Scan barcode
A review by alexampersand
How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie
dark
mysterious
4.5
The premise of the book felt pretty different to anything I've read in a long time - a confessional account from someone detailing how they've killed members of their family.
I found the protagonist teetered on the edge of being a likeable antihero, but then other times felt like she was almost deliberately contrarian in a way that was very grating.
I did enjoy how each murder was set up quite differently and the length of research undertaken each time gave us glimpses into several different worlds.
All throughout I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that the very premise was flawed - if you're in prison for a crime you didn't do, it seems like the last thing you should do is take to writing down in great detail a large amount of crimes that you did actually do. So without spoilers, I was glad to see that this seemingly glaringly unrealistic plot point was addressed by the end.
Speaking of the end - I left feeling a little unsatisfied. We end on essentially one very long chapter with a switch in narrator, but I didn't feel like the story was fully wrapped up. After spending the whole book with Grace, it felt anticlimactic to then not get any of her responses or reactions to the final plot points.
But overall, I loved this book!!
I found the protagonist teetered on the edge of being a likeable antihero, but then other times felt like she was almost deliberately contrarian in a way that was very grating.
I did enjoy how each murder was set up quite differently and the length of research undertaken each time gave us glimpses into several different worlds.
All throughout I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that the very premise was flawed - if you're in prison for a crime you didn't do, it seems like the last thing you should do is take to writing down in great detail a large amount of crimes that you did actually do. So without spoilers, I was glad to see that this seemingly glaringly unrealistic plot point was addressed by the end.
Speaking of the end - I left feeling a little unsatisfied. We end on essentially one very long chapter with a switch in narrator, but I didn't feel like the story was fully wrapped up. After spending the whole book with Grace, it felt anticlimactic to then not get any of her responses or reactions to the final plot points.
But overall, I loved this book!!