Book Club Night Kit

Cursed Daughters

Oyinkan Braithwaite

Cozy night

A warm, wry, and strange family story from the author of My Sister, the Serial Killer, where an inherited curse winds through generations of Lagos women. It is short enough to finish in a weekend and tender enough to talk about all night.

Come break a curse with us (snacks provided)

We are reading Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite, so bring your softest socks and your family's strangest superstition. There will be jollof, warm hibiscus, and absolutely no pressure to have finished the book.

Reading level: Easy Pages: 372

Best for: A club that likes family stories with a little magic in them, and that would rather feel their way through a book than dissect it

Discussion

Warm-up

1.Before we talk about anything else: was there a superstition in your own family growing up, something you were told not to do in case it brought bad luck?
2.What was the moment in the early chapters where you felt yourself settle in and trust this book, where you thought, yes, I want to spend an evening here?

Digging in

1.The women in this family keep inheriting something they never asked for. What have you quietly inherited from the women in your family, good or heavy, that you only noticed later?
2.Braithwaite is funny in the middle of sad things. Which bit of humor landed for you, and did laughing make the hard parts easier to sit with or a little more tender?
3.Where did the book feel most like home to you? Think of the domestic texture: kitchens, aunties arriving uninvited, phone calls, the particular noise of family. What did it remind you of?
4.The novel leaves room to read the curse as real or as a story a family tells itself. Which reading did you find more comforting, and why do you think you reached for that one?

Going deep

1.Somewhere in this book a woman decides she will not simply pass things down the way they were passed to her. Without giving anything away, what did that kind of decision cost in your own family, or what do you wish someone had been brave enough to break?
2.By the last stretch of the novel, had your feelings toward the mothers in this family softened, hardened, or just gotten more complicated? What in you do you think was doing the shifting?

On the table & to sip

To eat

Jollof rice with fried plantain

The most comforting, most argued-over dish in a Nigerian kitchen, and exactly the food a family in this novel would be eating while saying something devastating. Make one big pot, let people serve themselves.

Puff-puff, warm and dusted with sugar

Soft, sweet, slightly indulgent Nigerian fried dough. Easy to make from pantry basics and impossible to eat only one of, which is the whole point of a cozy night.

Pepper soup or a simple peppery chicken stew with soft bread

Nigerian pepper soup is what you are given when you are unwell or unlucky, which makes it the perfect dish for a book about women trying to break a run of bad fortune. Serve in mugs if you want people curled up on the sofa.

To sip

Hot hibiscus zobo with ginger, cloves, and pineapple (no alcohol)

The classic Nigerian hibiscus drink, served warm instead of iced so it works as a hugging-the-mug drink. Deep red, spiced, and faintly ceremonial, which suits a book about blessings and curses.

Spiced ginger and palm-sugar hot chocolate (no alcohol)

A warm, gently spiced mug for the slow second half of the evening, with enough ginger heat to nod at the West African pantry.

Dark rum and ginger beer, served warm with lime

A low-effort, high-comfort nightcap. One bottle of each on the counter and guests can mix their own, no bartending required.