Book Review: Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena

 

Book: Not a Happy Family 

Author: Shari Lapena 

Pages: 320 

Read on: Kindle 

Read in: 3 hours 

Plot Summary: In the quiet, wealthy enclave of Brecken Hill, an older couple is brutally murdered hours after a tense Easter dinner with their three adult children. Who, of course, are devastated.

Or are they? They each stand to inherit millions. They were never a happy family, thanks to their vindictive father and neglectful mother, but perhaps one of them is more disturbed than anyone knew. Did someone snap after that dreadful evening? Or did another person appear later that night with the worst of intentions? That must be what happened. After all, if one of the family were capable of something as gruesome as this, you'd know.

Wouldn't you?

Things I Liked: 

1. The premise of this book is quite interesting. A dysfunctional family, an Easter dinner fraught with tension and three grown-up children, who don't quite like their parents. Then these not-much-liked parents are found brutally murdered and the children are the obvious suspects because they stand to inherit a truckload of money. Nice, right? There is just something about dysfunctional families. We've all known some amount of dysfunction in our own families and so, at some level, we can all relate to some aspects of familial dysfunction and the weight of parental expectations or in some horrible cases to emotional neglect, manipulation or abuse. 

2. The characters in this book are all despicable. As they are meant to be, I suppose! The parents- Fred and Sheila- one is controlling and manipulative and the other is passive- more than willing to watch her husband heap abuse on her kids. The three kids- Catherine- the favourite daughter- a doctor- who wants her parents' house, Dan- the only son, who Fred thinks is not good enough and Jenna- the family rebel, who is still living off her parents' allowance, but wants more. The kids are all entitled and so awfully, transparently greedy! Fred's younger sister- Audrey- is equally greedy and spiteful, though she redeemed herself to me in the end! So, please don't go into this book expecting any characters you can connect with because you are not supposed to connect with any of the main players at all! 

3. The book is taut with tension. Each chapter reveals some new information about each of the three kids, which makes you wonder which of them is the killer! The book's pace is nice and crisp and there is no dilly-dallying or meandering at all- always a good quality for a crime thriller to have! 

4. The book is open-ended-ish. As in, we do know who killed Fred and Sheila and why and how, but we are left wondering if this person would get caught or not! So, it is not as awful as having an open-ended narrative where you don't know who the killer actually is. 

Things I Didn't Like: Nothing much at all, but it would've been gratifying to watch the smug killer get caught because this person is really vile! :) However, like I said, it was not a bad way to end the book. 

Rating: 4/5