Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

58 reviews

oceanwriter's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-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

2.75

As the title suggests, this book is chaotic. An oddly fun kind of chaotic, but chaotic all the same. 

 

It can’t be stressed enough that everyone in Ernest Cunningham’s family has killed someone including Ernie himself. With a narrator who breaks the fourth wall (and an author who knows which format of the book you’re reading…) and delivers his testimony with dark wit, it’s a good time. Unfortunately, I couldn’t follow a dang thing. 

 

I blame a hectic month for my inability to retain any of the information being presented more than the book, but I just kept forgetting I was reading it. By the time I got back to it, I’d forgotten where I was. The writing/delivery is super fun and maybe if I’d chosen the audiobook I would have been more engaged. Wrong time for me I guess, but the hype is understandable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Suicide, Addiction, and Kidnapping

Minor: Death of parent, Infertility, Vomit, and Car accident

jessgj's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Police brutality

Moderate: Child death, Abandonment, Car accident, Gun violence, Murder, Death of parent, Infertility, Blood, and Infidelity

Minor: Kidnapping and Vomit

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

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

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, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment, Child death, Addiction, and Kidnapping

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

missrosymaplemoth's review against another edition

4.75

A fast paced, thrilling murder mystery with elements of humor and humanity at every turn. I absolutely loved this book despite some gross details and on-the-nose narration. I did not predict the killer or the ending at all, and the two (!) plot twists truly surprised me. Un-put-downable in every sense. A few points knocked off for some of the reveals and information/clues being convoluted and confusing.

☀️8/20

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Vomit, Addiction, Car accident, Confinement, Infertility, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship

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

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

Minor: Pregnancy and Emotional abuse

bex7dier's review against another edition

dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Drug abuse, Murder, Violence, Torture, Infertility, Child death, and Gun violence

sabrinahughes's review against another edition

4.0

Really fun read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Abandonment, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Car accident, and Addiction

Minor: Infidelity, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Suicide, and Panic attacks/disorders

imo_reads's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Suicide, Police brutality, and Infidelity

Minor: Infertility, Vomit, Child abuse, and Car accident

angela005's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Child death and Kidnapping

Minor: Car accident, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Infertility, and Addiction