A review by toastyghosty13
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

challenging dark funny mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.25

I read this book as part of a buddy read with my aunt, where we choose a book for each other and then come back and discuss. She chose this book for me, and it was pretty funny. I love a whodunnit and I also love Australian humor (see my love for Gideon the Ninth, even though I know Tamsyn Muir is Kiwi).

I recommend this to anyone that likes whodunnits. It was funny and had a good unique cast of characters for the main characters family, as a murder is committed and a body found while they are having a family reunion vacation getaway in a remote mountainous ski resort to celebrate the main characters brother’s release from prison — after the main character put him there. What ensues is a chaotic week of narrowing down suspects (all of which are family members of the main character, including his ex wife that left him for the brother he imprisoned), and uncovering secrets that have been kept for decades. 

I did like this and would be surprised if it didn’t become a movie, since it is pretty similar in vibe to Knives Out (another familial suspect pool for a murder) and was outrageously funny. There is a sequel which I will probably read in the future too. 

One thing I could have lived without was
the degloving of the main character. It happened in a grandeur scene and was mentioned in detail multiple times during and after in the rest of the book -_-

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