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A review by fantasyconnoisseur
How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie
2.0
First completed 8/5/22:
I didn't really like this book. I picked it up after I read Black Iris by Leah Raeder, wanting a revenge story, but this one was LITTERED with negative opinions of everything. The character voice was so bloody NEGATIVE. And it makes sense - since she's a psychopath - and it definitely is right and works for the story, but I skipped over so many sections cause I was just like 'why would I subject myself to your dumbass opinions?'
I didn't like the protagonist at all.
At the end with the introduction of a new point of view character, I liked their point if view a thousand times more than the protagonist. I was like 'oh you're a psychopath too!' and I was intrigued by the entire reveal throughout this new point of view section. That was satisfying, because it added a new insight into the protagonists character that she's not so slick after all.
At the same time though, I have to have been a LITTLE bit attached to he protagonist, because when this new point of view character snatched away what she desperately wanted, I was annoyed, and I enjoyed when she decided to get revenge on pov char.
Not to mention the negative representation of sex clubs and the like.
And the pacing! During this, I was thinking about other comments on here that I'd read about the pacing, and for the first few murders - it was enjoyable. But then it just dragged on and on and on as she went about for five or six chapters about why she didn't like this family member and then murdered them.
There was no thread or theme throughout the entire book that tied it all together, just chapters of murdering one person, then more chapters of murdering a second person. It felt poorly stitched together.
The end only slightly redeemed it, and that's why I'm giving it two stars instead of one.
I didn't really like this book. I picked it up after I read Black Iris by Leah Raeder, wanting a revenge story, but this one was LITTERED with negative opinions of everything. The character voice was so bloody NEGATIVE. And it makes sense - since she's a psychopath - and it definitely is right and works for the story, but I skipped over so many sections cause I was just like 'why would I subject myself to your dumbass opinions?'
I didn't like the protagonist at all.
At the end with the introduction of a new point of view character, I liked their point if view a thousand times more than the protagonist. I was like 'oh you're a psychopath too!' and I was intrigued by the entire reveal throughout this new point of view section. That was satisfying, because it added a new insight into the protagonists character that she's not so slick after all.
At the same time though, I have to have been a LITTLE bit attached to he protagonist, because when this new point of view character snatched away what she desperately wanted, I was annoyed, and I enjoyed when she decided to get revenge on pov char.
Not to mention the negative representation of sex clubs and the like.
And the pacing! During this, I was thinking about other comments on here that I'd read about the pacing, and for the first few murders - it was enjoyable. But then it just dragged on and on and on as she went about for five or six chapters about why she didn't like this family member and then murdered them.
There was no thread or theme throughout the entire book that tied it all together, just chapters of murdering one person, then more chapters of murdering a second person. It felt poorly stitched together.
The end only slightly redeemed it, and that's why I'm giving it two stars instead of one.