Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
By Benjamin Stevenson
4.5/5
Synopsis
Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.
I’m Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I’d killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it’s a little more complicated than that.
Have I killed someone? Yes. I have.
Who was it?
Let’s get started.
EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE
My brother
My stepsister
My wife
My father
My mother
My sister-in-law
My uncle
My stepfather
My aunt
Me
Genre
Mystery/thriller/crime fiction
Content Warnings
Violence & gore, suicide, murder
What I Liked
I have recommended this book to everyone I’ve talked to about books. Now, that includes you. I won’t even be upset if you stop reading this review and run out to buy it/borrow it from the library. However, if you’re still here and not convinced, let me help you get there. Let me say a quick note: if the narrator breaking the fourth wall and talking to the reader bothers you as much as the one-star givers on Goodreads, then go ahead and skip this. Despite that, I still think it’s worth the read, but some people are very particular about what they spend their time reading, so there’s that.
Setting
Let’s start with the setting. I’ve never been to Australia, but this book series has convinced me to go. Most importantly, there is not one mention any of the terrifying creatures that social media tells me live there, so I figure maybe I’d be safe for a short visit. Sure, it takes place on a mountain in a frigid storm, so I guess there’s not really any opportunity for man-eating spiders or gut-punching kangaroos to show up, but I still feel like my odds are pretty good.
Oh, I’m forgetting about the field of spider webs at the beginning. No one died from a funnel-web spider bite (learned about those from watching Force of Nature. Once I realized it was a book, it went on my ever-growing list! By Jane Harper, if you’d like to know. Though…that may make me reconsider my trip to Australia…) Anyway! The setting, five stars. I love a good locked-in mystery (though our narrator, Ernest, would remind me it’s more of a chosen locked-in), but either way, everyone being forced to face their demons is my kind of book.
“There’s a storm coming, because of course there is. But please don’t think it so clichéd that we’re trapped there, because we’re not: we’re just stingy and indecisive.”
Characters
Despite the fact that every family member has killed someone in one way or another (not a spoiler, literally is in the title), they are flawed and real. It’s a big cast, including a few extra characters that aren’t part of the family. I loved that it starts with a family reunion, and that it showed how messy family can be. Even though they may be furious with each other at various points in the book, and infuriating, they still carry that deep care for each other that shines through at different points. While we mostly see the relationships as they relate to Ernest, there are still little glimpses of love and strife between all of them. The theme really centres around family and what we’d do for them, what we’d do to be a part of one, and this book really nailed it.
“Family is not whose blood runs in your veins, it’s who you’d spill it for.”
Small note, Andy reminded me at parts of Derrick from Shrinking, so if you like Andy and you haven’t watched Shrinking, put it on the list. Even if you hate Andy, still put Shrinking on your list. Excellent television.
Plot
Sorry, I digressed again. Moving on to the plot. I’m not really the type of person who tries too hard to figure out the mystery. Sure, I’ll have some guesses in the back of my mind, but I prefer to be surprised, and oh boy was I surprised by the twist in this one. On my reread, I see the tiny details that I missed the first time that could have made me a little more prepared, but I loved that I didn’t see it coming.
On my second read through, I see just how complex the story is; literally every little detail ties together in the end. Not every author can do that. I’ve read many a book that leaves me with more questions than answers, but Benjamin Stevenson leaves no plot holes for us to trip in on our way to the finish line. Even Ernest complaining about trying to pull his suitcase through the snow comes back around in the end, something that seems so mundane, but nothing in this book is there by coincidence. Actually, between starting writing this and finishing, I read a quote from Kurt Vonnegut, “every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action”. There is no fluff in here, no filler, every sentence has a purpose, and it’s brilliant.
“I told you: in a mystery, there are clues in every word—hell, in every piece of punctuation…”
What I Didn’t Like
The only reason I did not give this five stars, and the only thing I didn’t like, is that there is a pretty serious medical trauma that occurs that doesn’t really get treated with the level of panic that it requires. (Though on Goodreads I rounded it up.) Now, as a reader, I understand that sometimes the author needs to suspend belief to make the story work, and usually when the story is as great as this one, I let it go, but as a writer it irked me a bit that with how much thought was put into everything else, this one event was allowed to ignore the laws of biology.
If you have a book you’d like to recommend, please leave a comment! Happy Reading!
