How to Kill Your Family

A Novel

By: Bella Mackie

Narrated by: Charly Clive, Paul Panting

A darkly humorous debut novel that follows a cunning antihero as she gets her revenge

When I think about what I actually did, I feel somewhat sad that nobody will ever know about the complex operation that I undertook. Getting away with it is highly preferable, of course, but perhaps when I’m long gone, someone will open an old safe and find this confession. The public would reel. After all, almost nobody else in the world can possibly understand how someone, by the tender age of twenty-eight, can have calmly killed six members of her family. And then happily got on with the rest of her life, never to regret a thing.

When Grace Bernard discovers her absentee millionaire father has rejected her dying mother’s pleas for help, she vows revenge and coldly sets out to get her retribution—by killing them all, one by one. Compulsively thrilling, Bella Mackie’s debut novel is driven by a captivating first-person narrator who talks of “self-care” and social media while calmly walking the listener through her increasingly baroque acts of murder. But then, Grace is imprisoned for a murder she didn’t commit.

Outrageously funny, compulsive, and subversive, How to Kill Your Family is a wickedly dark romp about class, family, love … and murder.

©2022 Bella Mackie, published by arrangement with HarperCollins Publishers Limited. Published in 2022 by The Overlook Press, an imprint of ABRAMS, New York. All rights reserved (P)2022 by HarperCollins Publishers

Love this book

Fabulous use of voice and great characterization throughout. It’s a riveting page-turner. Highly recommend.

Decent performance of a story where I wanted more

The performance was fine (although I had to listen much faster than I usually do, because the pacing is a little slow), but the story is overly long with too much commentary from the unreliable narrator.

Entertaining quick listen

Loved the witty, dark humor of this book! I would find myself actually laughing out loud at parts. The story was clever and unique. Grace was such an entertaining character who I found I was secretly rooting for, even though I’m not sure you’re supposed to.

Twists and turns

This book had an unusual plot and I liked all the unexpected twists and turns in the story line.

Totally enjoyed it

There were parts that were a bit silly and some of the characters were underdeveloped, but I totally enjoyed it. Can’t wait for the author’s second novel. (The readers were absolutely great.)

Interesting and witty

The narrators were fantastic. I really enjoyed the story and was kind of surprised by it. It was very witty and had a surprise ending.

Interesting!

I enjoyed the main character as well as the narrator, perfect fit! I would have preferred the ending to include a bit more of Grace’s perspective but it was unexpected to say the least.

Hard to rate this one

Great performance for Grace. I enjoyed this one up until the ending which is why I struggled to give it a rating but I guess that's expected with the character!

Why why why

I’m just so disappointed with the ending of this book. It could have been a legit five star contender if it didn’t turn into the car crash that it became at the end

Well done

A solid listen. Well written and interesting with a fairly unique take on murder thriller. Totally worth the credit.