Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

22 reviews

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

mummamyers's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Sexual harassment, 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

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

yellowfleeces's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

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

3.0

i really loved this book for the most part but then ended up skimming through the last 25% as the twist felt unnecessary and so so much detail (which the character apologised for several times, almost like a note from the author but would  rather it was just trimmed down!)

would be interested to read more from bella 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Murder, and Abandonment

hannah_steven's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, Grief, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use and Eating disorder

bloomsburybaker's review against another edition

Repetitive and the narrator was not likeable. Also the plot strongly resembles Kind Hearts & Coronets.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Murder

introverted_reads's review against another edition

dark funny 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Classism

sorcha's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

m4rtt4'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? No

3.5

The premise was very promising, and I was quite hooked on the story despite it not being as funny as it was said to be. Yes, it was funny at times, but oftentimes the 'humour' relied on (internalized) misogyny and/or fatphobia and/or belittling mental health issues and eating disorders — this is also why I found the book's feminist takes to be quite hypocritical. I hated Grace as a character, she was so insufferable, annoying, petty and too bitter over the smallest of things, but I stuck up with her because — well — you can't quite love a serial killer anyways. I liked the ending, it was justified and fit perfectly with my dislike on Grace, though I also must say that such a plot twist should have been foreshadowed better. A murder mystery is no fun if it doesn't make you feel dumb for not realising the answer earlier; it shouldn't come so out of the blue (as in this case) that it feels literally impossible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Terminal illness, and Violence