Review by bluejayreads - Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

bluejayreads 's review for:

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

4.75

I can't tell you what possessed me to pick up this book. For some reason I just kept coming back to it when deciding what to read next. I've always said I'm not a huge fan of mysteries, and while I can appreciate a good Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie, they're not really my jam. I think it's just the concept of a murder mystery at the family reunion of a family where every member has killed someone that sounded so engaging. But this book is full of surprises, and even the statement "everyone is my family has killed someone" isn't quite what it seems. The narrator, Ern, makes a living writing "how to write a mystery novel" books, so the story is told with a tongue-in-cheek self-awareness that could have easily become gimmicky but I found amusing and engaging. Somehow Ern's awareness of how mystery novels are "supposed" to go and his awareness that I the reader also know subverted the formulaic trope-heaviness that usually annoys me about mysteries and made it feel fresh. Which I suppose is the point. And it managed to balance the deadpan style with moments of real intensity. (The story of who Ern's mother kills is, honestly, haunting.) I didn't put a lot of brainpower into trying to solve the murder in advance, and I'm glad I didn't - though I think it would technically be possible, it would have been challenging and require both existing knowledge of something outside the book and a willingness to make a couple big assumptions. But despite that, it was an enjoyable story. I had a good time, the mystery was interesting, I was engaged enough to listen to it in my car (which I rarely do because I have to do it with my phone's speakers). Despite not being a mystery fan, I liked this one.

Content Warnings