Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

104 reviews

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

rhiannekx's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Suicide, and Death of parent

thebookaddict's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-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? No

4.0

Dit boek was niet wat ik had verwacht. Je leest het verhaal van Grace en hoe zij haar moorden heeft gepleegd en hoe ze uiteindelijk in de gevangenis beland. Ik vond het jammer dat je al wist dat ze al deze moorden gepleegd had, zo ging er toch iets van verhaallijn verloren. De moorden zelf waren heel goed uitgedacht en origineel. Ik heb ook nog niet eerder zoiets gelezen. Het is eng om te bedenken dat zoiets uit het brein van een auteur komt, de moorden paste zo goed bij de slachtoffers. De manier van schrijven was echt alsof je het dagboek las van iemand. Wel vond ik dat het einde nog ietsjes langer had gekund. Ik had haar reactie op "de brief" wel willen lezen en ik had willen weten hoe haar leven was na de gevangenis. De brief op het einde was ook een mooi origineel plot dat precies hij het verhaal paste. De puzzelstukjes vielen op hun plaats.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

snowiceblackfruit77's review against another edition

dark funny 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

2.0

I could only finish this book because I continued reading it through audiobook. The Main character was okay, her motive for killing her family was if you see it from her point of few understandable. No one in this book is likable, that is okay a good book doesn’t need likable characters. At the End I had to read it with 2 x speed because I wanted to get it over with. I usually like these kind of books, but this didn’t do anything for me. Well the MC was funny at times. 


Even if I didn’t enjoy this book that much. I think it would be enjoyable for other readers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

geerbeer's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted 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

Leuk om zo te lezen, maar niet heel vernieuwend voor iemand die ontzettend veel crime/horror/thriller films & series gezien heeft 🤷🏻‍♀️😊

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

bowlsofpasta's review against another edition

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? Yes

0.75

Highly recommend if you’re in the mood to read hot garbage. 

If anyone tells you this book is the “darkest” and “most twisted” book of the year than it’s probably the only book they’ve read all year. I’ve read children’s books with more gore.

The author spends way too much time  rambling about shit no one cares about and less on focusing on the murders that are honestly pretty mundane. 

Also, I get that the point is that the main character is a bad person. She’s like those annoying “feminist” who hate the patriarchy but then shit on other women for wearing makeup. But damn, no character development? She doesn’t learn a thing?

And that ending? Had to be the worse ending I’ve ever read in my life. Even if the book was good the ending would still have ruined the whole thing. But I supposed mold onto an already rotting dish doesn’t make too much difference anyways. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming and Grief

stindex's review against another edition

lighthearted 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? It's complicated

1.0

The author makes me sad. They’ve apparently tried to push all the things they hate into this book and it just makes this feel like a boomer whining about basically everything. For a ”feminist” main character the mc sure spent a lot of time hating on women in a very pick me -girlish style. Body shaming was also very present whenever describing anyone else but the mc or their love interest. The premise was great but the book is an absolute train wreck from the start.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Grief, Car accident, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

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

esv_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Eating disorder, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

nplunkie's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

There are elements of this book I really loved but there are parts that really took away from my overall enjoyment of the book. The protagonist not being particularly likeable and really a bit of a “pick-me” was something I just accepted as the book went on. I didn’t love how the chapters were structured, often very long but then with the real event of the chapter only taking up a handful of pages. 
The ending was what really took away from the story for me.

The whole long lost half brother who had managed to infiltrate the family is the one that ruins her plan (but also means Simon is dead without her struggling to figure out a way) just feels like a way out of coming up with an ending. It is mentioned that she feels as though she’s being watched but that is quickly brushed off and she goes about another 3 killings - hard to believe she could get away with all of those without leaving evidence but not notice a man following her

.
Overall it feels like the book had real potential but just fell a bit flat especially in the last 50 pages or so for me - interested to read more books from this author!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Death of parent, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Drug use, Terminal illness, Grief, Stalking, and Car accident