Mackie can't seem to decide whether protagonist Grace is a snobbish, bratty psychopath or a brave class warrior, and that's what makes her so, well, vague - all we know for sure is that she's pretty awful. It's a vague, flimsy thing which relies heavily on millennial stereotypes (heck, stereotypes full stop) and the slightly juvenile writing style does it few favours, either. It’s Killing Eve in style, with some awesome scenes, some brilliant thinking and fantastic character development. Grace Bernard is not someone you initially expect to champion, as outlined in the synopsis she kills several members of her family, planning each and every murder meticulously.

Suffice to say that this is a one star read for me, because I hated the main character, thought the plot was weak, thought the pacing was slow, and the format led to too much telling and not enough showing. While I appreciate what the author was trying to do here, the class commentary was just not effective and in fact more often than not was reduced to a slew of stereotypes and never-ending judgment with absolutely no foundation to stand on.

The driving force of the plot – Grace’s mad plan to kill her family and become rich – isn’t realistic, it’s a dark comedy that will make you laugh and nod your head in recognition at the power structures at play. Usually for me, when I take a dislike to one of the main characters, I feel like it's a slog to read through the rest of the book. She is scathing about wealthy people with their expensive tastes in clothing, wine, and houses yet after her mother’s death she was raised by a high-income couple who taught her to enjoy the finer things in life.

I mean, that’s what she is of course, a serial murderer, but she’s not guilty for THAT one, your honour. If you’re a reader who needs characters to be nice, then this is not the book for you, because you’d struggle to find a single redeeming quality between the lot of them. Often I found myself chuckling at a throw away comment from Grace that absolutely hit the nail on the head about real life. one of the main themes of the book was about class, but it wasn’t really discussed in any profound or nuanced way, and it actually became quite trite after a while. A great word, it can be enunciated in several different ways to convey varying ferocity and it perfectly encapsulates so many people.How To Kill Your Family follows Grace who is on a mission to get rid of the family who wronged her and take their fortune. The plague of these past years - if we exclude the pandemic, obviously - is the publishing industry’s obsession with creating a good-looking cover. Grace has been planning her outrageous plot since she was teenager, working her way through her own very bleak to do list…. Needless to say, I did not enjoy this book, and only the very last 3 pages of this book made me give it an additional star for the sheer irony.

We got sections where Grace described how she plotted her next murder, then in exacting detail we got the killing ( with a confusing switch to present tense). As she’s happy to recount to the reader in all the gory detail, she plotted and executed the murders of her father’s family.This was author Bella Mackie's debut fiction book and I look forward to listening to this author's future titles. We’re obviously meant to be enthralled by Grace and impressed by her devious deeds, but she’s just completely detestable.