Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter

54 reviews

sophialib's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

SO GOOD! I really think listening to this helped me keep everything straight and made a huge difference; the audio cast was great. The writing format was super fun too. The only issue I had was there were so many red herrings and false conclusions, it definitely added to it like it was a real investigation and made it feel like reality tv, but it felt a bit like overkill at some points. Other than that I thought it was great!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Drug use

phil266's review against another edition

dark mysterious relaxing fast-paced

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

4.75

Great book! Twists are insane. Liked the format of it being like a series of evidence. Fun read!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Suicide, and Death of parent

pikkumarja's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The book was definitely something. The concept was new to me and I believe it would have worked even better with my first language.

I did find out the murderer before the experts but not long before.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

judassilver's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Dementia and Car accident

Minor: Hate crime and Homophobia

peggyt's review against another edition

funny mysterious tense fast-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

wishyouweresober's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative fast-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

mikaiten's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Car accident, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and War

thekissballad's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

I really enjoyed this. It's technically my first epistolary-type novel, so I was worried I wouldn't be able to get into it. But the transcripts of the episodes are essentially scripts (screenplays) in reverse, and I have experience reading those, so it worked for me.

That being said, the episodic nature and the emails, newspaper recaps, forums, etc in between did throw me off when I was very much into the "espisodes" and trying to follow all the clues.

I did guess the killer correctly, and very early on. It didn't take away anything for me because until the end, it was only ever just my gut instinct. It was interesting to see where all the clues and other intertwining factors took the story, though.

Basically, if you like true crime documentaries / mini-series, you'll enjoy this book. And without the week-long wait between episodes.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Rape, and Dementia

brandilovesbooks's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

If I was rating Murder in the Family based on the mystery.  It would be 4 stars.  A reality TV series delving into the 20-year-old case of who killed Luke Ryder.  The producer of the show is the murder victim's step‐ son who'd been 10 at the time of the murder.  The panel of experts brought in to dig into the case include a reporter, a retired NYPD police officer, a retired Metropolitan Police member, a criminal attorney, a crime scene investigator, and a forensic psychologist.  There are tons of plot twists.  The ending was unexpected.

The reason I only rated it 3 stars was the unconventional format.  Murder in the Family does not read like a normal story.  Each "chapter" is a transcription of a broadcast of the show "Infamous- Who Killed Luke Ryder?" There are also e-mails between people involved on the show, voice-mail message transcriptions, screenshots of a reddit group discussing each episode, and text messages.  

I read books for all of the stuff that goes on between the dialogue.  For the point of view that allows insight into thoughts, feelings, observations, and memories.  This book didn't have that.  You were forced to read between the lines.  Cara Hunter did a great job with this chosen format, but it wasn't my cup of tea.

Recommended for people who like true crime and people who don't mind the unconventional format.

My content warnings include - cursing, murder, and graphic detail of the body.

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Cursing, Infidelity, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

k_shimer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Mental illness, and Car accident

Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, Dementia, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol