Reviews with content warning for Confinement - Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

A super fun read. It’s not quite a Christie but it’s very close. I appreciated the unique and refreshing narration which was able to seamlessly weave the backstory and present, stating all the facts without obscuring anything while not making the ending obvious. The book reads like the author had fun writing it while still being meticulously crafted. My one complaint is that the ending twist does feel a little like cheating, but only a little.

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75ayla's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

More like 3.5/5. But I always round up if I like how the author wrote the story line.

I very much enjoyed the satirical way the author wrote this. You won’t guess the twist at end in a way I’m not sure felt entirely satisfying but in a way that gave a very dramatic ending.

I would say if you’re looking for a comical take on a thriller this is probably the way for you to so.

That being said check your trigger warnings before you get started, especially is child death is on that list for you. Not positive if this would be considered a big spoiler so I marked it just to be safe.

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purplepenning's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious 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

That was a ride! I switched between reading and listening to this one. The audiobook is excellent and definitely captures the narrator's tone. I loved the narrator voice (both in the book and the audio), the cheeky metafictional deconstruction of mystery books, the setting and family dynamics, and the sheer bananas complicated and clever plot. The bit that could've gone better for me was the monologuing wrap-up/reveal. By that point, I was expecting something more deft than such a long spiel. It might not have lost me in print but I was listening to the audio at the time and felt like I wasn't quite getting all of it. Still — it was a fun read!

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bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

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funny mysterious 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? Yes

2.75

Ordinarily I'd rate this 2/5 stars. However, because I was dragged kicking and screaming through this audiobook for my work's book club, I don't think it's fair to take that out on the book. So fuck it: 2.75/5 stars.

This was a pretty solid locked-room murder mystery set in an Australian ski resort and concerning the Cunningham family who, by the narrator's own admission, have all killed people one way or another. The manner in which these family members have killed people is actually pretty anticlimactic and dull, but it makes for an interesting premise, and I was drawn into the story nonetheless, albeit against my will.

The thing that makes this book stand out from other books of its ilk is the narrator, who breaks the fourth wall continually, even going so far as to sometimes spoil the events of later chapters. He tells you the "rules" of how a murder mystery novel should work, and then doesn't break a single one of those rules, meaning he is knowingly not really subverting anything. And yet, despite spelling everything out so clearly and explicitly, this book still managed to surprise me in terms of who the culprit actually was, and why.

That being said, the mystery itself is not all that interesting, and things did get a bit convoluted in places. I struggled a little bit to keep up sometimes. It definitely didn't help that I was already uninterested in what was going on (because of aforementioned having to read it for work book club), but I can see reading other reviews that I'm not the only one who thought this, so I'm not blaming it entirely on that.

If you enjoy murder mysteries and want something that's told in a slightly different way than what you're used to, definitely give this one a try.

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mince's review against another edition

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challenging funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

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cc_shelflove's review against another edition

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challenging tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Hmmm. Ummmm… well, that was weird. This was not a quick read for me at all. It started off well, but the story became increasingly outlandish by the page. The *thrilling* aspects were missing and I didn’t find myself racing to turn the pages. Were there even any twists in this book? The format was extremely clever—the author promises to tell no lies and reveal clues clearly and succinctly—but the story itself just didn’t suck me in. The many characters, names, and intertwining events were distracting rather than enhancing. I will still check out the upcoming HBO series, but meh. I can’t help but compare this book to Daisy Darker, and I really didn’t like that one either.

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toffishay's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I had a lot of fun reading this. It's very meta in a way that was engaging and put me in the mindset of like Clue the movie in a weird way. It does a great job of grabbing you right away and introducing our cast of characters in a way that is natural and engaging. The plot took some turns that I wasn't expected and honestly got a little heavier than I thought it would. Some of the plot points didn't work as well for me and things do get really crazy at the end in way that kind of lost me.

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znvisser's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

At some point in my life it was my job to watch tv shows, and in doing that, detectives were never really my favourite genre. My preferences don't differ that much for books, so usually I steer away from those. Nevertheless, I picked this up because the title and description seemed funny enough. And even though it was a bit more murdery mystery than I realised in advance, I did enjoy reading this. The author plays with the genre in a fun way and enough was going on in terms of plot, characters and setting to keep me reading.

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