Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

21 reviews

ursa_arlo's review

dark fast-paced

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

2.5

What irritates me most about this novel is that Grace has very little she fights for, except the death of her family. She hates everything equally, bringing everything and everyone down around her with overdone sarcasm that makes it hard to get a read on what she does care about. If you stand for nothing, what will you fall for? It makes her an intolerable MC and not in a 'character you love to hate' way. 

I did enjoy the first half of the book; it was interesting to read about how the murders took place, but there was no clear message to the book. Clearly, it was a not a feminist statement, nor did it make a clear statement about Grace becoming more like her father than she'd wanted. Although, I did not mind the twist as much, it was badly foreshadowed and muddied the message of the book even further. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body shaming, Sexual content, Death, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Misogyny, Car accident, and Abandonment

Moderate: Grief, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Infidelity, Drug use, Drug abuse, Confinement, and Alcoholism

Minor: Miscarriage

izzybell's review

dark funny mysterious slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement and Forced institutionalization

atomicbritt's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Murder, Torture, Violence, Body shaming, Classism, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

yafi's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Death, Cursing, Murder, and Confinement

Moderate: Abandonment, Grief, Misogyny, Blood, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Cancer, Car accident, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

bugsybugs's review

dark funny mysterious 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

4.5

Excellent plot, suprise twist ending that left me frustrated! Well-written and the ending made sense even though I wanted to scream. Somehow ended up rooting for the serial killer even though I didn't like her.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Infidelity, Death of parent, Car accident, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Confinement, Murder, Sexual content, Death, Drug use, and Violence

m4rtt4's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

The premise was very promising, and I was quite hooked on the story despite it not being as funny as it was said to be. Yes, it was funny at times, but oftentimes the 'humour' relied on (internalized) misogyny and/or fatphobia and/or belittling mental health issues and eating disorders — this is also why I found the book's feminist takes to be quite hypocritical. I hated Grace as a character, she was so insufferable, annoying, petty and too bitter over the smallest of things, but I stuck up with her because — well — you can't quite love a serial killer anyways. I liked the ending, it was justified and fit perfectly with my dislike on Grace, though I also must say that such a plot twist should have been foreshadowed better. A murder mystery is no fun if it doesn't make you feel dumb for not realising the answer earlier; it shouldn't come so out of the blue (as in this case) that it feels literally impossible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Grief, Murder, Death of parent, and Stalking

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Car accident

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Violence, Fatphobia, Terminal illness, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness

anxieteaandbiscuits12's review

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

2.5

I enjoyed the plot of the book and I was not expecting the ending but I didn’t feel like it was well written or executed, sometimes I felt like I was struggling through chapters, for example the email at the end was unexpected but was a bit of a slog to get through, especially so close to the end of the book. It also didn’t help that the book was told through a narrator who was unlikable and thought they were better than those they interacted with (the book did give a lot of indication that Grace was a narcissistic sociopath)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Stalking, and Violence

Moderate: Sexism, Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Grief

annabulkowski's review

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Gore, Classism, Car accident, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Alcohol, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Cancer, Drug use, Suicide, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, Eating disorder, Confinement, and Child death

uhm_kai's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense slow-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

4.75

have to respect it tbh

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Body horror, Drug use, Infidelity, Death, Grief, Confinement, and Violence

matthiasreads's review

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Death, Alcohol, Misogyny, Drug use, Confinement, Classism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Eating disorder, Cancer, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse