How to Kill your Family is deadly boring - Bella Mackie

How to Kill your Family is a book that at some point I was really looking forward to. The title is immaculate and the ideas presented in the blurb were incredibly interesting to me. However, I was hugely disappointed when I actually got to read it. Let me tell you why.

I want to start off by saying that the book is not a bad book, I was just hugely disappointed and therefore it’s not a great book. I finished the book all throughout in what an adequate experience. However, I wish that there was more than just an adequate experience.

How to Kill Your Family tells the story of Grace, she has been imprisoned for a crime that she hasn’t committed but, she has killed the members of her family. We start off in prison and Grace is narrating in a journal how and why she manages to kill off her entire family (mostly). I have to say, this was interesting and a fun idea. Mackie is great at writing the murders, they’re exciting and well written. However, the rest of the book was not exciting. The author goes on and on about the family member’s history with the most boring writing. I found myself skim-reading most of the book because of this.

Grace as the narrator was interesting. I liked that she was sassy and sometimes “funny”. As the main character, I felt like she was lacking more depth. We get so much information on her. Her past and her present but still, it felt like I was still lacking so much about her character. I wish we could have gotten more exposition of her character in the scenes when she is murdering people. I think that would have given us a bit more insight into her and her emotions.

There were some good scenes in the book. I loved Kelly, I found her very predictable but I still found that her character gave something that was lacking to the story. All of the story that takes place in prison I found more interesting than the action in the past.

However, even if Kelly was very predictable, the ending still feels forced and it feels like the author wanted to write in a twist. It was also written in the worst way. As readers we don’t get enough (or any) clues throughout the book, there was no way for us to guess how the book might end (only Kelly, that again, predicable but still enjoyable). The “show-don’t-tell” saying was completely looked upon by the author by just writing a very long letter by a character we had no idea that might exist.

I know it sounds very negative but, I was really confused with this whole book. So many people were enjoying it and I can’t stop wondering why. It wasn’t a terrible book it just wasn’t one I will remember. If you have enjoyed it please don’t forget that this is only my opinion.