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A review by justinkhchen
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
5.0
Tongue in cheek and complex, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone combines the best of both worlds: classic locked room murder of a cozy mystery, and high stake drama of a thriller. The cherry on top being the fourth-wall breaking narrator who talks directly to the readers about fiction writing. This novel tries to accomplish A LOT, and it turns out surprisingly cohesive and entertaining.
I'm always fascinated by the author's process of writing a story, so the meta texts from the narrator discussing rules for writing mystery, genre cliches, and self-spoiling the death count, is wholeheartedly welcome, and this atypical approach immediately differentiates this novel from the typical remote location murder mystery. Surprisingly, the plot doesn't suffer from the abundance of humor, still delivering a layered, and at times pretty violet sequence of events, alongside a very strong third act reveal(despite the narrator's repeating spoilers).
Looks like this is becoming a series—I'll be curious to see if the gimmick will still hold up the second time around!
I'm always fascinated by the author's process of writing a story, so the meta texts from the narrator discussing rules for writing mystery, genre cliches, and self-spoiling the death count, is wholeheartedly welcome, and this atypical approach immediately differentiates this novel from the typical remote location murder mystery. Surprisingly, the plot doesn't suffer from the abundance of humor, still delivering a layered, and at times pretty violet sequence of events, alongside a very strong third act reveal(despite the narrator's repeating spoilers).
Looks like this is becoming a series—I'll be curious to see if the gimmick will still hold up the second time around!