I really like Bella Mackie. Her first book, Jog On, played a huge part in me taking up running. I very much enjoy her on Instagram (is that a weird thing to say?) and her ABJ mantra is something I appreciate ✨ I’m so pleased that Bella’s first foray into fiction is as brilliant as I’d hoped it would be.

Grace is a stone cold mardy bitch, with wry observations pouring out of her, and I liked her a lot. Her story is full of dark humoured twists and turns, perfect for our generation of true crime junkies. Surely a TV adaptation is in the works? Here’s hoping!

The highlight of this book is the narration from Grace.
Its funny,deadpan and just a little chilling,as she tells how she calmly bumped off six members of her family.
Grace is a voice I could happily listen to again and again.
The whole book is just amusing,and I got to the end and felt really satisfied at how it ended.
Hoping its a hit for Ms Mackie,and we see more to come.

Genre: Literary Fiction

Release Date: Expected 10th June 2021


TW: Murder, Death, Illness, Prison, Graphic Sex.


Grace is currently sitting in jail for a murder she didn't even commit.

Not that she hasn't killed before, she definitely has, but she didn't do this one. For the last fourteen long months she's been amongst the criminals who were stupid enough to get caught and it has dragged.

At 28, her body count is six - six members of her family killed in clever and untraceable ways - and nobody knows but her and her secret journal. How wonderful it is that she'd gotten away with it all, but how sad it is that nobody will ever know just why and how she got the perfect revenge.


How To Kill Your Family is Grace's private confession, as we travel back in time to find out the reasons that she killed off her entire family and the plans that slowly fit together into the perfect revenge. Through diary entries and thoughts, we jump between the prison cell and her former life, waiting for the moment she gets to see freedom again.

There was a strange, uncomfortable feeling the whole way through the book when you realise you're rooting for the success of a mass-murderer but the more we get to know Grace the deeper entrenched in her life we become. Jumping between outrageously hilarious highs to dark disturbing lows, this was an actual roller-coaster in paper form.

The narration throughout felt personal, as though she was speaking straight to the reader at times but it rambled a lot - as though her train of thought was constantly getting lost and repeating herself so through these rambling sections I did lose interest a little as it felt like a large chunk of info-dumping at once - but this also gave it it's unique charm.

How To Kill Your Family was a deeply uncomfortable yet uplifting exploration into class, status, family and love with a killer heroine and deliciously dark twists.


RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Bella Mackie, Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book - so original, refreshing, different to anything else out there at the moment. I have seen comparisons to Killing Eve TV show, and I can see why - a strong kick-ass anti-heroine who we can't help but love and root for despite their murderous tendencies! But there is more to that than this. There is a real connection to the reader / the audience through the narration which was warm, sarcastic, funny and very authentic.

The book centres on Grace, writing her story from prison where she has been sentenced to life for a murder that she strangely didn't commit - the murders she has committed (all 6 of them, all family) are not known about! This is her confessional.

Dazzlingly dark and funny - I think this is going to be a real winner. Loved! I did not want this to end (but oh, the ending is good!)