The Book of the month for September was How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie. The Big Review is below.
***Big Reviews are written from the point of view that you have read the book. If this is not yet you, bookmark the page and come back once you have***
How To Kill – the blurb
They say you can’t choose your family. But you can kill them.
Meet Grace Bernard.
Daughter, sister, serial killer…
Grace has lost everything.
And she will stop at nothing to get revenge.
Kill them all!
I was excited to read How To Kill being a fan of Bella’s podcast with hubby Radio 1 presenter Greg James. Murders aside (I hope) the whole book feels very her, it’s modern set in London and Grace, the lead protagonist, is a fan of running (Bella’s first book is a non fiction account of how running saved her life). I found myself liking Grace immediately and was reminded of loveable serial killer Dexter from the TV show of the same name a while back (very good, just don’t bother with the last series).
Each murder is very different (I’m not sure whether that is praise for Bella or something to worry about). And all had talking points – Andrew who she liked, Lara who she let off, Janine, arguable the most sadistic killing and Lee where she physically got her hands dirty in a sex club of all places. Imagine the research!
Overall I enjoyed the concept and the murders (not sure what that says about me) so I was surprised when the book just wouldn’t read. It’s around 360 pages and the writing isn’t spaced out the way that most new books are at the moment. It felt quite wordy and slow in places and I confess skipping the odd paragraph here and there when Grace rambled to get to the points where the story moved on.
Whilst it was slow at times, the surprises kept coming and I genuinely enjoyed the Caro twist. It gave us a chance to see Grace vulnerable via her relationship with Jimmy which I would have liked to have been explored more. He was definitely her point of weakness yet I was surprised he was forgiven so easily. The ending raised a wry smile and got you wondering what exactly Grace would do next.
If it were 50 pages shorter it would have been a 5 star otherwise it’s a strong 4 out of 5. Fresh, modern and with the same feels as My Sister The Serial Killer but very British. I really enjoyed it.
Get Involved
If you would like to get involved with the Book Of The Month choices try answering the Book Club questions published every month. Just search in the footnotes section for the ‘Get Involved’ articles. A new book is chosen every month so keep your eyes peeled for the Lowdown on October’s book of the month soon.