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

The title of this book hooked me, but the humor and style of writing really sealed it, this was a great book! The narrator is an author of how to write mystery novels books. So he jumps in and out of the story explaining as the book goes on. So good!

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preciouslittleingenue's review against another edition

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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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jessgj's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

Okay, so for anyone who looked at this and thought "FAMILY OF ASSASSINS!", sorry, this isn't that book. Instead, the book starts off with the eventful encounter when our protagonist and narrator Ern gets a call from his brother in the middle of the night, needing his help to dispose of a body. That's the start of the book but definitely not the start of their story. Slowly, we get around to how in fact, everyone in Ernest's family has killed someone, although "Killed" has some looser means than we initially think.

The book took a little while to really get started for me. Fortunately, I was listening to the audiobook and I quite liked the narrator, both the voice actor and Ernest. Ernest breaks the fourth wall quite often but not in an obnoxious way that I've seen other people do and I appreciate his efforts to be honest to the readers. It's definitely a book that rewards its reader for paying attention as I was able to keep up with the big reveal and didn't feel cheated. 4.5 stars for me

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nightingale25's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny informative mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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imo_reads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Overall an entertaining read, full of tension and suspense, complex characters, and a twisting plot.

Plus points for: the original, entertaining and witty narrative voice; the meta-ness of it all (this is supposedly the book the protagonist wrote about the events that happened to him, a trope I love); the complexity of the characters that was slowly revealed over the book; and the excellent shock factor of many of the reveals and killings, which was very well handled.

Minus points for: it was just a little too grisly for my taste (the killer’s method is slow and drawn out); a little convoluted in places, like the author could feel the plot getting away from him a bit; and a somewhat weak killer’s motive.

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zas9's review against another edition

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dark funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

I liked this book. The writing was awesome..Mystery fiction and humor. That's my kind of book. 😉

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marlee_grace's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

Enjoyed this book, but I did find it hard to keep track of who was who at times. A lotta names and characters. But I enjoyed the story nonetheless - the narrator was a bit annoying. But I guess interesting hearing the 'authors' writing process as it happens.

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ptaradactyl's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

It was dark and fun and sad through it all. Definitely worth a read, but I did not even try to put the pieces together myself.

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