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

i mean already bonus points for being australian. like idk the tone of this book just makes sense to be australian. it’s so goofy and wacky yet insane. once i realised the setting i went “ahhh yes everything already makes sense”.

also props to the writing of ernest. not only is he so incredibly funny, but he’s intelligent and intriguing. he has a personality beyond the detective role in this novel, and his fourth wall breaks were just epic. i mean cmon him telling us after someone’s vomiting “she’s not pregnant u idiots i know it’s a cliche but she’s not pregnant i can assure you”. and this book is just that for like 370 pages which was AMAZING. i always love me some well-timed meta-commentaries and this book is filled to the brim with it. i’m so serious at times i was doubting this was a work of fiction and not just an autobiography with some names changed.

the other characters in this cast felt a little flat to me, but i think that’s just because there’s so many people. almost everyone except ernest is reduced to one or two facts about them until the very end where there is exposition diarrhoea about every single character.

except andy bro was just along for the ride. he started the story with a beer, and ended it with hitting someone with a fire poker. thank you for your service andy

and that brings me to why this book isn’t 5-stars — the actual mystery. now i will always give a book credit where credit is due, in that i didn’t guess the killer. yay!!!! but honestly i don’t think i could if i tried. so much was going on even at my hardest i could not follow what was going on. and when this character is hiding x and this character is hiding y and this character is hiding z i was just flatlining. there’s a fine line between keeping your audience on their toes and letting your mc figure out the mystery just before they do, and having ur reader so fucking lost that they have no hope of figuring it out until the great reveal where all is explained. like yes okkkkk i do understand how this all went down at the end…. but holy shit there were so many fucking moving pieces and conclusions leapt to by one liners i really had no hope. and that is where this book lets me down. it’s trying to be so clever and it does achieve that, but at the risk of the reader having to just roll with the punches because almost every chapter there is a plot twist and at some point you just cannot keep up with them anymore.

i will say though that i will defo be continuing this series, as although i just bitched and moaned about how this book was too intelligent, i still had a great time.

i will say though that as much as this book tries to sell to the readers that it is not your average mystery novel…… by the end it lowkey does turn out to be 🤐

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xqueenybee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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joxinabox's review against another edition

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funny mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

I absolutely ADORE this book, I think it's my favorite mystery novel I've ever read.

Ernest and his family feel like incredibly real people, all of them are flawed but extremely lovable. Ernie has this witty narration style that pokes fun at the mystery genre without dipping into outright insulting it, instead many of the jabs feel loving and lighthearted towards the typical tropes of a mystery novel. There's a lot of clever clues and build ups to the big twists, this is absolutely a novel you'll want to read/listen to several times. You'll pick up on so much on your other read throughs. I like them so much I refuse to mention spoilers in this review less I give it all away for someone who gets a little too nosy before they read the book. Go read this right now.

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megspiteri's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

This is a great whodunnit. It's extremely self aware and is very strict on following the rules of murder mystery. The whole plot comes together really nicely without it being ruined by annoying things like a huge coincidence, characters that you didn't know about or magic powers. I really like the writing style and I genuinely had no idea how it was going to end. The only reason it isn't 5 stars is it didn't have me so gripped that I had to keep reading - having said that it is partially my fault because I've been very busy and had less time and motivation to read. But overall a great murder mystery and I'm for sure going to read the rest of the series

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