Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Family Game

I picked this up because it is the Literally Dead Book Club pick for the month of October.
"The Family Game" is a fast-paced thriller that follows a woman named Harry. Harry's life could be going better. She is struggled to write her second novel following the success of her first, but at least she has Edward. Edward is a seemingly perfect man, and he has just proposed to Harry. However, Harry has never met Edward's family. With the holidays just around the corner, now seems like the perfect time for Harry to meet all of the Holbecks, until Harry learns of their ruthless games and cutthroat attitudes towards one another.
This was a fast-paced, thrilling mystery with the added layer of a game. The Holbecks have some very eccentric holiday traditions, and honestly if I were Harry, I would have stormed out of the house far more quickly. As I have recently read "The Inheritance Games", this book reminded me quite a bit of that plot. The Holbecks do not come right out and say anything. They have a tendency to play games and leave riddles for people to try to guess what is really going on. "The Family Game" was also much more deadly.
The Holbecks have some dark secrets they are trying to keep buried, and those mysteries left me on my toes throughout the book. Just when I thought I had everything figured out, another layer of the story was introduced, and I was thrown for a loop. Ultimately, I did not see the ending coming, and I enjoyed where the story ended up.
This book takes place during the holiday season, and because of that, it is very atmospheric. The depictions of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and snow made me excited for the season to come, and I highly recommend this thriller during the months of November and December.
Harry is an author in this book, but I did not think this fact did a lot for her character. I think the reader is supposed to see that Harry is an author and because of this she knows how to investigate. However, for me, her character felt very amateur in her sleuthing and the fact that she was an author was just a small part of the story.
I had a pretty good time reading this, and I will keep an eye out for more from Catherine Steadman in the future!

Content Warnings

javafenn's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Catherine Steadman is an author that is have unwittingly gravitated towards. I love her slow burn suspense and her narration is spectacular! The fact that she narrates her own books is kind of what draws me to her. I also really love that her stories involve a lot of mystery without being TOO mysterious and the main character doesn’t seem unreliable. In this story, Harriet (Harry) Reed is getting married into one of America’s most wealthy families. Her future husband, Edward, seems to have steered clear of them for several years because, he claims, they are overbearing and he implies they are scary. She joins Edward to visit his family for Thanksgiving where she meets the patriarch, a handsome, powerful man who immediately seems to read Harriet from the moment he sees her. That first dinner together proves to be the spark that ignites the fire of this off putting family and Harriet. As she finds out, everyone has secrets and those secrets can be used against you. I loved not knowing who was good and who was bad and I also loved how it ended, I just wish *blank* wasn’t the bad one. Also, the hard use of the word “cunt” towards the end was so fantastically wonderful and appropriate.

Content Warnings