Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

26 reviews

chocolate_pondue's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is nothing like I expected but everything I appreciated. I first thought it was going to be a series of side stories but instead I got one cohesive, engaging, and captivating story. I love 4th wall mysteries because they are engaging and fun. The main character, Ernest, is enjoyable and even funny at some times. They say it's taboo to have a mystery in first person but Ernest tells within the first few pages that there would be no concealing, no embellishments, nothing but truths and facts as he knew them. Information is given to you like jumbled breadcrumbs but to create order in the chaos, the novel stops at certain points to recap and make sure you understand the facts and clues that you have been given. For mystery fans, that is what true mysteries are about. I've never felt more like I was working on the case myself than I did in this book. Though I was able to guess who the killer was, I didn't guess who the killer was, and the twist at the end was satisfying. I was engaged in the characters stories and motives, their actions and reactions, their emotions and suspicious behavior. All in all this book deserves 5/5 stars! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Police brutality, Self harm, and Suicide

Moderate: Vomit, Confinement, Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Car accident, Grief, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship

dogoodwithbooks's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Vomit

Moderate: Drug abuse, Body horror, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Child abuse, Car accident, and Death of parent

chaoticenby's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Torture, Child death, Drug abuse, and Suicide

Minor: Abandonment

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious 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

4.75

The title of this book hooked me, but the humor and style of writing really sealed it, this was a great book! The narrator is an author of how to write mystery novels books. So he jumps in and out of the story explaining as the book goes on. So good!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Gore, Grief, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Drug use, Police brutality, Suicide, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Violence, Medical content, and Murder

preciouslittleingenue's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

SUCH a compelling, captivating read. It was actually very cool to read this kind of mystery after finishing Meddling Kids, because though they’re both mystery, they are VASTLY different. And yet, I giggled nearly as much reading both. This is a DARK story. Lots of death. Including

child death.

Yet the author is so clever in how chooses to use the meta narrative, how he addresses his audience, and how he delivers information that it’s impossible not to giggle. Not to mention some of the dialogue was KILLING me (no pun intended). Like, I went from feeling sick to my stomach when

Ernie found Michael and absolutely lost it, the poor baby,

to LAUGHING not a minute later because the author had a character crack a joke about the death that JUST HAPPENED. Insane. How does he do that??

And the mystery itself! It truly just kept me guessing. The title obviously immediately makes one curious, and you spend the whole book wondering under what circumstances EVERYONE killed someone. And each reveal had me going either “OHHHHHH DUH” or “*gasp* oh my god”. Seriously, the reveal that Audrey killed

Jeremy by LOCKING HIM IN A CAR IN THE SUMMER ON TOP OF A PARKING GARAGE seriously made me feel so ill. But then!!! As soon as they revealed he was kidnapped after all, I KNEW HE WAS ALIVE! But I did NOT see it coming that he was in the cop all along! That was awesome!

 

And every little thing was important, as Ernie said it would be. I don’t know why I didn’t believe him right away when he said every little detail would matter but I should have! Also, I knew I didn’t trust

poor Rebecca’s parents…what a motherfucker her father is.

ANYWAY, just heard this will be a series and I CANT WAIT FOR MORE. Only reason it’s not a full 5/5 is just because I’m a little slow and a lot of the final explanations I kind of just went “well, okay, yes I guess that’s what happened” because I forgot/couldn’t follow wtf he was talking about lol. Also, I went from “oh another story where everyone is a horrible, irredeemable person, and I just get to wait and see who the worst of them all is” to “wow…I…actually feel very sorry for these people and I’m kind of sad so many of them died.” THAT is impressive. I am very difficult to sway on how I feel about people. Even fictional ones. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Child death, Blood, Death of parent, Child abuse, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Drug use and Drug abuse

jessgj's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

Okay, so for anyone who looked at this and thought "FAMILY OF ASSASSINS!", sorry, this isn't that book. Instead, the book starts off with the eventful encounter when our protagonist and narrator Ern gets a call from his brother in the middle of the night, needing his help to dispose of a body. That's the start of the book but definitely not the start of their story. Slowly, we get around to how in fact, everyone in Ernest's family has killed someone, although "Killed" has some looser means than we initially think. 

The book took a little while to really get started for me. Fortunately, I was listening to the audiobook and I quite liked the narrator, both the voice actor and Ernest. Ernest breaks the fourth wall quite often but not in an obnoxious way that I've seen other people do and I appreciate his efforts to be honest to the readers. It's definitely a book that rewards its reader for paying attention as I was able to keep up with the big reveal and didn't feel cheated. 4.5 stars for me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Police brutality

Moderate: Child death, Abandonment, Car accident, Gun violence, Murder, Death of parent, Infertility, Blood, and Infidelity

Minor: Kidnapping and Vomit

nightingale25's review

challenging dark funny informative 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Suicide, Murder, Child abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Addiction, Drug abuse, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Medical content, Grief, Child death, Mental illness, and Torture

imo_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Overall an entertaining read, full of tension and suspense, complex characters, and a twisting plot.

Plus points for: the original, entertaining and witty narrative voice; the meta-ness of it all (this is supposedly the book the protagonist wrote about the events that happened to him, a trope I love); the complexity of the characters that was slowly revealed over the book; and the excellent shock factor of many of the reveals and killings, which was very well handled.

Minus points for: it was just a little too grisly for my taste (the killer’s method is slow and drawn out); a little convoluted in places, like the author could feel the plot getting away from him a bit; and a somewhat weak killer’s motive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Suicide, Police brutality, and Infidelity

Minor: Infertility, Vomit, Child abuse, and Car accident

zas9's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

I liked this book. The writing was awesome..Mystery fiction and humor. That's my kind of book. 😉

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Content Warnings

Minor: Drug abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Police brutality, Addiction, and Suicide

marlee_grace's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

Enjoyed this book, but I did find it hard to keep track of who was who at times. A lotta names and characters. But I enjoyed the story nonetheless - the narrator was a bit annoying. But I guess interesting hearing the 'authors' writing process as it happens. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Suicide, Murder, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Addiction, and Death of parent