Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

56 reviews

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Gun violence, Murder, Grief, Kidnapping, Suicide, Violence, Addiction, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Torture, Bullying, Death, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Child death, Infertility, and Gaslighting

cmars83's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Gore, Child death, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Suicide

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

kayceeisbookish's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense 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

5.0

A unique murder mystery with a dark humor twist. I highly enjoyed the melancholy narrator's tone as he uncoiled the web of knotted lies that started out as a standard family reunion.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Confinement, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, Infertility, Grief, Child death, Police brutality, Death of parent, Cursing, and Death

beepbeep101's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

“Family is not whose blood runs in your veins, it’s who you’d spill it for.” 

Fantastic. Twists all the way to the last page. The extra .25 is for the last quarter of the book or so, as so much happened right after each other that beautifully brought everything together and turned things on their head. I loved the narrative voice of Ern (who isn’t a crime writer but instead is a how-to-be-a-crime-writer writer), who recounts the book’s events with a sense of humor about the writing process. He even gives the page numbers at the beginning on which every death in the book will occur - something which sounds like it would spoil a great deal, but things often happen differently than you expect them to. 

A great read, though definitely check the content warnings, as it wasn’t quite as light as I expected it to be from word of mouth recommendations. It gets into revenge, PTSD, infidelity, infertility, and addiction, and descriptions of trauma and injuries were a bit heavier than I expected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Infertility, Suicide, Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Drug use, and Kidnapping

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Vomit, and Car accident

callie_castle's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Car accident, Kidnapping, Violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Grief, Murder, Medical content, Alcohol, Blood, and Confinement

Moderate: Gaslighting, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Addiction, Infertility, Trafficking, and Vomit

drnaynay's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Addiction, Grief, Murder, Suicide, Death, Car accident, Child death, and Drug abuse

taviarz's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Death, Child death, Kidnapping, Blood, Grief, Murder, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Vomit

shepardsolbear's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Addiction, Gun violence, and Grief

Minor: Child death

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

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