Reviews with content warning for Sexism - How to Kill Your Family: A Novel

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

How to Kill Your Family: A Novel by Bella Mackie

32 reviews

yafi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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anxieteaandbiscuits12's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I enjoyed the plot of the book and I was not expecting the ending but I didn’t feel like it was well written or executed, sometimes I felt like I was struggling through chapters, for example the email at the end was unexpected but was a bit of a slog to get through, especially so close to the end of the book. It also didn’t help that the book was told through a narrator who was unlikable and thought they were better than those they interacted with (the book did give a lot of indication that Grace was a narcissistic sociopath)

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elysianbud's review against another edition

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dark funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Writing style too a while to get used to and the characterisation isn't the most consistent in the world, but overall the plot is interesting enough. Did take me a while to wade through though, and the ending was iffy. Also oddly obsessed with lip filler.

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meeklovestoread's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

The amount of times this book put me to sleep should be criminal. I'm not the type where I have to like the characters to like a book, but my goodness I found Grace to be so intolerable and always constantly overly pessimistic and judgemental of literally everyone. As someone that seems to set on murdering these privileged peoole she seems just as pretentious as they are. The twist at the end still left some unanswered as to what happens to Grace.

And the introduction of Harry felt kinda rushed. I don't know. It just felt pretty random. Him being Simon's son and having him be the one to kill Simon. I don't know how I feel about that considering throughout most of the story we were in Grace's POV.

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rrenreads's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

the title was interesting and the plot idea sounds cool but the main character was fucking insufferable. being stuck in her mind the entire time wasn't fun; the fun parts were when she actually murders her family members, the rest of her thoughts not really. feeling conflicted about the ending tbh, i don't hate it but i don't love it...?

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neronina's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Very mad at the ending.

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leoniekross's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

If I was being generous, I would describe this book as unintentionally funny. And that is unfortunately the only thing it has going for it.
We follow Grace, the protagonist, as she narrates how she successfully killed several members of her family over the course of, I would say, about a year or two but was imprisoned for a murder she claims she did not commit.

The plot, while based on an exciting premise reminiscent of the tv series Revenge (if you haven't seen it, I can recommend it far more than this book), was sorely lacking in consistency in tension-building as well as planning and follow-through of the murders. The non-chronological storytelling definitely didn't do it any favours either.
From an editing perspective, I found the present-day prison chapters added nothing to the story and should have been omitted entirely. Would have been the same story but snappier if we had followed along as the crimes unfolded. That would even have given the chance for some insight into impulsive feelings and frantic thoughts that could have humanized the protagonist/narrator a lot.

Instead we got detached, brain-rottingly sarcastic misanthropy and fatphobic pick-me girl behaviour. After 200 pages she still keeps it up; we get it, you like nothing and nobody. Can we please. move. on. now. Sure, the author succeeded in creating an unlikable character but not in writing one I'd actually want to listen to.

All that is made worse by Grace thinking she's the smartest person in any room while behaving so dumb it hurts. She plans to murder her whole family but calling it a plan is a definitive overstatement.

She more so lucks into chance encounters and opportunities (even saying herself that she doesn't have a clue how to go about the murders beyond a vague idea) all while putting herself in immediate danger - driving headfirst towards another car on a cliff at full speed? Big brain energy right there. And then she takes keepsake trophies off her first few victims - a habit that is neither explained nor continued after a while nor has any consequences. It's not even mentioned after I believe the second death. Not even when she thinks about the police raiding her apartment.

Also, and this is definitely a petty one, she refuses to use the word whom. Sure, it's a nitpick but when a character is so convinced they are better and smarter than all the peasants around her, missed details like that only serve to make her look pathetic. Grace's stupidity is unfortunately what made me the most invested in this story.
The ending felt completely out of left field too. I was convinced for the longest time that

Kelly, Grace's cellmate, was an undercover PI hired by Simon Artemis (who had faked his own death) to dig up anything connecting Grace to the murders of his family. But no, instead we get the surprise long lost sibling arc within the established long lost daughter arc. Some long-winded explanation of family ties written by a self-righteous, kinda sexist asshole that makes Grace look even more naive and careless. A cliffhanger so bad you want to jump over the edge right alongside the characters.

It's not cozy, not intelligent, not suspenseful, and definitely not a good set-up for the sequel that the ending seems to lead into. Can't recommend it to anyone, really.

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sedgewren's review against another edition

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funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

An incisive critique of class in Britain/London, with some murder to spice it up. Sharp writing, with an ending that was deliciously hinted at but I didn't fully grasp until it played out. Wished there was slightly more tie-up at the end, but it worked with the story.

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blackbeeomalley's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

So much potential. The plot dragged, page long paragraphs of inane detail, no character development, and lack of tension with the murders.

The ending felt rushed and was out of the blue no matter how much Mackie tried to pepper in hints.

Main character, Grace, was written to be unlikeable but I believe Mackie forgot that you can add complexities to unlikeable characters. As others had said disdain is not a personality. I really didn’t care about her character - I didn’t want her to succeed or fail I just didn’t care.

In all, it felt that Mackie had a great idea and half way gave up - wasn’t sure how to pull this off. I really struggled to get to the end of this.

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ellafranks's review against another edition

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dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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