Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

21 reviews

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

elysianbud's review against another edition

dark funny slow-paced

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

3.0

Writing style too a while to get used to and the characterisation isn't the most consistent in the world, but overall the plot is interesting enough. Did take me a while to wade through though, and the ending was iffy. Also oddly obsessed with lip filler. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Classism, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Terminal illness and Stalking

bookforthought's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

2.0

After a few heavier reads and a rather hectic couple of weeks, I was longing to dive into a funny, comfort read. So, of course, I plucked How to Kill Your Family from my never-ending TBR. What better way to relax than with a book about multiple murders?

The premise for this was great, and I was super excited about it going in. I enjoy a good mystery, love an unreliable narrator and am all for irony and sass in my MCs, so this seemed like a perfect fit. Alas, this is one of those cases where the execution just didn't live up to my expectations. The book started out strong but slowly started its slow descent downhill, right up until it crashed and burned at the end.

Grace is the illegitimate daughter of a millionaire who abandoned her and her mother, ignoring her mother's pleas for help as she was close to dying. After discovering this, Grace vows revenge and decides to kill every member of her father's family, leaving him for last. The story is narrated by Grace in journal form, as she is in prison for murder... except it's the only one she didn't commit.

I enjoyed the journal form, even though it made very little sense to me why Grace should ever want to commit to paper a full account of every murder she committed and so far got away with. Still, her narrating voice was snarky and sarcastic and perfect to set the tone for the book. This unfortunately didn't last very long, as soon she just became annoying and borderline offensive. The story started to drag from very early on, and I almost started to feel like reading this book was a chore.

We have a front-row seat to Grace's attempts at social commentary, which typically reduce to her hating everyone and everything and resenting the world for all that she missed. Although her feelings could be understandable, and could have been written in such a way as to allow for her character to grow, there was a distinct sense that we should be agreeing with her full stop even when she is spewing hate for no discernible reason. There were also a few very uncomfortable scenes and behaviours, which I just could not get on board with.

I didn't DNF this as I kept hoping I would actually start enjoying it, or at least find it funnier than I had so far, but unfortunately I never did. There were a few funny scenes here and there, but they were sadly not enough to carry the whole book. I also absolutely hated the ending, which just felt like an afterthought tacked on for the sake of one final plot twist.

While I appreciate what the author was trying to do here, the class commentary was just not effective and in fact more often than not was reduced to a slew of stereotypes and never-ending judgment with absolutely no foundation to stand on. For me, Grace was not the witty anti-hero she should be, but rather came across as an extremely unlikeable, self-centred and, ultimately, shallow individual. Sadly, this one was just not for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual content and Drug use

Minor: Terminal illness, Body shaming, and Infidelity

cursedepub's review against another edition

challenging funny mysterious tense 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

A wry, self-aware, and emotionally manipulative novel. The crime drama aspect was very satisfying; each of Grace's murders made for an incredibly interesting story. While I often don't enjoy the introduction of a twist element close to the ending of most novels, this one was done to better effect than usual - it highlighted the self-important, narrow-minded, and judgmental aspects of Grace's narration, and really brought home just how much the reader is led to empathize with her.

Her victory is, as Harry so wryly mentions, stolen out from under her by a man who was dealt a better hand in life,

and I felt as frustrated as she no doubt was. 

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Charly Clive as Grace

and Paul Panting as Harry,

  and they really brought the prose to life. I felt as if I was listening to my meanest, most dramatic friend tell me a riveting story. It was fun! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Classism, Death of parent, Car accident, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Terminal illness, Drug use, and Alcoholism

Minor: Eating disorder

eimear_jane's review

dark medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Abandonment, Murder, Infidelity, Grief, Death of parent, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Classism, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Blood, Car accident, Stalking, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, and Addiction

jennifer1130's review

slow-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

2.0

I've likely judged this book more harshly that I might otherwise because of the heavy pushing of this book to me via social media adverts by the publisher. Having said that the absolutely max it deserves is 3 stars on a good day.

What a disappointment. The premise of this book is interesting, killing your whole family for revenge but there is nothing clever nor interesting about this story. Instead it trawls laboriously through dull plot and follows the format of basic intro to, this is how I killed person 1, this is how I killed person 2, person 3 etc. With a few brief flip backs to the present day where the main character Grace is in prison and is writing her diary style story. The diary style story really irritated me with its 'need to go now' endings. Who has time to write that in a diary when there's something you actually need to go for??

I didn't really believe at any point that I was in the mind of someone capable of killing 6 people. It felt like a fictional story. A highly unlikely one. The particular low point involved an uncle in a sex club while Grace rants about feminism and the privilege of the white man. 

I have no idea how this book got such a big marketing budget. It's just cheap throwaway rubbish. Such a shame. I just expected and needed more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Murder, Death of parent, Death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Child death, Abandonment, Alcohol, Cursing, Eating disorder, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Incest, and Terminal illness

clairew97's review against another edition

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Pregnancy, Stalking, Terminal illness, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Cancer, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Incest, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Addiction, Car accident, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

nialiversuch's review

dark emotional funny tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Alcohol, Car accident, Cursing, Grief, Murder, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Classism, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Stalking

Moderate: Drug use and Pregnancy

rtd's review

dark funny 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? No

3.0

Revenge story following Grace as she is in jail writing about how she has murdered members of her estranged family. Her reason: her father was married and had an affair with her mother and abandoned her when he found out she was pregnant.

<Spoiler>
I didn't enjoy the ending of the book. It felt as though the main character couldbt be allowed to get away with what she had done. However, her half-brother could. She was obviously written as a flawed character and is often manipulative and arrogant, however, the half-brother does not seem to be a more morally superior character. Not sure if it was setting it up for a sequel but if not, it felt very dissatisfying. 
<Spoiler>

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness and Murder