Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

76 reviews

purplepenning's review

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Child death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Suicide, Violence, Alcohol, Addiction, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

goroskiju's review

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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was done in a really unique way that kept you hooked. I liked that he listed the rules in the beginning and adhered to them. I figured Ern was about 10 steps ahead of me but it was fun to guess who dun it. Of course I was wrong. I also enjoyed how each character/member im the family had their own chapter. I could see where someone might not like the writing style but I really enjoyed it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Murder, Kidnapping, Infertility, Infidelity, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Child death, and Grief

jodar's review against another edition

dark 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

3.5

There’s more to this novel than the Aussie blokish black humour it looks in danger of being at the start. There’s a strong element of metafiction: the narrator outlines the crime-novel rules he promises to follow, he explains at various points how he is adhering to the rules and he addresses the reader along the way with his conjectures in ‘narrative time’.

I felt the plot bogged down a bit about three quarters of the way through, but after that the tempo picked up again. A nice twist at the end that I didn’t spot, though I don’t read heaps of mystery fiction and I imagine that afficionados of the genre may well see it coming.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Torture

Minor: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Suicide, and Abandonment

beckyremillard's review

dark funny mysterious 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: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Violence, Blood, Child death, Death, Grief, Suicide, Torture, Murder, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Infidelity

bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Car accident, and Murder

Moderate: Infidelity, Child death, Kidnapping, Cursing, and Torture

Minor: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, and Addiction

mrsbishopreads's review against another edition

funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Minor: Infidelity and Vomit

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

What a fun, humorous take on a murder mystery! The narrators voice takes some getting used to but I grew to like and appreciate it. Dark and self-deprecating humor are some of my favorite things, mixed with what is written to feel like true crime is a match made in heaven. And, even though the narrator makes a point to tell you exactly what’s coming and when it’s coming, the surprise twist at the ending still got me. All that said, there’s still just something missing here. I can quite put my finger on what it is, but something. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Police brutality, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child death, Gun violence, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Vomit, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Medical content, Blood, Body horror, and Drug use

toffishay's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Torture, Death of parent, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, and Child death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Infidelity

Minor: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Medical content, Gaslighting, Drug use, Car accident, Alcohol, Addiction, and Confinement

mysterymom40's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Child death, Drug abuse, Blood, Addiction, Suicide, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, Infertility, and Car accident

mtnest's review against another edition

funny mysterious fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Vomit, Infertility, Infidelity, Addiction, and Violence

Minor: War and Alcohol