Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell

49 reviews

knikchevich's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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michelles_book_nook's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

⚠️ CW: murder, child abuse, domestic abuse, gaslighting, rape, blackmail, grooming and suicide ⚠️ Wow Lisa Jewell certainly didn't disappoint with this sequel to The Family Upstairs and I absolutely adored it! On an early June morning in London a bag of human bones is discovered on the foreshore of the Thames leading to DCI Samuel Owusu being called to the scene as he quickly sends off the bag for forensic examination. The bones are those of a young woman, killed by a blow to the head many years ago. Also inside the bag is a trail of clues, in particular the seeds of a rare tree which lead DCI Owusu back to a mansion in Chelsea where, nearly thirty years previously, three people lay dead in a kitchen and a baby waited upstairs for someone to pick her up. The clues point toward a brother and sister in Chicago searching for the only person who can make sense of their pasts and with four deaths, an unsolved mystery and a family whose secrets can't stay buried forever the story is far from over. This book was so intricate and complex from start to finish and had me absolutely hooked. The breadcrumb trail of information throughout as you slowly piece together various pov's, character developments and pieces from the first book truly grip you and take you on such an incredible rollercoaster ride of twists, turns and shocking revelations. Overall, I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

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jobradley's review against another edition

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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

4.5

An excellent sequel to The Family Upstairs! 

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norwegianforestreader's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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brynhayes's review against another edition

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

5.0


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butilikeit's review against another edition

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

4.0


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lxcy153's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-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

4.0

A LOT OF TRIGGER WARNINGS
 despite liking this book it was not mentioned before any of said trigger warnings were brought up in dialogue that these would happen so just be careful before reading. personally this book was the star to my reading journey as i haven’t prior to this book ever had a drive to read, thus meaning i hadn’t read the first one (due to what i have found this seems to be the sequel) despite this i still found this book east to follow along with. :)

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orianaisreading's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

WHOLE LOT OF TRIGGER WARNINGS

I didn’t realise when I bought this book that it was a sequel so I’d have to buy the first one as well.

However, at times, what a hot mess. It was hard to follow all the characters and storylines that were all happening all at once. And there were unanswered questions.

1. Does Lucy know that it wasn’t a suicide pact manipulated by David but that all three of them were killed by Henry?
2. The police officer knows Henry also killed Birdie but the book just ends with no mention of it. Does he just realise he can’t get him and drops the case? He didn’t seem like the type to just drop it.
3. The police officer says there’s no one who cares about who killed Birdie but also says her brother messaged him every day?

Also, it felt like the officer being black was a bit of a fake attempt at diversity. If he was just black and that was that it wouldn’t be mentioned so many times but also it only scraps the surface to what a black officer would face in London. So it didn’t do a good job of saying he’s black and that’s just that and characters can be black without it being everything about them and it failed to do so by the sheer amount of times it was mentioned but it also didn’t do a good job of dealing with the nuances of it.

Contrary to other comments the last line of the epilogue made complete sense to me. The emptiness in Henry would not have been filled by a family reunion, not matter that he loves them. He is not psychopathic, he feels empathy for others, but he’s deeply troubled and will continue to be so.

The book was kind of dragged 150 pages more than it should have (but so is this review). Rant over.

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greatexpectations77's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I didn't realize that this was the sequel to The Family Upstairs when I started, and I probably would have waited a bit to be a better headspace because of all of the assault. But I still really enjoyed it, and I like the author's storytelling a lot. 

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nadine7's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0


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