Reviews tagging 'Death'

Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena

29 reviews

swimmer120x's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.0

It was a book about a bunch of spoiled adult children who wanted their parent’s inheritance. Also, the narrator was awful. She had a very robotic sounding voice, which was difficult to tolerate at points. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Blood and Pregnancy

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.25

Book Rating: 2.25 stars

   I found this book hard to enjoy because I hated almost every character! They were all just dripping in privilege and entitlement. It made me honestly just scream at them and burn down our current inheritance policies. 

   Catherine was particularly unlikeable, as she didn't seem to have any redeeming qualities, she and Dan were the worst of the bunch. Dan was simply creepy AF. 

   The main mystery of the story wasn't too hard to solve by about halfway through the book. It was pretty obvious it was one of the kids. I honestly wish the author had gone another route as to who was the killer. I think Jenna's boyfriend would have been a good one to go with. But that's just me! 

   It wasn't terrible, but not nearly as good as I'd hoped with the hype. 

Narrator Rating: 2.0 stars

  This book just begged for a full cast audio, but instead, they just had one narrator which made it confusing, even in a 3rd person narration. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cancer, Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical content, and Abandonment

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I liked this one, even though I had a suspicion about the ending

because there just wasn't enough info about the character who ended up being the perpetrator. They just seemed too absent from the narrative.

But this was very intense, and I really like Ms. Lapena.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Cancer, Chronic illness, Infertility, Grief, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

brookey8888's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.25

This was entertaining, but I’ll never think of it again. It had a lot of reveals throughout which I didn’t see coming and I wanted to know what happened. As for who did it,it didn’t shock me. This was fine, if you like this author or if this sounds good pick it up, but if not your not missing anything amazing in my opinion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

rochelleisreading's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Infertility and Infidelity

danajoy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity

sefrahudman's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

I would give this book like a 4.25 stars! I really really enjoyed it, and I felt like it was super well written, and kept me mostly guessing until the end! I thought I had figured it out and then I question to myself, and then I was right originally, but it was that doubt that made me really like this book, the only thing I did not love, was how much cursing there was.

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Content Warnings

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

jaimee_readss's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This is a good mystery book. It kept me on my toes the entire time. I literally couldn’t guess who it was at the end. However it is kinda slow in the middle/end of the book so it got kind of repetitive but I still think it’s a good book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Murder

tspice24's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer and Infidelity

axkerti's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Infertility