Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Family Plot

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Family Plot by Megan Collins

27 reviews

amberjackonski's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

1.5

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missgrangerr's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Trigger warning book. I really enjoyed the family dynamic in this book and the twists and turns throughout. I thought the twist and ending were well done.

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morag's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

A passable but overall underwhelming mystery.
The writing style is blandly commercial - all function and no form. This made it easy and quick to read, but it also didn't leave an impression. Each character was distinct, but they also felt very simple. They all had one major hobby or personality trait, which was flipped on it's head by the end, but that was about it. Better than nothing, but not great, either.
The mystery was pretty engaging, but there's a twist at the end that made me absolutely despise one of the characters. It completely recast them as completely, utterly selfish, and all the while they try to justify it to the other characters in a slurry of whiny self-victimization. Not only that, but they do NOT get what they deserve, in my opinion. It ruined the book for me.

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loujanae's review

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dark mysterious slow-paced

1.0

An absolute drudgery to read. This is a horrible example of a first person POV. All tell. Didn't show a damn thing. Figured it out in the first chapter, so there was nothing thrilling about it. Repetitive as hell. Zero character development or even characteristics at all. Everyone was flat, and I felt nothing for a single one of them. Thought it would be an interesting critique of true crime, but that was not the case at ALL. I should have DNF'd right at the dedication page as Megan Collins dedicated the book to 'murderinos'.

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elsebeok's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.0

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jstroud's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

Lots of twists and turns to keep you guessing. The ending seemed to drag out a bit too long.

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cheyraisin's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

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bek_p87's review

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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? No

3.5

Overall, I enjoyed this book - even though the premise was a little far-fetched. I didn't guess the answer to either of the key mysteries, so that must suggest a reasonably well-written crime thriller (or lack of intelligence on my part?). However, the characters were all a bit one-dimensional, which meant the prose was rather repetitive, and relied a little too much on clichés.

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jenn_reads's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Wow.

I knew who did it right away, but the story took a lot of twists and turns. It's really about a wildly dysfunctional family and not a straightforward murder mystery book.

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kyriannaj's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

I guessed the main "who did it" pretty early in the book, but the author still did a good job of adding clues, piecing old clues together differently, and having suspicious character behavior where I did consider that maybe I hadn't figured it all out. The narrator was incredibly unreliable, which I thought was really interesting and wished there was a bit more to it. The characters all felt a little two dimensional and like there wasn't a lot to them, but in my opinion part of that was due to the family not knowing each other well enough, especially the narrator, to add depth. The build up was really interesting and the reveal at the 2/3 mark really shocked me, as I hadn't even thought too deeply about it. The last 1/3 played out roughly how I anticipated. I thought the ending was unique and appreciated that there was a bit of happiness. I kind of wish though that the ending was more ambiguous, as it would've fit your plot and vibe of the book. I'm still unsure if that book was in praise of our true crime culture, or criticizing it as the book went back and forth frequently.

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