Not A Happy Family by Shari Lapena Book Review |
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| Not A Happy Family by Shari Lapena Book Review |
My musings
That's not a blind date. I read the blurb and some reviews of the book on bookstagram pages before picking it for reading. Everyone was saying positive and exciting things about this book. So my expectations were high for the "Not a happy family" book by Shari Lapena.
Storyline
The story begins at the sight of the horrifying dead bodies of the Merton couple. The wealthy and secretive couple of the society and parents of three adults have been killed brutally by someone. At first, it looks like a robbery gone wrong but the modus operandi and the way both couples have been eliminated. All the indication was yelling that it was a grisly crime of passion, It was personal.
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It was a true game of grudge and gain. The Merton's kids were going to be rich. All the inheritance money of their parents was going to be distributed equally between them. If only, their fastidious, arrogant father didn't make any last-minute changes in his will.
Merton kids: Jenna, Dan, and Catherine have their reason to be heavenly happy about the death of their father. There was little sorrow about the death of their mother, but it wasn't a matter of concern, as they were going to be millionaires soon.
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But as soon as it was confirmed that the murders were not a result of a robbery gone wrong. The prime suspects of the murders became Marton kids. This revelation started a commotion of terror in the remaining family, and everybody started covering their tracks and started telling lies, and their minds begin to spin fake stories. All of them tried to make investigators believe that everything was good in the family.
Everyone in the inner circle of the family had a strong doubt about a particular character. And somehow, they all tried to save him, by telling lies and tweaking the evidence. But does He really a killer? When everyone has an ulterior motive to kill, and no one is ready to tell what exactly happened on the night of Easter Sunday.
Review
So it's a whodunit book and everybody is a liar and a suspect. There is no way you can feel any emotional attachment with any of the characters. Because firstly, it is a story of a dysfunctional family, and secondly the characters of the book are not well structured. One certain character of the story has been literally pressed on to be suspected. At one point I was convinced that this character can't be a killer. Some backstories of the book which have been told were not convincing enough, nor did these stories help intensify the mystery of the book.
The narration of "Not A Happy Family" looks very repetitive to me and literally it is forcing me to suspect everything while there is no such thing being suspected in my mind. So it is not a book where I could say, "Omg! What just happened?" But All I could say was, "Oh, Okay, What next?" So I don't like such books which are too fixated on suspense that they completely forgot about the other major elements of a story which is too important to make a book an unputdownable read.
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Having a feeling of suspicion for a character, and being forced to suspect a character are two entirely different things. I felt forced to suspect certain characters of the novel by the repetitive slump of words. Which made this "Not A Happy Family" novel a bit lethargic for me.
There are some shocking revelations in the story that were impressive to read. Whenever a certain lie was revealed by the police or the characters. It gave me a lot of energy to sail through the book till the end. Though, no matter how great and terrifying those lies and revelations are. The way they were told made the novel a turn-off for me.
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The progress of the murder investigation was great. It was detailed and descriptive, making the detective duo of the book two well-structured characters. I never felt a pace in my heart while reading the book. However, The great thing about the novel is, it succeeded in growing the suspense till the end of the novel. But some of you might know the killer before the climax. Just the way I did. I had great expectations from this "Not A Happy Family" book but it turned out to be a 50-50 okayish read for me.
Recommendation
If you love to read domestic thrillers where A dysfunctional family holds a plethora of secrets and ulterior motives, which leads them to go hungry for their own blood then this novel is for you. Though I had great expectations from the climax and the plot of the novel, still it's not a bad novel to read. "Not a happy Family" has great suspense which stays alive till the last part of the story. To take a ride of long-lasting suspense, you can grab this book.
-Abhi Panwar
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