Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

15 reviews

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

emmajh91's review

dark medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Misogyny, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, and Torture

tasarla'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

3.75

Good beach read :)

I loved reading this in the first person where the narrator is an absolute psycho! 

I really like the writing style (though upon reading other reviews it appears to be divisive). The main character is supposed to be hateable and not relatable so if you’re into that this book is a great example of it

Despite the “funny” tag I’d say the book has some amusing moments rather than it actually being funny

The plot in the first half of the book is much stronger than the second half IMO, but I still liked the rest of the book and enjoyed the ending. 

The murders are well-described but not gory or disgustingly graphic detail, which I liked because it made an otherwise heavy book feel more light

Normally I feel like books focus too much on romantic side-plots but this one failed in this aspect. Spoiler:

I feel like Jimmys storyline was never actually wrapped up properly. It was hreat up until he realises she didn’t push his fiancée off the balcony then he’s never mentioned again other than everything goes back to normal!? Could’ve done with some kind of closure scene of those two!

Probably wouldn’t re-read but I did enjoy reading it overall

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Car accident, Incest, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Violence, Child abuse, Sexual content, Murder, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Forced institutionalization, and Stalking

kam_be's review

dark funny reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Grief, Infidelity, Car accident, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Blood, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Abandonment, Death, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Murder, Stalking, and Violence

Minor: Incest and Panic attacks/disorders

maiahhtratchh's review

dark funny reflective 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? Yes

3.5

There were aspects of this books I loved and others I wasn’t a fan of. Despite literally being a book literally about murder it was quite light hearted and quirky. I enjoyed how the story was told and I did like the character of Grace, even though she is flawed, i like her in a “good for her” type way. One of the major issues I took from it was that I feel like her motive could have been flushed out more. Like I was just under the cup of really supporting her… I needed the reasoning to just be a bit more. I actually enjoyed the ending, I thought it left it really open ended which is how this needs to be because there really was no good way to wrap it up.

okay so now the big issues I have, other then motivation. For someone SO SMART AND CALCULATED with her murders …. How did she write down her murders in a notebook in prison and not expect Kelly to read it?? She literally talks about reading Kelly’s and how Kelly is so nosey so this just was such a gap in logic and left a bad taste in my mouth. The entire time I was thinking that it was stupid she was doing that and hoping I just misunderstood and she was mentally journaling her story but no… she physically wrote it down. Yeah I just really hated that. Other then that it would’ve been 4 stars but that aspect brought it down the 3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Classism, Death, Murder, Stalking, Drug use, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Infidelity, Confinement, and Death of parent

mucky_puddler'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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Blood, Murder, Violence, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Torture, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, and Drug use

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

aliciachauhan_'s review

dark funny informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Incest, Mental illness, Violence, Car accident, Child abuse, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

smiles_90's review

dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Death, Murder, Abandonment, Cursing, Eating disorder, and Toxic friendship

kellyloubishop's review

dark lighthearted medium-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Drug use, Incest, Murder, Torture, Abandonment, Body shaming, Car accident, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Fatphobia