Reviews

All The Blood We Share by Camilla Bruce

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thepagelady's review

4.0

Based on a true story this book is quite interesting! The writing is fantastic! You really can't help but get lost in the story! Great read!

This book looked really cool and yet I was sorely let down by just how little happens in over 300 pages. The family and their quirks are well done, but when it comes to the actual execution (pun intended), I found myself growing bored. The family kills, fights a bit and then they simmer down. Repeat. I found myself dragging myself through endless rehashing of fights between characters with some backstory thrown in to help keep me invested. As time went on, even learning more about other characters didn't help. The author notes that this book is based off of a real family and I can see it. I just wish she had gone more fantastical or crazy because this book drags its feet to the very end.

lynguy1's review

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3.0

All the Blood We Share by Camilla Bruce is a historical fiction novel based on a real family of serial killers known at the Bloody Benders. While the names of the family aren’t consistent in the retellings, Bruce uses William Bender, father of John, his wife Elvira, and her daughter Kate. William and John arrived in Labette County, Kansas near the small town of Cherryvale in 1871. Once their home and barn are built, Elvira and Kate arrive by train.

The newcomers are welcomed and use part of their home as a general store and inn for those passing along the nearby trail. Kate poses as a medium while she and Elvira also use potions to cure ills of the local inhabitants (for a price). However, the Benders are greedy and want a better life. People begin to disappear, and three of them are found dead. What has happened to the others that have disappeared? Are they dead or alive? Where are they?

The characterization of this novel is terrific. The actions, reactions, and descriptions gave me a clear picture of the Bender family members and several of the locals. William is calm, a planner, and always thinking of the future. However, he goes through a significant personality change during the course of the novel. Elvira seems erratic, greedy, bitter, and abusive to Kate. Kate is bold, shows no regret or sadness, and shows enjoyment in evil deeds. John works hard, but is jealous and angry. This mixed bag of traits made for an interesting and frightening mix in the novel.

The story alternates points of view between Kate, Elvira, and Hanson, a boy from the nearby trading station. This worked okay but occasionally disrupted the flow. Additionally, the writing was fluent at times and felt stilted and stylistic at other times. The world-building was so realistic and atmospheric, but it also made me shudder in horror at times. The novel brings strong, startling, and stressful images to life. The suspense involves who will live and who will die, as well as what will happen to the Benders. I didn’t expect several twists. The ending isn’t as definitive as I would have liked. Themes explored include family dynamics, relationships, greed, secrets, murder, anger, and jealousy.

Overall, this story is startling, violent, horrifying, thought provoking, and emotional, with great world-building and characterization. It was a hair-raising and chilling read. The author has a note section at the end that explains some of the many questions that remain about the Benders and where she has fictionalized the story.

Berkley Publishing Group and Camilla Bruce provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently set for November 22, 2022. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.

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My 2.9 rounded to 3 stars review is coming soon.

kaleymph's review

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4.0

Absolutely crazy, I went into this blind. I had never heard of this family until I picked up this book. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves a true crime / mystery!

readundancies's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

I like to think that I’m open-minded enough that I’m willing to dole out second chances to authors that have initially disappointed me in the past. Granted, time away is definitely a requirement for this kind of gracious benevolence, but I’m trying for character growth this year with my reading habits.

So of course when I found out that Camilla Bruce was coming out with another female serial killer historical horror thriller read, I couldn’t help but have my interest peaked in spite of my rather tumultuous reading experience with her previous novel, In the Garden of Spite. Serial killers are a morbid fascination of mine and Camilla Bruce always seems to focus on ones with mysterious backstories that I just can’t seem to leave well enough alone.

And so where Belle Gunness spent the entirety of In the Garden of Spite trying to construct a family out of murder, Bruce’s newest novel, All the Blood We Share, follows a different femme fatale in Kate Bender who comes prepackaged with the Bender family, consisting of her mother Elvira, stepbrother John and stepfather William. And where In the Garden of Spite displayed the evolution of Belle Gunness into “serial killer extraordinaire” from the brutal trauma she endures in Norway that sets her upon her murder path, Kate Bender has already undergone her first kill upon her introduction in All the Blood We Share and we instead watch the rather quick escalation and climax that her actions inspire in the whole Bender family.

Now, I definitely liked this reading experience more than the last reading excursion I took with Camilla Bruce, but it still didn’t do much for me overall. I didn’t have any issues with the pseudo-incestuous implications between John and Kate that never amounted to anything but were still very prevalent throughout the story. I even thought there were proper serial killer vibes in this one, as Kate definitely had a thirst for spilling blood that could not be sated. And I especially enjoyed how the Bender family worked as a dysfunctional family unit; the constant bickering and butting of heads between Elvira and Kate was a great relationship dynamic between mother and daughter to explore and the power struggle that they displayed was in perfect contrast to how Elvira and Kate, the main female characters of the story interacted and managed their male counterparts in the family, William and John.

I don’t think the overall plot and execution were particularly engaging in terms of intrigue but that may have something to do with slower pace of the novel not really introducing enough tension for my tastes. It may also be tied to the fact that there were three POVs we as readers get to read from, Kate, Elvira and Hanson, a boy who acts as an outside perspective to the Bender family and yet becomes quite involved with them outside of their murdering practices. Hanson’s perspective didn’t pack the same punch that Elvira and Kate’s did, likely because the character dynamics between mother and daughter were a lot more fraught with drama.

I also think that the very vague and open-ended conclusion to the story ties loose threads up nicely but also leaves the reader with a bunch more questions that will never get answered. It’s not that I’m looking for any sort of established conclusion with Bruce’s stories, but I seem to find them wanting for some reason because they never really end in a satisfying manner for me. This one was much of the same, however per the Author Notes, it seems to end in the same way that the Bender family’s reign also ended, shrouded in mystery and unknowing.

All in all, a different reading experience with Camilla Bruce for me and since I didn’t leave it with such a negative emotional reaction, I’m counting this one as a win. Not sure I’d be able to recommend it to anyone specifically, but I enjoyed the Spiritualism aspects incorporated into this one and wouldn’t necessarily deter anyone from it.

beachy123's review

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challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Loved it. Can’t wait to read more Camilla Bruce. It’s a dark book about the Bender family. I love the way the author has mixed historical fact with fiction. I could not put the book down. Brilliant!

shanaconda's review against another edition

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dark 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

2.25

**spoiler alert** I already knew the story of the Benders, and thus knew that this was truly a work of fiction (given that we know so little actual detail). My issue is with the characterization of the Bender family. They were so...cartoonish, I guess? Ma and Pa were more believable, but goodness were Kate and John just not meshing with me. You're telling me that no one can sit John down and tell him to get over his stepsister and maybe stop beating up every dude who looks at her? And Kate was just so over-the-top evil that it made me think that the author read a pop-psych description of a psychopath and layered her behavior over it.

Overall, the way the book was written made me think that the author is definitely one of "those" true crime fans: the ones who focus on salacious details of killings and revel in the psychopathy of criminals. It's a very My Favorite Murder way of viewing crime (don't come for me, they're super problematic), and it left a bad taste in my mouth