Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

226 reviews

chronic_listener's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Alcohol

arkwen452's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Dark, witty, challenging and compelling. I co-read with the audiobook and at times I found the audiobook made things too confusing with all the details, comments and side notes the author includes in the narrative. Likewise, Ern can become annoying if you read this book in a short sitting like I did. 

With that said, I found the story interesting and compelling enough to power through. And I would be interested in reading the second book in this series. Being familiar with a number of  how to write a mystery rules, there were a few things I could pick up on and guess. But it was nice to know that even if I guessed correctly about some of those things, it did not ruin the book or the overall mystery for me. 

This book holds a lot of humor and it was darker than I believe I was anticipating. The big twists in the narrative were shocking but not so shocking that they were unbelievable or too superfluous. It would take a  member of this crazy family to stick through all this nonsense because if it were me, I would have gracefully bowed out.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, and Murder

tabea1409's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

fiercereadsfiction's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Suicide

jennaaps's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

4.75

One of my favorite books. The author being a stand up comedian must have really helped with the delivery and references in this book, because it does the fourth-wall-breaking first-person POV so incredibly well. Usually they bug the hell out of me but this one didn’t nearly at all.

I want to give it a 5 because of how much I enjoyed it and how well he wrote the suspense and surprises, while purposefully handicapping himself by giving away some of it (which was respectable and made it so so fun to read). However… some of the backstory got a bit too convoluted. It might help rereading it (which I actually do see myself doing), but I’m not entirely sure.

Compared to the previous mystery (Flavia de Luce) I just read, I have to appreciate the complexity, though. There was just so much more to it and there were tons of :0 moments, instead of the reader being able to easily solve this halfway through. Mind you, it would be possible to solve this before the denouement.

I could go on, but essentially this is the subversive, self-aware, witty mystery book of my dreams. Thank you, Australia. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

ceruleanseas's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Suicide, Kidnapping, and Abandonment

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

ammah's review against another edition

challenging funny informative mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

bugferbrains's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Twist after twist after beautiful twist! Benjamin Stevenson does an awesome job subverting your expectations even when setting all the pieces up in front of you. There were a few shocking moments that made me pause and laugh in surprise. The misdirection is fantastic. 
I’m used to reading more fantasy/sci-fi fiction, so it took a few chapters for me to really get into it, but once it roped me in it was hard to put down! I really enjoyed the meta writing. If there’s one nitpick I have, it was how Ernest, who had stated to be not much of a detective, completely nailed all the motives and the truth in the end, with some of his deductions being guesswork that happens to be correct. Am I too hung up on this though? No. This was a good ass book, and I am very eager to read the next one. The back of the book says it will be turned into an HBO series too, so I’ll have to watch that.
One final thought, a thank you to the author for suggesting the reader to pick up more Aussie crime fiction in the Acknowledgements section. I am DEFINITELY going to do that. Would’ve liked a few suggested authors though lmao. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse, Gore, Suicide, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Emotional abuse and Vomit

ticklemetiff's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

jesse_z's review against another edition

funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Suicide