Reviews tagging 'Murder'

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

341 reviews

ohmosh's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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thissagreads's review against another edition

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challenging funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Highly recommend this book!! The dark humor is bold and the storyline doesn’t get caught in the weeds. As the main character Grace, unapologetically kills her family members for various reasons, there are still lots of plot twists! I would ABSOLUTELY read a part two if the author ever decided to write one.

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stindex's review against another edition

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lighthearted 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? It's complicated

1.0

The author makes me sad. They’ve apparently tried to push all the things they hate into this book and it just makes this feel like a boomer whining about basically everything. For a ”feminist” main character the mc sure spent a lot of time hating on women in a very pick me -girlish style. Body shaming was also very present whenever describing anyone else but the mc or their love interest. The premise was great but the book is an absolute train wreck from the start.

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bkyng313's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • 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

4.0


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kathlenenarraga's review against another edition

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

4.0

A book that has finally crossed the 3-star rating I was in deep last month. Do I think killing anyone, even if the said person wronged you big time, is horrible? Yes. Was I rooting for the main character despite her murderous intentions? Also yes.

Grace's way of telling the events matter of fact displayed her indifference to the hideous acts she committed. Her delivery of her plans and how she thought of the people in her list were unhinged it was funny (an adjective I would never use if my name's listed there, obviously)

There was a part in the book where her mom described young Grace to her father which I liked a lot - it showed the humane side of a killer and it was hard to place where it fits in the current narrative.

I was so angry with how this ended. Grace was MAD but what happened to her felt so unfair and terrible - which is insane to feel too because hello??? She murdered people and yet here I am spewing things about fairness? Andddd - that is how you get me to I like a book 🤷‍♀️

Only thing was - there were some passages and narrations I thought were too long or unnecessary.

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pil4r's review against another edition

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funny mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

2.75

Me resulta un poco complejo ubicar el género de esta novela. How to kill your family no responde ni se acerca a los canones de la ficción literaria pero tampoco termina de convencerme como thriller y está muy lejos del universo de la literatura juvenil.
Su historia sigue a Grace quien, desde que empieza este relato, nos cuenta que ha cumplido la meta autoimpuesta de asesinar a miembros de su familia. Mientras nos cuenta cómo, esta protagonista intenta -y algunas veces logra- ser astuta, rencorosa, inteligente y sarcástica; siendo, principalmente, su tono el que sostiene lo gracioso y entretenido de este recorrido.
Sin embargo, considero que esta novela se encuentra con varios problemas a lo largo de su desarrollo. Es un texto bastante largo de más y es esa extensión la que produce que el suspenso ensayado se diluya y, por momentos, tanto la trama como la protagonista pierdan mucho sentido -y ni hablar de verosimilitud-.
La idea central es interesante, aunque realmente esperaba encontrarme con una historia o bastante más entretenida o una tanto más profunda.
Por todo esto, no se me ocurre bien a quien recomendarle este libro. Por otro lado, si buscan obras de ficción que se centren en mujeres complejas cometiendo grandes errores -por no decir crimenes- les recomiendo chusmearse novelas como Big Swiss (del mundo de lo bizarro y lo LGBT), Boy Parts (de lo artístico y oscuro) y Hasta que mueras (de lo argentino y furioso). 

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cloudbee06's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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saskiahill's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.0


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esv_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense 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? No

4.0


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valegbecerra's review against another edition

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dark funny 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

1.25

The protagonist is painfully millennial. I think she was meant to be cynical but ended up being a dull hater
 
Things I found highly unlikely:
-A filthy rich sex club member like her uncle would think chocking is a hardcore sex kink. He strikes me as the type the type of man to find it vanilla.
-That she was able to get so close to all of them in multiple countries and no one ever recognized her. Maybe they did not but their security and staff(?) unlikely. Same thing with her brother
-That her brother writes in such a similar tone to her even tho they do not know each other, I think the autor forgot to change voices to reflect different characters. The only noticiable difference was he was just less bitter. 
-That the techy teen never looked her up.

Overall a hard one to finish

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