Reviews tagging 'Grief'

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

63 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

nplunkie's review

dark funny 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? It's complicated

3.5

There are elements of this book I really loved but there are parts that really took away from my overall enjoyment of the book. The protagonist not being particularly likeable and really a bit of a “pick-me” was something I just accepted as the book went on. I didn’t love how the chapters were structured, often very long but then with the real event of the chapter only taking up a handful of pages. 
The ending was what really took away from the story for me.

The whole long lost half brother who had managed to infiltrate the family is the one that ruins her plan (but also means Simon is dead without her struggling to figure out a way) just feels like a way out of coming up with an ending. It is mentioned that she feels as though she’s being watched but that is quickly brushed off and she goes about another 3 killings - hard to believe she could get away with all of those without leaving evidence but not notice a man following her

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Overall it feels like the book had real potential but just fell a bit flat especially in the last 50 pages or so for me - interested to read more books from this author!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Infidelity, Death, Abandonment, and Death of parent

Moderate: Car accident, Stalking, Terminal illness, Grief, and Drug use

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

awxhhlilla's review

adventurous dark funny informative lighthearted mysterious tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Alcohol, Car accident, Eating disorder, Addiction, Drug use, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Death, Child death, Death of parent, Stalking, and Murder

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

veritea's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Classism, Torture, Abandonment, Body shaming, and Death

Minor: Incest

hannah_steven's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Alcohol, Car accident, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Grief

Minor: Eating disorder and Drug use

poppyskills's review

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Violence, Death of parent, Death, and Car accident

Moderate: Alcohol, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Cancer, and Stalking

syazahaniss's review

adventurous challenging dark informative reflective tense 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? No

1.0

The lack of dialogues made it feel very draggy, slow and almost nonfiction-like. The chapters were incredibly long and the British English was also a tad bit difficult to understand, so I was practically dragging myself through the book. Grace herself gave off very arrogant vibes because she looks down on everyone else.

What I thought made the story very disorganized was that her victims seemed very random. I thought it would just be Simon, Janine and Bryony (direct relation) where at least I could see the structure of the killing, but Andrew and the grandparents felt so unrelated. So Grace just killed them off because they were mean people? They barely had any interactions with her; for all she knows they’re nice. Her killing off people she’s never even spoken to made me think she was the evil one here?

Also it kind of annoyed me that every single one of her plans went according to plan. Because realistically, how does one suddenly wake up one day vengeful and deciding to kill her entire family and actually gets away with it with no problems whatsoever?

That said, I don’t know why this book is so popular. I didn’t like it at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Misogyny and Stalking

Minor: Grief

ribbenkast's review

challenging dark funny tense medium-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

2.5

This book was really a mixed bag of things that the author did really well and things that went, not so great. If you like Killing Eve and simmilar media this might be a good book for you.
I picked this book up because I couldn't enter a single bookstore here in The Netherlands without this book being on full display front and center (probably because it recently got translated), to that I say it's a bit over-hyped. Given that it's Bella Mackie's first novel I am excited to see how her skills are going to devellop in the future.

I have a lot to say about this book so here we go :) 

I want to start off with the things that where great about this book. It's not easy to write a book in a non-chronological timeline, and yet Bella Mackie has pulled that of greatly. The pacing of this book is great, there's never a dull moment. Furthermore, I really like the writing style and the character's voice, every sentence was pure gold. The murders were creative and it was fun watching the plan and the excution (ha!) unfold. 

But, the book lost me a bit in the middle. I still struggle to find the writer's intent. The main character Grace, to me at least, is not a likable girlboss anti-hero she was set up to be (by the marketing of this book). Whilst continueing to read, I found her to be a spoiled brat, uninteresting, fake deep and a raging hypocrite and I kind off had to stop rooting for her. It's still unclear to me if this was the author's intent for this character. Are we supposed to root for her and did Bella Mackie fail to make a likable character? Or are we supposed to dislike Grace too? In that case Mackie did an excellent job. 

Grace's "feminist" opinions display an incredible lack of intersectionality. All of this could and would be fine, unreliable narrotors you're supposed to disagree with exist for a reason. However, given the paralles between Grace and the author in real live, I fear that some of these opions are not meant as a way to show how self-centered Grace really is. Rather, Mackie seems to use Grace as a mouth piece for her own (white) feminist views. This doesn't work on two levels: 1. The narrator is unreliable, any opion voiced by such a narrator is immeditatly subject to further questioning and 2. The opions are just not good, white feminism. TO BE CLEAR: I'm hoping I misjudged Mackie's character here and that all of these bad opinions are just to display how Grace is not a good person, let alone a feminst, while she pretents to be one. Unfortunatly, the opinions are not insane enough and could've and probably have been published in a Vogue or Vice article. (Publications Mackie writes for)

Either way, this book is a excellent satire of white feminsm and human entitlement. It's unclear to me if the writer is in on the joke herself.

Beyond the midway point though, you can tell that Grace is supposed to be insane and go off the deep end a little. This is where the book picks up the pace again. If you halfway through want to give up on this book (I know I did, but I'm stubborn) don't. If you made it that far, it's worth it to read on.

The (twist) ending was, just like the rest of the book a bit of a mixed bag. The ending was fitting, it wrapped up the story nicely and it could've worked really well. My only problem with it, is that it came out of nowhere. An ending like that could've (should've) been forshadowed in many places earlier in the book. Moments a reader can look back on and go: Ah, now that makes sense! Mackie seemed to have forgotten to go back after her first manuscript to do that which made the ending feel very tacked on. Shame, because other than that, it was a great twist.

I liked that Grace's distand attitude, and dismissal of other people's intelect collapsed in on itself. Truly what she deserverd

This book was fun. Pick it up if you want a thriller-comedy and want to be entertained for a few hours.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Murder, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Death of parent, Torture, Violence, Death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Cursing, Body shaming, Ableism, Car accident, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Grief