Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

46 reviews

syazahaniss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative reflective 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? No

1.0

The lack of dialogues made it feel very draggy, slow and almost nonfiction-like. The chapters were incredibly long and the British English was also a tad bit difficult to understand, so I was practically dragging myself through the book. Grace herself gave off very arrogant vibes because she looks down on everyone else.

What I thought made the story very disorganized was that her victims seemed very random. I thought it would just be Simon, Janine and Bryony (direct relation) where at least I could see the structure of the killing, but Andrew and the grandparents felt so unrelated. So Grace just killed them off because they were mean people? They barely had any interactions with her; for all she knows they’re nice. Her killing off people she’s never even spoken to made me think she was the evil one here?

Also it kind of annoyed me that every single one of her plans went according to plan. Because realistically, how does one suddenly wake up one day vengeful and deciding to kill her entire family and actually gets away with it with no problems whatsoever?

That said, I don’t know why this book is so popular. I didn’t like it at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Misogyny and Stalking

Minor: Grief

ribbenkast's review against another edition

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.  

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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

holliesatchell's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Abandonment, Alcohol, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Incest, Sexual content, Death of parent, Drug use, Murder, Grief, Misogyny, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Violence

jennabird06's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Minor: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Blood, and Cancer

signelinnea's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

2.75

I think Grace's type of character is enjoyable to read about for a certain type of person which, unfortunately, I am not. For me, Grace read like a "I'm not like other girls"-girl and was critizising other people, especially women, throughout the entire book in a way I didn't  like.  

The book also felt very slow. There was a lot of build up to the murders that I feel like could have been shortened quite a bit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Cursing, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Infidelity

introverted_reads's review against another edition

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

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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

yafi's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Death, Cursing, Murder, and Confinement

Moderate: Abandonment, Grief, Misogyny, Blood, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Cancer, Car accident, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

keishac13's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Death of parent, Violence, Terminal illness, Grief, Sexual violence, Murder, Misogyny, Death, and Abandonment

Moderate: Eating disorder

m4rtt4's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

The premise was very promising, and I was quite hooked on the story despite it not being as funny as it was said to be. Yes, it was funny at times, but oftentimes the 'humour' relied on (internalized) misogyny and/or fatphobia and/or belittling mental health issues and eating disorders — this is also why I found the book's feminist takes to be quite hypocritical. I hated Grace as a character, she was so insufferable, annoying, petty and too bitter over the smallest of things, but I stuck up with her because — well — you can't quite love a serial killer anyways. I liked the ending, it was justified and fit perfectly with my dislike on Grace, though I also must say that such a plot twist should have been foreshadowed better. A murder mystery is no fun if it doesn't make you feel dumb for not realising the answer earlier; it shouldn't come so out of the blue (as in this case) that it feels literally impossible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Grief, Murder, Death of parent, and Stalking

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Car accident

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Violence, Fatphobia, Terminal illness, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness

lottselgar's review against another edition

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? Yes

2.5

idk how to explain it other than at some moments it felt like she wanted to be misogynistic so bad for no reason

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Alcohol, Death of parent, Grief, Body horror, Murder, Violence, and Car accident

Moderate: Abandonment, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism