Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - How to Kill Your Family

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

19 reviews

abi_sarah's review

dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Took me a while to get into it, but I really loved this book!

Bella Mackie’s writing was so witty and painfully honest. The familial annoyances that Grace felt throughout were so relatable - she just had an extreme response to them! 😅

I felt like the first deaths happened a little to early, so there was a then a bit of a lull for me where I lost interest a bit. It soon picked ip again though and held my interest until the very end. The last 35-30% really had me gripped - there were just so many new twists and turns that I just wanted to keep reading!

The only thing I would stay that stops it from being 5 stars, is that sometimes I found Grace’s reasoning behind her murders a little shallow? Maybe it was just me, but a bit of believability escaped there for me.

Excellent writing from Bella Mackie, highly entertaining! Great story-telling too! Loved the plot twists, so imaginative!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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yellowfleeces's review against another edition

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dark funny fast-paced

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

3.0

i really loved this book for the most part but then ended up skimming through the last 25% as the twist felt unnecessary and so so much detail (which the character apologised for several times, almost like a note from the author but would rather it was just trimmed down!)

would be interested to read more from bella

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hannah_steven's review against another edition

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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

4.5

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bloomsburybaker's review against another edition

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Repetitive and the narrator was not likeable. Also the plot strongly resembles Kind Hearts & Coronets.

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introverted_reads's review

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dark funny 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? It's complicated

3.5

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sorcha's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced

3.5

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m4rtt4's review against another edition

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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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