Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

51 reviews

agirlsnightbookbash's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, and Alcohol

stephliljazz's review against another edition

funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

2.75

This was my first step into crime fiction. it is kind of hard to follow for me. I think it's just me though because the story was good. Crime mystery with twists and turns and lots of family drama with a very slow pace. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Suicide, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

Minor: Alcoholism, Vomit, Car accident, and Alcohol

daniellekat's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.75

This was so fun and exciting. The pacing moved well and I liked the unique structure of the having the "author" speak directly to the reader. There were times where the plot got a bit confusing, but I think it helped that I read this over a very short period of time. The writing was witty and easy to follow but

the whole bit with Ernest's hand made no sense. There is no way he would have be able to do as much as he did given how much damage there was.

Overall, I was invested in this from the start and while the big reveal didn't shock me there were points that had me guessing throughout. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, Suicide, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, and Alcohol

vailtoset10'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, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

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

kumquats87's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Death follows the Cunningham family around like thunder follows lightning. Why wouldn’t it follow them to a family reunion?

A lot of fun, and a mystery that keeps you on tenterhooks until the very end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child death and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction and Alcohol

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

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

random_reader's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

emilywemily6's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed this book! Though the humor is definitely more slapstick/punchline than my personal humor. This book is also extremely self aware (the narrator is one of the family members telling the story) and refers to the editor, specific word choices as the writer, etc. There were also lots of page numbers mentioned (to foreshadow when people die or when certain cryptic events happen, to look back on previous happenings and add more clarity to them, etc.) which was fun and different. I kept flipping back and forth to double check things and to see when the next mention of death was. So this was a fun read, even if the style was not the perfect fit for me and took a little bit to really get into it. My biggest gripes are that some of the evidence reveals were really hard to understand even if I kept rereading them, and the flow of information was sometimes hard to follow as a result of all the time hopping. The narrator told the truth as he knew it to be at the time things happened, but he didn’t have a perfect knowledge and that muddied the waters too. The plot twist at the very end of the book did me in and left me with more questions than the original plot of the story unfortunately. But I enjoyed this book and I liked how different it was from other books I’ve read. The subtle commentary on killing versus murder was an interesting aside as well (because as the readers we are also biased by how we read into words). I will look forward to reading other things by this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Kidnapping, and Abandonment

Minor: Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Car accident, and Alcohol

cartridgepink's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Great book. I was having so much fun I stopped trying to work out the mystery and just enjoyed reading instead. (I did work it out anyway but that's not the point.) Funny, layered without being overly convoluted, great characters, and a satisfying mystery to boot.

Last year I went to a Melb Writers Festival event where Ben was a speaker. I hadn't read the book but was a fan of him + his brother's musical comedy. Panel goes well, Ben cracks jokes all the way through, then they open it up to Q&A and an elderly lady in the front row says, "Are you actually a comedian?" Honestly as brutal as some of the murders in the book. Gotta respect it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Infertility, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Emotional abuse and Pregnancy