“Cursed Daughters” by Oyinkan Braithwaite is the story of sisters, mothers, daughters — and a family curse.
Jenna Bush Hager said the book, the November 2025 Read with Jenna pick, “delighted her.”
“This is a book about family, sisterhood and what it means to fall in love,” Jenna said, with “a few epic love stories at the center.”
Braithwaite offered a few books to read after finishing "Cursed Daughters." Like her followup to "My Sister the Serial Killer," these options are macabre and intoxicating, with strong women and memorable settings.
Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 classic opens in sunny Monaco, where a young woman meets, and falls for, a dashing older man. After a whirlwind romance, he whisks her away to his coastal England home — where she learns the legacy of his ex-wife still looms so large she is practically a ghost. How will our nameless narrator deal with the presence of Rebecca? Du Maurier’s novel goes to unexpected and unforgettable places.
Like in “Cursed Daughters,” “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” is about a quirky family in a large, empty house. Shirley Jackson's novel is famous for its charged sister relationship and for a narrator who is charming, but far from reliable.
“Cursed Daughters” looks at many years in one Nigerian family’s romantic history, including accounts of multiple wives. Poet Lola Shoneyin’s fiction debut is also a family saga set in Nigeria is a novel about modern-day polygamy, following a man, his four wives and their seven children.
Ines goes home to Wales after many years away, bringing her fiancé in tow. Greeting her are her mother and two sisters, with baggage and dreams and secrets of their own. Can they get past their defenses and find connection?
Genevieve Yang grows up thinking she was an only child. Then, a girl shows up, bringing with her family secrets. The novel tracks Genevieve and Arin’s diverging paths in Singapore over many years.