"How to Kill Your Family" by Bella Mackie

Reading a book with the provocative title "How to Kill Your Family" (by Bella Mackie), while spending two weeks mostly housebound with two demanding elderly parents who adore watching annoying game shows (!) (plus my sister and her partner, on & off), in frigid Manitoba, might not have been the best choice (lololol...). But it's the January pick for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club, and I decided to get a head start! 

Our narrator, Grace Bernard, breezily admits to killing six members of her extended family -- and getting away with it. But she's still in prison -- for a murder she did NOT commit.  The book bounces back in forth in time, from the present (Grace in prison, awaiting an appeal), and the past (why Grace decided to murder her relatives, and how she carried out each crime). 

I'll admit, Grace's family seemed pretty despicable, for the most part, and I can understand her motivation.  But that's still no excuse for murder.  And the details were sometimes a bit gruesome. I was thinking 3 stars, maybe 3.5, as a rating.  

BUT!  There's a major, clever plot twist in the last few chapters that redeemed the book for me somewhat, and boosted my rating. 

4 stars on both Goodreads and StoryGraph.

This was Book #37 read to date in 2025 (and Book #2 finished in December), bringing me to ?% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am 6 books behind  schedule to meet my goal (and not likely to do that at this point...!), but this matches my 2025 total of books read, which makes me happy. :)   

You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books."