A review by annamariesreads
How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

dark tense 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

1.0

Wow... I wouldn't usually bother with a review on a book I hated but I couldn't believe how much I hated this novel.

Every character lacked believability, mostly because they were horrendously one note. Characters don't have to be likeable (I actually love to hate characters) but they do need to compel you into following their story.

The writing is heavy handed. I don't need the narrator to tell me when something is ironic!

Also the fatphobia and body image comments really drove me up the wall.

The beauty of interpretation is that you could possibly chalk this down to the anti-heroine (if you can call such a flat character this) being repulsive. But it shouldn't feel like the reader is being hit over the head with a mallet.

I did actually have a chuckle at some astute observations of British people, so this gained the book one star. However, these observations were not just comments, they went on way too long (sometimes for paragraphs) and we would lose the plot a bit. They would  go  from a funny gag to another snide comment real quick.

I hesitated from dnfing because I wanted to see if there would be a raison d'être for this novel. It all seemed rather pointless.
It was clear she wouldn't stay in prison for long on such tenuous charges.
and somehow the ending was even worse. I did read Bella Mackie's interview where she justified the ending by saying (paraphrasing here) that
women get shit on by men all the time and therefore it was the appropriate ending.
This made me laugh because this comment is just as heavy handed as the clunky writing I had just witnessed.

I wouldn't waste your time with this one. This will be the last time I read a "most popular" listed book.


Expand filter menu Content Warnings