit the spot. I was immediately pulled into this story of loss, love and a generational family curse. I loved the way the story was told in a nonlinear way – yes, it takes a beat to get used to, but once you do, it all flows beautifully. And interspersed in this is snippets of the curse itself, giving history of the women in the family who came before.
This easily will be one of my top reads of the year and a book I know I’ll reread. It is such an original, unique story and one I’ll be recommending to everyone!
Audio thoughts:
I started off doing an immersive read, pairing the print with the audio, and then switched just to the audio — this is brilliantly narrated by three amazing narrators, Diana Yekinni, Nnei Opia Clark, and Weruche Opia — and they bring the story to life so effortlessly & authentically that I felt fully immersed in the story.
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