Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

31 reviews

bellsdixon's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Car accident, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

izzyheal's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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

This was a chore to get through - the story had promise and I was gripped at points but the charm eventually wore off.

- The main character was insufferable (I know she wasn’t meant to be likeable), her rants became tedious and annoying instead of cool and insightful, and when a character was introduced in the last few chapters who was equally rambling I could not care. 
- The ‘class’ commentary was surface level
- The final act ‘twist’ was frustrating and immersion-breaking
- The formatting and chronology was all over the place I felt lost and was often checking to see how many pages I had left.
- I did quite like the murder chapters, they felt like the most thought out sections but I hated the jumping around when

Caro

was introduced - also I feel like I missed something cos

how did Bryony die???

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual violence, Violence, Car accident, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Classism

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Eating disorder

brooklynjane's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Grace is a totally shitty, painful and despicable human, but I was somehow rooting her her success in her plans. I found her funny, and I found her inner mind intriguing: the way that she was able to manipulate the world to fit her views, and how she was able to look at other people's wrongs and often not her own.

I didn't love the ending, I appreciated what it was trying to do but it just left me furious on Grace's behalf.

I would've liked it if her brother had given her some money at least, but I guess it really shows that the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

I would've rated it higher with a different ending, but it was still enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

_mininbooks_'s review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse and Eating disorder

saskiahill's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

valegbecerra's review against another edition

dark funny medium-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

1.25

The protagonist is painfully millennial. I think she was meant to be cynical but ended up being a dull hater
 
Things I found highly unlikely:
-A filthy rich sex club member like her uncle would think chocking is a hardcore sex kink. He strikes me as the type the type of man to find it vanilla.
-That she was able to get so close to all of them in multiple countries and no one ever recognized her. Maybe they did not but their security and staff(?) unlikely. Same thing with her brother
-That her brother writes in such a similar tone to her even tho they do not know each other, I think the autor forgot to change voices to reflect different characters. The only noticiable difference was he was just less bitter. 
-That the techy teen never looked her up.

Overall a hard one to finish

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse, Sexual content, and Abandonment

crusoe's review against another edition

dark fast-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

2.5

What irritates me most about this novel is that Grace has very little she fights for, except the death of her family. She hates everything equally, bringing everything and everyone down around her with overdone sarcasm that makes it hard to get a read on what she does care about. If you stand for nothing, what will you fall for? It makes her an intolerable MC and not in a 'character you love to hate' way. 

I did enjoy the first half of the book; it was interesting to read about how the murders took place, but there was no clear message to the book. Clearly, it was a not a feminist statement, nor did it make a clear statement about Grace becoming more like her father than she'd wanted. Although, I did not mind the twist as much, it was badly foreshadowed and muddied the message of the book even further. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Miscarriage

abi_sarah's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Took me a while to get into it, but I really loved this book! 

Bella Mackie’s writing was so witty and painfully honest. The familial annoyances that Grace felt throughout were so relatable - she just had an extreme response to them! 😅 

I felt like the first deaths happened a little to early, so there was a then a bit of a lull for me where I lost interest a bit. It soon picked ip again though and held my interest until the very end. The last 35-30% really had me gripped - there were just so many new twists and turns that I just wanted to keep reading! 

The only thing I would stay that stops it from being 5 stars, is that sometimes I found Grace’s reasoning behind her murders a little shallow? Maybe it was just me, but a bit of believability escaped there for me.

Excellent writing from Bella Mackie, highly entertaining! Great story-telling too! Loved the plot twists, so imaginative!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Car accident, and Gaslighting

shaleen64's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

The mixed reviews of this book are understandable and I agree the ending could have been better, however I was still surprised by it and felt it delivered. 

I enjoyed the cynicism of the main character, the way the book pokes fun at modern society delivering a few laughs and feel it’s a worthwhile easy read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse and Car accident

Minor: Eating disorder, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy

lily1304's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

4.75

It's like a FUNNY version of Gone Girl or Promising Young Woman?? Like an EXCITING version of My Year of R&R?? Like all three, there's a theory of gender and anger buried here that I can't quite articulate. The protagonist is delightfully unreliable - incisive about some things, totally oblivious to others. I wanted to SCREAM when I read the ending (which I stayed up late to finish)!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content

Content notes:

Incarceration; a teen willingly sends nudes to an adult without the adult's consent