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hdhreads's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Drug use, Violence, Car accident, and Death of parent
eleanorryd's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Death, Violence, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug use, Eating disorder, Sexism, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
lily1304's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content
Content notes:skylarkblue1's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Car accident, and Death of parent
Moderate: Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, and Sexual content
Unknown Incestuous Relationships (One party is aware it's incestuous, the other isn't)taleofabibliophile's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer, Drug use, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, and Classism
Minor: Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Sexual harassment
hannah_steven's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Abandonment
Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, Grief, Car accident, and Alcohol
Minor: Drug use and Eating disorder
tasarla's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I loved reading this in the first person where the narrator is an absolute psycho!
I really like the writing style (though upon reading other reviews it appears to be divisive). The main character is supposed to be hateable and not relatable so if you’re into that this book is a great example of it
Despite the “funny” tag I’d say the book has some amusing moments rather than it actually being funny
The plot in the first half of the book is much stronger than the second half IMO, but I still liked the rest of the book and enjoyed the ending.
The murders are well-described but not gory or disgustingly graphic detail, which I liked because it made an otherwise heavy book feel more light
Normally I feel like books focus too much on romantic side-plots but this one failed in this aspect. Spoiler:
Probably wouldn’t re-read but I did enjoy reading it overall
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Classism
ribbenkast's review against another edition
- 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 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.
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Stalking, and Car accident
holliesatchell's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Incest, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol
bloomsburybaker's review against another edition
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Murder