Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

20 reviews

esv_'s review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Abandonment, Murder, Death of parent, and Child death

Moderate: Cursing, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, Violence, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Infidelity, and Blood

Minor: Stalking, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Eating disorder, Sexism, Suicide, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Incest, and Mental illness

theelliad's review against another edition

3.5

How to Kill Your Family is the account of serial murders told from the perspective of the killer as she serves jail time for a murder she didn’t commit.

The narrative voice of this novel is hilarious and sarcastic and truly kept me engaged, alongside this the dual timeline of the story is handled well and it was structurally enjoyable and followable. That said, I was disappointed by the ending, the twist was not the best but I thought fitted the story well, it was rather the transformation in Grace (the protagonist) in the final chapters. The self sufficient, powerful and somewhat narcissistic personality she has established falls victim to the writers need for a conclusion becoming submissive, easily forgiving and a bit boring as the final events of her life are recounted; it was this, more so than the plot twist, which didn’t feel right to me. However, that said I did enjoy this book enough to speed through it in a matter of days and so I cannot judge it too harshly! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Murder, Grief, Gaslighting, Violence, Stalking, Sexual content, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gore, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Classism, Cancer, Misogyny, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Body horror, and Blood

ladynavalon's review

dark funny slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Car accident, Suicide, Torture, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Murder, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Cancer, and Violence

El plot twist es

lñno es ella quien mata a su padre y a su hermana, sino que resulta que tiene un hermano que le escri e una carta consedandole los crimenes. La llevan a la cárcel por marta a la novia de su amigo, pero consiguen sacarla

xeriemoon's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

highlights:
- definitely got me invested super quick
- for the most part, a very funny book

i think the little crumbs of hints about kelly and the brother were just enough to give me a bad worried suspicion but no actual clue what was going to happen. good balance!

lowlights:
- i wanted it to end differently. but thats less a criticism of the writing and probably more a testament for how i was attached to the characters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

readingwithkt's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Death, Violence, and Sexual content

Minor: Suicide and Incest

bunv's review

dark slow-paced

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

1.0

Easily the worst book I've read this year. With a main character that is equal parts dull and entirely unlikeable, there's just no reason to stay engaged when the entire book is written in her perspective. I bought this book because the premise seemed promising but the amount of unnecessary self-righteous rants about how much Grace hates everything and everyone got unbearable pretty much immediately. After I had to endure 50 pages about frogs I was about ready to tap out, had I not invested a significant amount of energy into getting to this point. The poor excuse for a twist towards the end was only a small light at the end of the unbearably long tunnel. 
Bonus mention for the 2 times I had to read the words "my sex" followed up by an observation about how much our main character hates other women despite calling herself a feminist. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug use, Death of parent, Alcohol, Vomit, Suicide, Stalking, Classism, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Car accident, Misogyny, Homophobia, and Fatphobia

Minor: Cancer, Body shaming, Ableism, and Biphobia

littlehat's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

I didn't enjoy this book. I found it slow and quite boring and the end of the book was a long recap of everything I'd just read. No shocking twists, humour or thrills, only mild suspense interrupted all the time by details of prison life. 

Not for me but I can see why others would like it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Suicide

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

neronina's review against another edition

dark funny 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? It's complicated

4.0

Very mad at the ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Murder, Cursing, Violence, Car accident, Sexism, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Addiction, Drug use, Suicide, and Classism

Minor: Cancer and Incest

charlotte96's review

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Suicide