Reviews

A Família Perfeita by Lisa Jewell

mel_whitford's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

tofu97's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

kathywadolowski's review against another edition

3.0

It's my second read from Lisa Jewell, and another one that I found to be just ok. I'm not sure if maybe her style isn't quite for me... or maybe I just haven't found the right one yet?

Fam, her style is DARK. And I'm a fan of dark, I know that's not my hang-up here. One issue was that the burn was just a little tooooo slow. Instead of being engrossed, I found myself a little bored by all the details from all three characters' perspectives. I honestly could've gone completely without Lucy's perspective, which I found really unnecessary to the plot and just dreary. Henry's, at least, walked us through the events of the past; but Lucy added basically nothing

Spoiler

while dragging us through some really random "twists," like the literal murder of her ex-husband, that had no bearing on the central story/mystery

.

Speaking of Henry's timeline: it was definitely necessary to understand the unraveling of all the people in the house, but it was also SOOOO slow and got more and more unbelievable. I also don't love an unreliable narrator, and the revelations/confusion about Henry's retelling got a little tiresome.

Spoiler

Especially because we don't really "find out" what's up with him... he does extremely suspicious stuff in the present timeline (like locking Libby and Miller in his house!) and was clearly unhinged to some degree as a child, but we don't really get an answer to his mental state.

I also found the stakes to be somewhat low, because it seems kind of obvious who the characters are from the jump even if we don't exactly know what went down in the house. So there's no real like, ~thriller~ type race to the finish because there's not really a conflict? I don't know, something was just missing from the plot that would give it the kind of oomph I expect in a dark mystery/thriller.

Lisa Jewell is really well-regarded in the genre and there's no doubt she can come up with a twisted narrative, but I'm still waiting to be wowed. I'm not quite ready to give up yet, but I think I'll eventually stop giving chances?

rebeccasreadingrambles's review against another edition

4.0

This book was complex with three different POVs that had a hidden connection. However, for me it was just okay - mostly because I guessed all the twists early on AND I just couldn't connect with any of the characters. Still giving 4 stars because it was a "it's not you, it's me" type of thing and I can see why so many people loved this dark cultish story.

breosmith's review against another edition

5.0

An interesting turn of events from a twisted family.

mcastro's review against another edition

dark slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

elizabethkurtz1100's review against another edition

5.0

i looooooved and i didn’t even guess the ending

rhifallows's review against another edition

3.0

Ok so this is another thriller that I’m not sure I was totally on board with. It took me a fair while to get into it. Although the plot itself sounded very intriguing - a baby left alive and well in a cot but with three decomposing corpses lying downstairs - but I’m not sure if this one lived up to the blurb for me.

The story is told from multiple POVs, Libby, Lucy and Henry. I immediately liked Libby (she’s probably the most relatable character so this makes sense), I was a bit confused by Lucy and I took a dislike to Henry. I think the way I felt about the characters was the reason for me taking some time to get into the book as as soon as I’d made a connection with one character we were on to the next. However, when things all started coming together I found my attention being grabbed and I was keen to find out what had gone on. Alas, the last few chapters fell a bit short for me again though and I found it all quite predictable. I’m not sure what I was expecting to be honest but maybe it’s just because I’ve read similar books recently. I got Girl A vibes from this one, a book that I enjoyed but didn’t rock my world. I think I was perhaps just waiting for bigger twists to happen!

All in all, I didn’t hate this book but I’d not rush to recommend it.

mxcopmy's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

1.5

arby_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

3.0