The Family Bones, a review by Shelley

posted in: Shelley | 0

☠️☠️
THE FAMILY BONES
Elle Marr

Thomas & Mercer
Publication Date: March 7th, 2023
317 Pages
Goodreads | Amazon

I tried to like this book, I really really did. The book is intelligently written with lots of clinical terms and you can tell the author did a lot of research. I also liked that the premise was so unique, a family reunion of psychopaths where someone goes missing and another turns up dead. Throw a true crime podcaster into the mix and it sounds exciting, right? But this was a slooooow burn of a book and not in a good way. Honestly, I was bored out of my skull. I am getting really tired of thrillers using the  “no phones allowed” as part of their plot. Who would allow that rule if they’re on a retreat with a bunch of psychopaths!?

The book is from dual points of view with newspaper clippings and journal entries. I love a good epistolary novel but this one was like three different books smashed together, it was incohesive. I also had a hard time connecting to any of the characters. Maybe that was the author’s intent with a family full of psychotics. I couldn’t get into the story itself either and I struggled to finish it. There were no real surprises and I was very unsatisfied with the ending and the book in general.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

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