Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

95 reviews

theelliad's review against another edition

3.5

How to Kill Your Family is the account of serial murders told from the perspective of the killer as she serves jail time for a murder she didn’t commit.

The narrative voice of this novel is hilarious and sarcastic and truly kept me engaged, alongside this the dual timeline of the story is handled well and it was structurally enjoyable and followable. That said, I was disappointed by the ending, the twist was not the best but I thought fitted the story well, it was rather the transformation in Grace (the protagonist) in the final chapters. The self sufficient, powerful and somewhat narcissistic personality she has established falls victim to the writers need for a conclusion becoming submissive, easily forgiving and a bit boring as the final events of her life are recounted; it was this, more so than the plot twist, which didn’t feel right to me. However, that said I did enjoy this book enough to speed through it in a matter of days and so I cannot judge it too harshly! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Murder, Grief, Gaslighting, Violence, Stalking, Sexual content, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gore, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Classism, Cancer, Misogyny, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Body horror, and Blood

ladynavalon's review against another edition

dark funny slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Car accident, Suicide, Torture, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Murder, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Cancer, and Violence

El plot twist es

lñno es ella quien mata a su padre y a su hermana, sino que resulta que tiene un hermano que le escri e una carta consedandole los crimenes. La llevan a la cárcel por marta a la novia de su amigo, pero consiguen sacarla

georg_11's review against another edition

Hardly any dialogue and super long chapters 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Stalking, Death, Drug use, Car accident, and Terminal illness

kim_lommaert's review against another edition

dark relaxing 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Car accident, Abandonment, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Stalking, and Death of parent

bookaholic_in_wonderland's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Stalking, Body shaming, Car accident, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Infidelity, Blood, Addiction, Cancer, Death, and Eating disorder

ronja234's review against another edition

Kvindelig hovedperson som er "bedre" end alle andre og som hele tiden skal hæve sig selv over alle andre. Plottet forsvinder lidt i hendes eget point of view når hun hele tiden skal fortælle at hun er bedre. Det blev trættende efter meget kort tid (pick me girl) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Stalking, Death, Death of parent, Classism, Abandonment, and Murder

eleanorryd's review against another edition

dark funny reflective tense medium-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

3.5

Really enjoyed this until the last 50 pages or so. Was so ready for it to be a 4,5 star read but the ending really ruined it for me. I don't know what I was hoping for or expecting but certainly not this. Semi-spoiler but the ending gives

the low-key lazy "I opened my eyes and realised it was all a dream"

vibes.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Stalking, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Drug use, Sexism, Alcohol, Cancer, and Injury/Injury detail

tasarla's review against another edition

dark slow-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

3.75

Good beach read :)

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:

I feel like Jimmys storyline was never actually wrapped up properly. It was hreat up until he realises she didn’t push his fiancée off the balcony then he’s never mentioned again other than everything goes back to normal!? Could’ve done with some kind of closure scene of those two!

Probably wouldn’t re-read but I did enjoy reading it overall

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Car accident, Incest, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Violence, Child abuse, Sexual content, Murder, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Forced institutionalization, and Stalking

poppyskills's review against another edition

dark funny 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Violence, Death of parent, Death, and Car accident

Moderate: Alcohol, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Cancer, and Stalking

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