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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.
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.
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
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
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
bookaholic_in_wonderland'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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Stalking, Body shaming, Car accident, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Infidelity, Blood, Addiction, Cancer, Death, and Eating disorder
skylarkblue1's review
challenging
dark
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
0.25
This is... certainly a book. The more I read, the more pissed off I got at it honestly. The more I just *hated* the main character. She's so self-centered, aggressive, and her ego is insanely huge. I really disliked the parts from the prison, as it all could just be summed up as "I hate this place, I'm so smart than everyone else here I shouldn't be here" and you wouldn't really miss anything.
The concept is interesting, though pretty bare-bones. Revenge against a family who abandoned you. Except that even after learning they're not all the same, she doesn't give a single crap and kills them all regardless. The abandonment is also iffy at best, her father had an affair with her mother, father didn't want anything to do with them *apparently*. Did she try and contact her father? nope. Did she even verify if the story that he was actually her father was correct? nope.
The misogyny throughout - especially from the main character - is astonishing as well. Constantly belittling women, constantly shaming others' bodies for being "too perfect" or "not perfect enough" and it's just so tiring to read. It could have been a good satire about not judging someone by their looks or whatever, but no there's absolutely 0 commentary of that kind.
The incestuous stuff as well was really iffy to read. Grace's first thought for all the men is just "lets seduce them in one way or another" one of them literally including sex clubs with hard kinks. Yes, she takes who she believes is a close family member to a hard kink sex club. And yes, they do go into a private room. While not overly explicit it's still incredibly awkward and pretty gross.
Her treatment towards others all through the book is just horrific. She blackmails a literal child who *she* asked for help from and he was just going along with things. She has 0 issues manipulating and lying to whoever to get whatever she wants. And none of this is in a "ooh she's so smart and sneaky" way, all of it is in a "if someone actually did this in reality they'd get caught in like, 2 seconds because of how brain dead it all is".
The ending is also very stupid. It's very easy to guess how it ends, the "foreshadowing" isn't very subtle at all. Those "letters" at the end, was honestly just skipping through so much of it because I do not want to read a whole page of random "ooh football talk!" like come on. It had 0 impact or anything, it was just pure filler waffle nonsense for the *climax* and entire twist. Purely "tell don't show".
This isn't a book based in reality, it's very much it's own fantasy world. It's not clever, it's not satire. It's just a book about someone bragging how fantastic and clever they are while being incredibly stupid and aggravating all the way through. The only thing that make me remotely smile was the "bible story that wasn't from the bible" near the start.
The concept is interesting, though pretty bare-bones. Revenge against a family who abandoned you. Except that even after learning they're not all the same, she doesn't give a single crap and kills them all regardless. The abandonment is also iffy at best, her father had an affair with her mother, father didn't want anything to do with them *apparently*. Did she try and contact her father? nope. Did she even verify if the story that he was actually her father was correct? nope.
The misogyny throughout - especially from the main character - is astonishing as well. Constantly belittling women, constantly shaming others' bodies for being "too perfect" or "not perfect enough" and it's just so tiring to read. It could have been a good satire about not judging someone by their looks or whatever, but no there's absolutely 0 commentary of that kind.
The incestuous stuff as well was really iffy to read. Grace's first thought for all the men is just "lets seduce them in one way or another" one of them literally including sex clubs with hard kinks. Yes, she takes who she believes is a close family member to a hard kink sex club. And yes, they do go into a private room. While not overly explicit it's still incredibly awkward and pretty gross.
Her treatment towards others all through the book is just horrific. She blackmails a literal child who *she* asked for help from and he was just going along with things. She has 0 issues manipulating and lying to whoever to get whatever she wants. And none of this is in a "ooh she's so smart and sneaky" way, all of it is in a "if someone actually did this in reality they'd get caught in like, 2 seconds because of how brain dead it all is".
The ending is also very stupid. It's very easy to guess how it ends, the "foreshadowing" isn't very subtle at all. Those "letters" at the end, was honestly just skipping through so much of it because I do not want to read a whole page of random "ooh football talk!" like come on. It had 0 impact or anything, it was just pure filler waffle nonsense for the *climax* and entire twist. Purely "tell don't show".
This isn't a book based in reality, it's very much it's own fantasy world. It's not clever, it's not satire. It's just a book about someone bragging how fantastic and clever they are while being incredibly stupid and aggravating all the way through. The only thing that make me remotely smile was the "bible story that wasn't from the bible" near the start.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Violence, Misogyny, Car accident, and Body shaming
Moderate: Sexual content, Gore, Drug use, and Eating disorder
Unknown Incestuous Relationships (One party is aware it's incestuous, the other isn't)atomicbritt's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
fast-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Murder, Torture, Violence, Body shaming, Classism, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship
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.
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.
This book was fun. Pick it up if you want a thriller-comedy and want to be entertained for a few hours.
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
introverted_reads's review
dark
funny
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? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Infidelity, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Murder, Death, Cursing, Car accident, Cancer, Body shaming, Abandonment, Death of parent, Violence, Terminal illness, Stalking, Misogyny, Mental illness, Classism, and Child death
builtoutofbooks's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-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
2.25
If I hadn’t been listening to the audio book I doubt I would’ve finished this. I found Grace incredibly annoying and narcissistic, bordering on sociopathic. The book was branded as funny but I couldn’t find any humour in it, it was mostly cruel jibes towards fat people and those with eating disorders. Heavy content warning for fatphobia and body shaming. I don’t usually pick up popular contemporary novels but it was May’s choice for book club.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Classism, Eating disorder, Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Car accident
Minor: Grief
bunv'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
1.0
Easily the worst book I've read this year. With a main character that is equal parts dull and entirely unlikeable, there's just no reason to stay engaged when the entire book is written in her perspective. I bought this book because the premise seemed promising but the amount of unnecessary self-righteous rants about how much Grace hates everything and everyone got unbearable pretty much immediately. After I had to endure 50 pages about frogs I was about ready to tap out, had I not invested a significant amount of energy into getting to this point. The poor excuse for a twist towards the end was only a small light at the end of the unbearably long tunnel.
Bonus mention for the 2 times I had to read the words "my sex" followed up by an observation about how much our main character hates other women despite calling herself a feminist.
Bonus mention for the 2 times I had to read the words "my sex" followed up by an observation about how much our main character hates other women despite calling herself a feminist.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Drug use, Death of parent, Alcohol, Vomit, Suicide, Stalking, Classism, Addiction, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Car accident, Misogyny, Homophobia, and Fatphobia
Minor: Cancer, Body shaming, Ableism, and Biphobia
laracroft2001's review
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Stalking
Moderate: Death of parent, Car accident, Classism, Death, and Cancer
Minor: Death of parent, Body shaming, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Incest, and Eating disorder