Reviews with content warning for Murder - How to Kill Your Family

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

328 reviews

jogg1's review

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dark funny medium-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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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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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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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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last_jesi's review

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dark lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

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lastlookback's review

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challenging dark mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

4.25

Ending bit of a let down -

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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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