From the Bookshelf of Turn of a Page…

Not a Happy Family

Shari Lapena

Start date: April 18, 2022

Finish date: May 18, 2022

Discussion: Buddy Reads 2022

Why we're reading this: April Buddy Read
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Buddy Reads 2022

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What Members Thought

Jul 28, 2024 Avid Reader and Geek Girl rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, botm

Read if you're in the mood for something: dark, emotional, & mysterious
Pacing? Fast
Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
A diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Book Rating: 2.25 stars
I found this book hard to enjoy because I hated almost every character! They were all just dripping in privilege and entitlement. It made me honestly just scream at them and burn down our current inheritance policies.

Catherine was part

...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Nov 30, 2021 Jessica rated it really liked it

I have never read a book where ever single character could have done it! Great read! Slightly disappointed with the ending.

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 23, 2022 Caitlin rated it liked it · review of another edition

I read this in the space of a day. It was addicting, yet all along I didn't really like the story.
It was certainly one to keep you guessing - well, until I reached a point where I was certain who did it.

I highly recommend staying away from the audiobook on this one. I started with audio but ended up borrowing it on my Kobo instead. The narrator's voice seemed almost robotic - like the voiceover you hear on so many Facebook/Instagram reels that's computer-generated.

I wrote the review that remains I read this in the space of a day. It was addicting, yet all along I didn't really like the story.
It was certainly one to keep you guessing - well, until I reached a point where I was certain who did it.

I highly recommend staying away from the audiobook on this one. I started with audio but ended up borrowing it on my Kobo instead. The narrator's voice seemed almost robotic - like the voiceover you hear on so many Facebook/Instagram reels that's computer-generated.

I wrote the review that remains under the spoiler tags before reading any of the Goodreads Q&A. One in particular stood out for me: was this inspired by the deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman? That definitely occurred to me as well, especially knowing Lapena is from Toronto.

The remainder is a reading journal with spoilers.

(view spoiler)[
In a family of psychopaths, who is psychopathic enough to have committed the murder?

For the first half of the book, I suspected Rose Cutter. I think you're meant to. All this talk about how she's done something wrong, how she was impatient and greedy. But that all turned out to be related to fraud, and between that and her knowing in advance that she was on the will, she certainly wasn't spared the psychopathic genes, regardless of her upbringing.

For the latter half the book, I was utterly convinced it was Audrey's daughter - to the point that when we began to see inside the actual killer's head and know who it was, I couldn't believe it and was waiting for the twist. Why Audrey's daughter? Why this non-character? It had struck me during the funeral scene how she remained nameless - that was odd. And then Audrey says something about all Fred's children being psychopathic and thank goodness she didn't need to worry about her own daughter. It being her daughter would make so much sense, too: she found out her mother was going to inherit half the estate (and didn't realize that hadn't gone through yet) and then attempted to murder her mother to get that inheritance. Was this a deliberate red herring?

Dan turned out to be the least psychopathic of the bunch, didn't he. He lied to the police about his whereabouts to cover up the fact that he didn't have an alibi and was in the area - he's hardly the first person to do that, fiction or real. He made a very unwise financial decision. And he was the most overtly unhinged - but did he do anything that would make him "psychopathic"?

Catherine - how could she see her parents dead and not say anything. I don't have any siblings, perhaps I don't understand sibling loyalties even in this family where they're known to turn on each other, but for her to not call 911 and do such a fantastic job hiding it - definitely something going on there.

And Jenna - oh, there were times I suspected her, especially as I realized that we weren't seeing as much of her perspective as Catherine and Dan's. But I was so fixated on Audrey's daughter that I had trouble with this.
(hide spoiler)] ...more

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Oct 16, 2021 Megan rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2021, october-2021

The Mertons, Fred and Sheila, are discovered murdered shortly after Easter by their housekeeper. Almost everyone whose then introduced to the story becomes a suspect. Each of Fred and Sheila's children are self centered and greedy, they also don't seem to have a lot of love for their parents and each had a suspicious movement the night of the murder. This makes all of them appear guilty and thus hard to deduce if any of them actually did it. There are also others that would have a motive and the ...more

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Mar 31, 2024 Shruti morethanmylupus rated it it was ok

This was an unimpressive family dynamics-focused thriller for me. I didn't think the family was particularly dysfunctional and they didn't stand out as notably problematic overall. The answer was pretty predictable early on, so the mystery wasn't too thrilling. I didn't forsee all of the twists, but I did figure out who the murderer was in the first few chapters.
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2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 04, 2021 Nikki rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-blog

A dun who donnit mystery. The parents of an affluent family are discovered murdered, but who did it. There are many suspects including all the adult children, the housekeeper, an adult child which is the result of an affair, and a sister. All have something to gain from it, and all have motive. Family secrets are discovered and just when you think you know who did it, a twist happens that brings attention to someone else.

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