Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

40 reviews

kayceeisbookish's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

A unique murder mystery with a dark humor twist. I highly enjoyed the melancholy narrator's tone as he uncoiled the web of knotted lies that started out as a standard family reunion.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Confinement, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, Infertility, Grief, Child death, Police brutality, Death of parent, Cursing, and Death

beepbeep101's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

“Family is not whose blood runs in your veins, it’s who you’d spill it for.” 

Fantastic. Twists all the way to the last page. The extra .25 is for the last quarter of the book or so, as so much happened right after each other that beautifully brought everything together and turned things on their head. I loved the narrative voice of Ern (who isn’t a crime writer but instead is a how-to-be-a-crime-writer writer), who recounts the book’s events with a sense of humor about the writing process. He even gives the page numbers at the beginning on which every death in the book will occur - something which sounds like it would spoil a great deal, but things often happen differently than you expect them to. 

A great read, though definitely check the content warnings, as it wasn’t quite as light as I expected it to be from word of mouth recommendations. It gets into revenge, PTSD, infidelity, infertility, and addiction, and descriptions of trauma and injuries were a bit heavier than I expected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Infertility, Suicide, Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Drug use, and Kidnapping

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Vomit, and Car accident

ashmak06's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Vomit, Suicide, Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Medical content, Torture, Blood, Drug abuse, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Drug use, and Emotional abuse

callie_castle's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Car accident, Kidnapping, Violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Grief, Murder, Medical content, Alcohol, Blood, and Confinement

Moderate: Gaslighting, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Addiction, Infertility, Trafficking, and Vomit

rachaelbunny's review against another edition

mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Addiction, Death of parent, and Infertility

Minor: Vomit and Alcoholism

chocolate_pondue's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is nothing like I expected but everything I appreciated. I first thought it was going to be a series of side stories but instead I got one cohesive, engaging, and captivating story. I love 4th wall mysteries because they are engaging and fun. The main character, Ernest, is enjoyable and even funny at some times. They say it's taboo to have a mystery in first person but Ernest tells within the first few pages that there would be no concealing, no embellishments, nothing but truths and facts as he knew them. Information is given to you like jumbled breadcrumbs but to create order in the chaos, the novel stops at certain points to recap and make sure you understand the facts and clues that you have been given. For mystery fans, that is what true mysteries are about. I've never felt more like I was working on the case myself than I did in this book. Though I was able to guess who the killer was, I didn't guess who the killer was, and the twist at the end was satisfying. I was engaged in the characters stories and motives, their actions and reactions, their emotions and suspicious behavior. All in all this book deserves 5/5 stars! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Police brutality, Self harm, and Suicide

Moderate: Vomit, Confinement, Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Car accident, Grief, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship

tlholmes's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Death, Child death, Death of parent, Confinement, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment

preciouslittleingenue's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad 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

4.5

SUCH a compelling, captivating read. It was actually very cool to read this kind of mystery after finishing Meddling Kids, because though they’re both mystery, they are VASTLY different. And yet, I giggled nearly as much reading both. This is a DARK story. Lots of death. Including

child death.

Yet the author is so clever in how chooses to use the meta narrative, how he addresses his audience, and how he delivers information that it’s impossible not to giggle. Not to mention some of the dialogue was KILLING me (no pun intended). Like, I went from feeling sick to my stomach when

Ernie found Michael and absolutely lost it, the poor baby,

to LAUGHING not a minute later because the author had a character crack a joke about the death that JUST HAPPENED. Insane. How does he do that??

And the mystery itself! It truly just kept me guessing. The title obviously immediately makes one curious, and you spend the whole book wondering under what circumstances EVERYONE killed someone. And each reveal had me going either “OHHHHHH DUH” or “*gasp* oh my god”. Seriously, the reveal that Audrey killed

Jeremy by LOCKING HIM IN A CAR IN THE SUMMER ON TOP OF A PARKING GARAGE seriously made me feel so ill. But then!!! As soon as they revealed he was kidnapped after all, I KNEW HE WAS ALIVE! But I did NOT see it coming that he was in the cop all along! That was awesome!

 

And every little thing was important, as Ernie said it would be. I don’t know why I didn’t believe him right away when he said every little detail would matter but I should have! Also, I knew I didn’t trust

poor Rebecca’s parents…what a motherfucker her father is.

ANYWAY, just heard this will be a series and I CANT WAIT FOR MORE. Only reason it’s not a full 5/5 is just because I’m a little slow and a lot of the final explanations I kind of just went “well, okay, yes I guess that’s what happened” because I forgot/couldn’t follow wtf he was talking about lol. Also, I went from “oh another story where everyone is a horrible, irredeemable person, and I just get to wait and see who the worst of them all is” to “wow…I…actually feel very sorry for these people and I’m kind of sad so many of them died.” THAT is impressive. I am very difficult to sway on how I feel about people. Even fictional ones. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Child death, Blood, Death of parent, Child abuse, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Drug use and Drug abuse

bubblehead_1994's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Infidelity, Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Blood, Abandonment, Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, and Suicide

missrosymaplemoth's review against another edition

4.75

A fast paced, thrilling murder mystery with elements of humor and humanity at every turn. I absolutely loved this book despite some gross details and on-the-nose narration. I did not predict the killer or the ending at all, and the two (!) plot twists truly surprised me. Un-put-downable in every sense. A few points knocked off for some of the reveals and information/clues being convoluted and confusing.

☀️8/20

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Vomit, Addiction, Car accident, Confinement, Infertility, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship