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Reviews tagging 'Violence'
How to murder your Boss – McMasters Handbuch zum Morden by Rupert Holmes
69 reviews
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A great mix of dark humor, thriller, and a little Hogwarts-esque fantasy! A little slow and predictable sometimes, but I can appreciate the base idea here, especially as a fan of horror and thriller comedies.
Kind of wish the end was a little more flushed out though. I’m glad to see the three characters reunite, but was almost too happy and predictable of an ending for what’s overall such a dark comedy. Was the love interest really necessary if it wasn’t going to be fully addressed or developed? Could the Dean really not see his own death coming? How many students are offered to come back as faculty like that?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Pros: Lighthearted and humorous tone, charming fictional setting with a dark academia/more "grownup" Hogwarts vibe, the bits of the story that focused exclusively on the schooling and classes were the most fun and intriguing!
Cons: The plot wasn't particularly strong and felt somewhat bland at times for a novel centered on "how to murder someone" fictionally of course. I only found one of the three main characters highly likeable, the other two were unremarkable. The resolution at the end left something to be desired in my opinion.
Cons: The plot wasn't particularly strong and felt somewhat bland at times for a novel centered on "how to murder someone" fictionally of course. I only found one of the three main characters highly likeable, the other two were unremarkable. The resolution at the end left something to be desired in my opinion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Sexism, Violence, Sexual harassment
Minor: Racism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gaslighting
Set in the 1950s, so sexism is prevalent in heavy doses alongside sexual harassment. Brief racism encounters mentioned also.
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Homophobia
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying
Moderate: Death, Suicide, Violence, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol
Minor: Drug use, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
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
Good idea but terrible execution. Doria and Gemma were after thoughts and Cliff used up too much thought. The whole thing was a convoluted mess with long sentences, clunky paragraphs, and unnecessary chapters slowing now the pacing at intense plot points. I mean Gemma was possibly killed and there were about 4 chapters between her getting crushed by cinderblocks and us checking in on her at the hospital to see if she even was alive Gemma was never meant to succeed. She was never meant to be anything other than an object for Cliff to fond over. We were only introduced to her “backstory” after Cliff had been dreaming of her and acting like he knew her. The misunderstanding keeping them apart was her relationship with Jud, but that was just because she had to “platonically seduce?” Her target so she needed practice. Like I said that was all just made up for the purpose of making Cliff jealous. And she was set up to fail, with her flimsy little plan all the teachers said would fail, but they graduated her anyone despite them all agreeing that she wasn’t ready… because Cliff was ready. And if Cliff wasn’t going to be at school to play water polo and work in the kitchen, then why would the narrative bother taking place at the school? For female characters to exist outside the male gaze of the real and only protagonist? No she she had to go and she had to fail because how else could she return to the school and be reunited with her beloved whom she had never spoken to. How else could she have a happy ending? it was a general convoluted mess with deep sea diving, secret trash can drop offs, cross dressing, stealing cars, something about the Dali lama and there was this one Latvian delivery boy? It was impossibly to follow. There were no real plot twists and between Cora, Gemma, and doria there was an unsettling demonization of female sexuality as if their sexuality was owned by some polygamous man or another with true female promiscuity being severely punished and virginal purity being rewarded. Even if the narrator did call out this double standard and did punish the worst male offenders. But it was clear in the end that the pure girl would be rewarded by winning Cliff, and the independent woman who don’t need no man would be turned into a pig one way or another, and that Cliff is the only true protagonist
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Medical content, Sexual harassment
The audio book has great narrators and the physical copy has nice illustrations
But overall I would not recommend it. Reviews from 1 star to 3 stars all agree that understanding was severely hampered by how convoluted and unnecessarily long it was
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gore, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Alcohol
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What an interesting twist on the assassin genre! Functionally this book is about a boarding school for wannabe killers, where we follow their journey for the first half of the book at the murder school, and for the second half of the book we follow their attempts to kill their chosen targets.
The book was a split POV, the majority of it told through the journal entries of Cliff, our primary narrator. On occasion (more near the end of the novel) we switch to third person POV to follow Gemma and Doria. All three of our main characters want to kill their employer, hence the book’s name, and to be honest, you understand really quickly why they do.
I think the characters were well fleshed out — it was easy to understand their motivations, their pasts, and their flaws. For the most part I found them likable and rooted for their success, except for when it felt like the author was trying too hard to make Cliff a “good guy.”
There was an instance in which Cliff reacted to a situation with a woman he liked jealously though he had no right, and the author twisted Cliff up in knots acknowledging that Cliff had no right to feel that way (he didn’t) but at least he understood he was being a hypocritical pig. I’m not attempting to police the characters’ actions — they don’t need to be overtly moral or good, obviously, because they are literally trying to kill people — and in fact I think we ran into the opposite problem here. By having Cliff identify his own actions in romanticizing someone he has no relationship with as wrong, he’s become someone almost without flaws. You could make the argument that this makes sense, considering he’s presenting himself and he wants to present himself as perfect, but I’ve read enough AITA posts to know even when you’re trying to present yourself perfectly you never manage to do it, well, perfectly. This just read like the author was trying to present him perfectly, which was annoying.
As for the plot itself, it was really good once we got the murder bits. Unfortunately I found the murder school to be a bit dull, which was unexpected and unfortunate. It was described well and all the classes seemed really cool, but we were mostly following Cliff, and he was sort of dull, so it felt like we got a very narrow view of both the campus and the classes. What little we did get of the curriculum was fascinating — especially on how it’s built into every activity on campus — and the glimpses we get of how difficult it is to build relationships and distance with classmates who are literally training in murder is probably the best part of the boarding school half.
Kudos to all the little murder tips, by the way. You can also tell a whole lot of research (…at least I hope it was research) went into the book.
Once we got on the road, so to speak, and our main three went about applying the McMasters principles to their murder plot, the book picked up in pace by a lot. I flew through the latter part of this book, just wanting to know how each person planned their murder or fucked it up. Right off the bat you’re told not everyone succeeded in their plot, and you can deduce maybe halfway through who it was, which did make that particular murder plot slightly less interesting to follow. But the target on that mission was suitably infuriating enough, and the would-be killer suitably likable, that it was still a good plot line to follow.
I think my main critique was with the romance subplot. It felt shoe-horned in, unnecessary, and extremely underdeveloped. This is where Cliff’s “nice guy” persona makes him super irritating. It didn’t feel like there was any foundation to the romance at all, beyond a few conversations and some embarrassingly brief eye contact. In no way was I rooting for this relationship, and any time it came up I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
The other critique I had was that sometimes the book didn’t follow its own logic. McMasters, we’re told, is specifically in the business of helping people kill people that ticks off each of the “Four Enquiries,” whereby the elimination of the target must be necessary, must benefit others, must not harm others, and must be the last resort. There are numerous instances of this not being the case. One such case, Jud Helkampf, is acknowledged by the Dean, but you’re a murder school; if someone’s flagrantly breaking the rules, why don’t you just get rid of them? Then, at the end, Doria indicates she may use her skills again, even though her target in that case wouldn’t fulfill the prerequisites for murder, not that that seemed to bother the Dean in the slightest. The more you think about the logic of McMasters, the less sense it makes, and that’s not to do with the existence of the school itself, but with the author’s rules about its existence that don’t align consistently.
And, finally, the dialogue. This is a bit nitpicky on my part — the book is presented as a recreation of events, from witness testimony, memory, and journal entries. As such I know I can’t expect it to be totally accurate, much like I wouldn’t expect a memoir to be totally accurate. However, I did expect (maybe wrongfully) for the dialogue to be more natural, more smooth. There were instances in which it was obvious that the characters were providing exposition in an overt, info-dump manner. The way some of them talked — and I did keep in mind that this is set in the mid-twentieth century — read at times as unnatural, and jolted me out of the story. That’s just a personal grievance, however, and can technically, if one wanted, be explained away by the nature of the text itself.
Though I didn’t have a problem with it, I can understand some might: the ending was too neat. Too clean. Not the murders — this is set in the 50s, so honestly I think our main characters went to far too much trouble, but the end result of our killers’ stories. It felt tied up with a pretty little bow, happily ever after all around (well, except one) which I personally don’t take issue with, but still acknowledge all the same.
Overall this was a quirky, unique book that kept me guessing the whole way through. If Rupert Holmes comes out with a sequel, which I think I read he was working on, I’ll definitely be reading that one too.
The book was a split POV, the majority of it told through the journal entries of Cliff, our primary narrator. On occasion (more near the end of the novel) we switch to third person POV to follow Gemma and Doria. All three of our main characters want to kill their employer, hence the book’s name, and to be honest, you understand really quickly why they do.
I think the characters were well fleshed out — it was easy to understand their motivations, their pasts, and their flaws. For the most part I found them likable and rooted for their success, except for when it felt like the author was trying too hard to make Cliff a “good guy.”
There was an instance in which Cliff reacted to a situation with a woman he liked jealously though he had no right, and the author twisted Cliff up in knots acknowledging that Cliff had no right to feel that way (he didn’t) but at least he understood he was being a hypocritical pig. I’m not attempting to police the characters’ actions — they don’t need to be overtly moral or good, obviously, because they are literally trying to kill people — and in fact I think we ran into the opposite problem here. By having Cliff identify his own actions in romanticizing someone he has no relationship with as wrong, he’s become someone almost without flaws. You could make the argument that this makes sense, considering he’s presenting himself and he wants to present himself as perfect, but I’ve read enough AITA posts to know even when you’re trying to present yourself perfectly you never manage to do it, well, perfectly. This just read like the author was trying to present him perfectly, which was annoying.
As for the plot itself, it was really good once we got the murder bits. Unfortunately I found the murder school to be a bit dull, which was unexpected and unfortunate. It was described well and all the classes seemed really cool, but we were mostly following Cliff, and he was sort of dull, so it felt like we got a very narrow view of both the campus and the classes. What little we did get of the curriculum was fascinating — especially on how it’s built into every activity on campus — and the glimpses we get of how difficult it is to build relationships and distance with classmates who are literally training in murder is probably the best part of the boarding school half.
Kudos to all the little murder tips, by the way. You can also tell a whole lot of research (…at least I hope it was research) went into the book.
Once we got on the road, so to speak, and our main three went about applying the McMasters principles to their murder plot, the book picked up in pace by a lot. I flew through the latter part of this book, just wanting to know how each person planned their murder or fucked it up. Right off the bat you’re told not everyone succeeded in their plot, and you can deduce maybe halfway through who it was, which did make that particular murder plot slightly less interesting to follow. But the target on that mission was suitably infuriating enough, and the would-be killer suitably likable, that it was still a good plot line to follow.
I think my main critique was with the romance subplot. It felt shoe-horned in, unnecessary, and extremely underdeveloped. This is where Cliff’s “nice guy” persona makes him super irritating. It didn’t feel like there was any foundation to the romance at all, beyond a few conversations and some embarrassingly brief eye contact. In no way was I rooting for this relationship, and any time it came up I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
The other critique I had was that sometimes the book didn’t follow its own logic. McMasters, we’re told, is specifically in the business of helping people kill people that ticks off each of the “Four Enquiries,” whereby the elimination of the target must be necessary, must benefit others, must not harm others, and must be the last resort. There are numerous instances of this not being the case. One such case, Jud Helkampf, is acknowledged by the Dean, but you’re a murder school; if someone’s flagrantly breaking the rules, why don’t you just get rid of them? Then, at the end, Doria indicates she may use her skills again, even though her target in that case wouldn’t fulfill the prerequisites for murder, not that that seemed to bother the Dean in the slightest. The more you think about the logic of McMasters, the less sense it makes, and that’s not to do with the existence of the school itself, but with the author’s rules about its existence that don’t align consistently.
And, finally, the dialogue. This is a bit nitpicky on my part — the book is presented as a recreation of events, from witness testimony, memory, and journal entries. As such I know I can’t expect it to be totally accurate, much like I wouldn’t expect a memoir to be totally accurate. However, I did expect (maybe wrongfully) for the dialogue to be more natural, more smooth. There were instances in which it was obvious that the characters were providing exposition in an overt, info-dump manner. The way some of them talked — and I did keep in mind that this is set in the mid-twentieth century — read at times as unnatural, and jolted me out of the story. That’s just a personal grievance, however, and can technically, if one wanted, be explained away by the nature of the text itself.
Though I didn’t have a problem with it, I can understand some might: the ending was too neat. Too clean. Not the murders — this is set in the 50s, so honestly I think our main characters went to far too much trouble, but the end result of our killers’ stories. It felt tied up with a pretty little bow, happily ever after all around (well, except one) which I personally don’t take issue with, but still acknowledge all the same.
Overall this was a quirky, unique book that kept me guessing the whole way through. If Rupert Holmes comes out with a sequel, which I think I read he was working on, I’ll definitely be reading that one too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Death of parent
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was a good read. Very strange and I often was very confused. Even at the end I was confused. But I liked the progression of their plans and that we had a progression of the stories of each person. I also liked that each of their stories intertwined and that not all of their deletions worked. But the one that didn’t work felt right. I would like to know what happened to the Dean at the end. But other than that it was an entertaining book and one unlike any I’ve ever read before.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really liked this book as a concept. Execution wise I think could have been done much better.
The premise of a murderer academy where our main character learns how to and eventually kills his employer is a great one, and I enjoyed our main character Cliff Iverson's perspective for most of this book. However, I think where it got confusing was with the other 2 characters whose perspective we start getting only about midway into the book. I wish the book could have at least given us the very simple detail of -character name- at the start of each chapter to indicate whose POV we're reading. The constant jumping between POVs and having to read a few lines into each chapter to figure out who we're following was quite annoying to me.
Also the ending was slightly predictable for me personally. I did enjoy the entire campus setting and how Cliff Iverson carried out his murder though because it was true poetic justice.
The premise of a murderer academy where our main character learns how to and eventually kills his employer is a great one, and I enjoyed our main character Cliff Iverson's perspective for most of this book. However, I think where it got confusing was with the other 2 characters whose perspective we start getting only about midway into the book. I wish the book could have at least given us the very simple detail of -character name- at the start of each chapter to indicate whose POV we're reading. The constant jumping between POVs and having to read a few lines into each chapter to figure out who we're following was quite annoying to me.
Also the ending was slightly predictable for me personally. I did enjoy the entire campus setting and how Cliff Iverson carried out his murder though because it was true poetic justice.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Infidelity, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment