Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - How to Kill Your Family

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

.
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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ursa_arlo's review

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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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katie_33's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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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abi_sarah's review

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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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shaleen64's review

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challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The mixed reviews of this book are understandable and I agree the ending could have been better, however I was still surprised by it and felt it delivered. I enjoyed the cynicism of the main character, the way the book pokes fun at modern society delivering a few laughs and feel it’s a worthwhile easy read.

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dear6hla's review

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adventurous dark funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Only reason it lost points was some of the ending felt a bit rushed/ slight bit of a cop out. Not the letter and stuff with Kelly which was cool I thought but the way Jimmy just says sorry and she’s like it’s fine idk felt a bit unreal after he was part of the reason she did time in prison anyway 😅

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jacq92s's review

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I found it too much, being in the head of a serial killer - albeit a fictional one!

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annamariesreads's review

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dark tense 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

Wow... I wouldn't usually bother with a review on a book I hated but I couldn't believe how much I hated this novel.

Every character lacked believability, mostly because they were horrendously one note. Characters don't have to be likeable (I actually love to hate characters) but they do need to compel you into following their story.

The writing is heavy handed. I don't need the narrator to tell me when something is ironic!

Also the fatphobia and body image comments really drove me up the wall.

The beauty of interpretation is that you could possibly chalk this down to the anti-heroine (if you can call such a flat character this) being repulsive. But it shouldn't feel like the reader is being hit over the head with a mallet.

I did actually have a chuckle at some astute observations of British people, so this gained the book one star. However, these observations were not just comments, they went on way too long (sometimes for paragraphs) and we would lose the plot a bit. They would go from a funny gag to another snide comment real quick.

I hesitated from dnfing because I wanted to see if there would be a raison d'être for this novel. It all seemed rather pointless.

It was clear she wouldn't stay in prison for long on such tenuous charges.

and somehow the ending was even worse. I did read Bella Mackie's interview where she justified the ending by saying (paraphrasing here) that

women get shit on by men all the time and therefore it was the appropriate ending.

This made me laugh because this comment is just as heavy handed as the clunky writing I had just witnessed.

I wouldn't waste your time with this one. This will be the last time I read a "most popular" listed book.

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