valzsc's profile picture

valzsc 's review for:

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie
2.75
dark slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Oh gosh, where to start? I am pissed off...

I was very excited when I picked this up but it ended up taking me almost 2 weeks to read this 355 pages book. As it is written in a memoir style and we are relying on the protagonist as a narrator, I never trusted her. She rambles again and again, losing the point and the plot in the meantime. Long descriptions and rants about everyone around her that she seemed to hate. There's no one thing that she likes or enjoy more than actually killing these people. She hates on women, men, rich or poor, fat people, the mentally ill, the healthy, and herself.

It wants to be super clever and snappy but ends up being just tiring. And ending everything with this little scheme her half brother put up for her, and him being Simon's killer... Feels anti-cathartic. Overall, every single character is unlikeable, I think the only one I felt sorry for was Andrew as I thought his murder was very cruel. 


I'm giving it 3 stars because I was able to finish it, and although the final letter she gets made me engage a little, I can't help but feel that overall it was too long.