How to Kill Your Family is Bella Mackie’s first fictional release, and its absolute genius. Disturbingly dark and wickedly funny, it’s the ultimate story of revenge, family and twisted love.

Grace has a plan to kill her family, which she calmly and clinically executes. Her estranged father abandoned Grace and her mother when she was young. Now her mother is gone, Grace is alone and decide to make him pay in every way possible.

The story flips from Grace’s prison cell to her murderous spree, during which is unleashes a calculated plan of murder and revenge.

I loved the cleverly complex plot and the strong, captivating lead character, who despite her serial killer tendencies is really likeable. Sinister plot a side, its oddly uplifting and funny as hell!

So original. So clever. So well-written. My copy is filled with highlights of brilliant passages and phrases that I didn't want to forget. It's a real skill to make a book about multiple murders - some pretty gruesome - both funny and easy to read. I absolutely loved it.

This book is something I don't typically pick up and read, but I'm glad that Netgalley and harpercollins for allowing me to read it.
I got drawn in my the cover, as it is simple and appealing. I read the description and thought I'd push myself to read something I don't normally as I'm wanting to broaden my horizons when it comes to read. Also it is a debut novel, and I really enjoy helping new authors share their work.

It was not a cozy read, however the dark humour and wit really kept me hooked. The main character Grace, is not a hero and typically in any other book you wouldn't root for her, however in this novel you want her to succeed. Grace is snobbish, vengeful, observational and has a plan and belief system that she does not hesitate to share with the reader as she tells her story from inside her cell block. Her detailed back story, makes you feel pity and sorrow for her, however you do have to remember she is a serial killer.

If your looking for something R rated, funny, gruesome and outrageously entertaining easy read, I highly reccomend this.

For 95% of How To Kill Your Family I was certain I'd be giving it a 4 star review - it was entertaining and gripping, with a fascinating and darkly unique narrator. Then it pulled something off in the last chunk that I can't help but applaud, something I really hadn't seen coming and worked so fantastically. Perfect for crime fans with a twisted side...

I had very high expectations due to the excellent reviews on social media. "How to kill your family" has a strong voice and a unique approach, but unfortunately it just wasn't for me: the long-winded first person meander inside the protagonist's thoughts felt a bit too slow-paced and forced. I'm disappointed, but I know this is just a matter of taste and many others will love it.

#HowToKillYourFamily is the read for you if you like your fiction darkly funny & filled with murder.

Grace was rejected by her philandering biological father at birth, to make things worse he rejects her again upon her mother’s death when she was in her early teenage years. So she decides to set things right by murdering him & his entire family, making her the sole beneficiary of his vast wealth.

I loved this book, it was interesting to live in Grace’s head and experience her way of thinking which is so outside of societal norms. It reminded me of the Sweetpea books by CJ Skuse, the difference being that this heroine had a clearer motive for her actions.

There is a huge twist at the end, and I didn’t see it coming. However I hated the twist! Unless there’s going to be a sequel….. my sister also read this book, and she loved the twist so give it a go! We all have different tastes.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for my free advance copy in return for an unbiased review. Please let there be a sequel! I will definitely be looking into the author and reading her other work.

I didn’t love this as much as I wanted to? It was funny and lighthearted, I think I just wanted something a little more? Maybe a bit darker in tone? It wasn’t bad at all, just not entirely what I was expecting.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a great storyline with excellent characters. I would highly recommend this book as it was a great read.

Sometimes you just stumble across a book that you cannot help but pick up. How to Kill Your Family is just that book. The title drew me in at first because I immediately knew that it was going to be an intriguing story and then the synopsis drew me in even more. The concept of this book sounded extraordinary and it is executed (no pun intended) incredibly.

I had previously heard a lot of good things about Bella Mackie’s writing, so when I saw that she would be writing a fiction novel I had to give it a read. Her writing takes us on a wild, unforgettable and thrilling journey that is difficult to put down. I read this book in just two sittings and even when I was not reading it I was thinking about it.

Grace, our main character, is an absolutely terrible person. She is an awful person, a snob and to be honest quite unlikable. She doesn’t hesitate to share with us all her judgements on people no matter how harsh and terrible. Despite all of this though, I could not help but like her which I know I should not do given what horrendous things she has done. Grace has a dark and dry sense of humour which I found hilarious and thoroughly enjoyed. Your jaw drops whenever she confesses to something and it drops even more with the dry and straightforward way in which she confesses.

I love the variety of characters that Bella Mackie has created in this book. There are some to like, some that make you want to throw the book across the room and there are some that deserve absolutely everything that they get.

I enjoyed the format that this book is written in, a tell all journal by Grace. It grips you right away as you find out all the horrible things she has done and why she is in prison for a crime she did not commit. The book also have a few plot twists which shocked me and had me wanting to not put the book down.

Overall, How to Kill Your Family, is a thrilling, dark, yet humorous read that I would highly recommend. I will certainly be reading more books by Bella Mackie in the future. If you are a fan of Killing Eve or My Sister, the Serial Killer I would highly recommend you give this a read.

I thought this book was really good. I can't say all I want to without giving spoilers, but I can say that I didn't want to put this book down. The story was really well written and the ways the chapters were split between past/present is something I really enjoy. I found myself rooting for Grace for the entirety of the story. Each sub story was told brilliantly and each incident was unique and well suited. I would definitely recommend this book. I would have liked further insight into Grace's thoughts at the end of the story.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book.
This book was so funny and so splendidly written. The idea and concept for this novel was original and creative and the author put the novel together very well. I really enjoyed reading this and would definitely recommend to people and buy myself a copy, if you are looking for something funny and dark this book is definitely for you. However the chapters were on the longer side making this book harder to read at some points. I gave this book 4 stars.

A unique and intriguing read with a leading character you won't soon forget, I definitely enjoyed How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie. Her writing was so interactive and enjoyable to get lost in, I just loved Grace's character and the twist/reveal at the end. As twisted as it sounds, I was rooting for her and looked forward to reading about her meticulous planning and prep for each murder.

While I enjoyed the ending, I would have liked an epilogue to see where she was maybe a year afterwards. What happened with Jimmy? How did she feel about Harry? And was she planning revenge? I guess we'll never know...

"• Kill my family
• Make a claim on their fortune
• Get away with the above
• Adopt a dog"
Grace Bernard is like most other twenty-something women. Her interests include running, fashion, reading and getting revenge. She's a daughter, sister, colleague, friend and serial killer. Grace has killed several members of her estranged family (some brutally, some calmly) but she's currently serving time in Limehouse prison for a crime she didn't commit.

An exquisitely crafted dark comedy, narrated by such a complex and intensely interesting character. Grace is charming and witty and you find yourself hanging on to her words and championing her crimes. AND THAT ENDING!? *chefs kiss*. I am blown away by Bella Mackie's writing, it's hard to believe that this is a debut novel, with a voice so assured and confident that you expect from seasoned authors. I thoroughly enjoyed How to Kill Your Family, it's taken top spot for my favourite book of the year so far - it's easy to understand why it's topping the book selling charts!

Thank you so much HarperCollins for providing me with a copy to review!

I have been a big fan of Bella Mackie ever since I read her memoir Jog On, about her love of running. I was delighted to discover that she was turning her hand to fiction.

How to Kill Your Family did not disappoint. Even though it’s quite a long read (I mean, it’s not Infinite Jest but it’s longer than I’d prefer to read on my phone’s kindle app!), I absolutely raced through it. Mackie is a very skilled writer and her dry wit shines through. Her protagonist Grace is the best kind of anti-heroine; she is superior and sarcastic, yet you can’t help but love her. Oh yes, and she’s a murderer too.

This novel has been repeatedly compared to Killing Eve (presumably because there’s so few cultural examples of female murderers) but it’s a bit more akin to My Sister, the Serial Killer. Even if you don’t usually read crime fiction, this is a darkly funny delight.

I really wanted to love this book but it fell a little flat for me. The acerbic wit was just a little too sharp and I think it requires a thick skinned reader as there was a line or two to insult just about everyone. I did like that it was dark and funny, I just felt it could have been a little more refined and a bit less pointed.

I was expecting more from this book as I’ve seen so many people rating it highly recently , however for me it was a 2 star read. The premise sounded fantastic, a good old family revenge thriller, however the book could have done with being 100 pages shorter. There was A lot of build up, with some things being repetitive or needless, and the killings were anticlimactic in my opinion and not worth wading through the long chapters for one boring paragraph briefly detailing how that family member died. As the book is told retrospectively, I found the characters and their interactions quite boring as there was no dynamic to any of them. Even Grace, the main character, was insufferable at times with her preachyness about social
Media and not being like other people. I understand that this was a big part of her motivation, and she would also acknowledge at times that she was being hypocritical but would continue her hypocrisy throughout the whole book. The ending feel like it was stolen from us, I was pushing myself to not DNF this book because I thought that there would be something interesting when she killed her number one target, but instead we got nothing at all. Just an added character that did nothing to expand or make the plot better, and honestly it felt like a cop out. This book did nothing for me and I don’t believe it will satisfy other thriller/horror/mystery readers either so I will not be recommending this book personally.

How To Kill Your Family is a fun novel that perhaps was never supposed to be. I was never quite able to believe any of the actions of storyline of the characters within this book. After recently reading a book like Black Buck, there is an ability to stretch this readers mind to quite what is believable. That novel was more cartoonish in its bravado and style and yet was more believable than anything in this novel. It felt very bland, and I never connected with the voice of Grace Bernard. A novel that did not work for me on any level and left disappointed. Perhaps I am not the target audience but non-the less hoped for me for a novel that has had lots of hype and on so many reading lists for Summer 2021.

"How To Kill Your Family" was a fantastic read, a dark comedy about a woman who kills six members of her estranged family only to be jailed for a crime she did not commit. It might sound ghoulish, but you immediately side with Grace Bernard who is a great antiheroine, a sarcastic and cynical narrator without a shade of remorse. Yet, you cannot help but be impressed by her resourcefulness, stubbornness and deadpan humour. Plus, the story of her endeavours is gripping and the ending is definitely NOT what you expect!
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

How to Kill Your Family tells the story of Grace, who is writing from prison after being convicted of a murder that she didn't commit. However, though she didn't commit the murder she was jailed for, she has killed six of her family members, and she's using her time in prison to record her story.

HTKYF had a lot of hype surrounding it's release, and I was really looking forward to it. However, this one really didn't work for me - though I seem to be in the minority here, as I've seen almost universal 4 and 5 star reviews.

Unfortunately, I found the writing really clunky and amateurish. I think that writing a book from the point of view of someone recording their thoughts/story is quite difficult because it forces the writing style into something too self-aware. It also became just a list of things to the character did? As we're told in the prologue that Grace has killed six people, what follows is just a quite boring description of who she killed and how she planned it. There's no life to the book, it feels like it might as well have been a bullet-point list of her actions.

I also enjoy unlikeable narrators, but Grace was unlikeable for all of the wrong reasons. I think the author was really trying to go for social commentary about the upper classes in this book, but she failed (in my view) because it was all mixed in with Grace's horrible fat-shaming, misogynistic thoughts too.

Overall, I thought this was quite predictable and the author literally gave the game away in the prologue. From there, there was nothing to surprise or shock, as we already knew she was going to kill six relatives. The ending was, however, a real low point to me - the exposition was shockingly bad. I would not recommend and I won't be picking up anything else from this author either.

I was fooled into thinking this was a very different story due to the girly pink cover but loved the book I got instead.
Grace is a very cold and ruthless killer (probably a product of her situation) ironically languishing in prison for a murder she didn’t commit. Ironic due to the fact she has in fact been on a ruthless killing spree in order to get revenge on the father who denied her.
Loved the narrative voice but there must be a sequel. You can’t leave the story there!!!!