Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

7 reviews

clovetra's review against another edition

challenging 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

4.0

damn. this is probably the best adult mystery novel i’ve read. 

i mean already bonus points for being australian. like idk the tone of this book just makes sense to be australian. it’s so goofy and wacky yet insane. once i realised the setting i went “ahhh yes everything already makes sense”. 

also props to the writing of ernest. not only is he so incredibly funny, but he’s intelligent and intriguing. he has a personality beyond the detective role in this novel, and his fourth wall breaks were just epic. i mean cmon him telling us after someone’s vomiting “she’s not pregnant u idiots i know it’s a cliche but she’s not pregnant i can assure you”. and this book is just that for like 370 pages which was AMAZING. i always love me some well-timed meta-commentaries and this book is filled to the brim with it. i’m so serious at times i was doubting this was a work of fiction and not just an autobiography with some names changed.

the other characters in this cast felt a little flat to me, but i think that’s just because there’s so many people. almost everyone except ernest is reduced to one or two facts about them until the very end where there is exposition diarrhoea about every single character.

except andy bro was just along for the ride. he started the story with a beer, and ended it with hitting someone with a fire poker. thank you for your service andy

. 

and that brings me to why this book isn’t 5-stars — the actual mystery. now i will always give a book credit where credit is due, in that i didn’t guess the killer. yay!!!! but honestly i don’t think i could if i tried. so much was going on even at my hardest i could not follow what was going on. and when this character is hiding x and this character is hiding y and this character is hiding z i was just flatlining. there’s a fine line between keeping your audience on their toes and letting your mc figure out the mystery just before they do, and having ur reader so fucking lost that they have no hope of figuring it out until the great reveal where all is explained. like yes okkkkk i do understand how this all went down at the end…. but holy shit there were so many fucking moving pieces and conclusions leapt to by one liners i really had no hope. and that is where this book lets me down. it’s trying to be so clever and it does achieve that, but at the risk of the reader having to just roll with the punches because almost every chapter there is a plot twist and at some point you just cannot keep up with them anymore.

i will say though that i will defo be continuing this series, as although i just bitched and moaned about how this book was too intelligent, i still had a great time. 

i will say though that as much as this book tries to sell to the readers that it is not your average mystery novel…… by the end it lowkey does turn out to be 🤐

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Vomit, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

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

skersnick's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

inhaledmocha's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Torture, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

kayceeisbookish's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

A unique murder mystery with a dark humor twist. I highly enjoyed the melancholy narrator's tone as he uncoiled the web of knotted lies that started out as a standard family reunion.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Suicide, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

kirstym25's review against another edition

funny mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction

britttobegorey94's review against another edition

funny mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Infertility, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail