Matt K reviewed Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson (Ernest Cunningham, #1)
Meta murdered the form
3 stars
This was fun and funny but was very very self-conscious the whole time.
There is so much going on.
A whodunit mystery novel. A tale about family. A big loving pastiche of both of those. A novel about the rules of good mystery novels. A meta tale outside the tale of the author’s perception of their story. A lotta fourth wall breaking. Mini stories of how each family member kills someone.
This author is swinging for the parking lot! These bites are a bit big for them to chew though. The breezy tone and the constant chatter to the reader kept me from loving anyone enough to fear or care.
I thought of The Unworthy - i finished it recently. It was shorter but only had a few elements - it’s a brutal story told through hidden diary entries. And you care. Augustina Bazterrica gives you …
This was fun and funny but was very very self-conscious the whole time.
There is so much going on.
A whodunit mystery novel. A tale about family. A big loving pastiche of both of those. A novel about the rules of good mystery novels. A meta tale outside the tale of the author’s perception of their story. A lotta fourth wall breaking. Mini stories of how each family member kills someone.
This author is swinging for the parking lot! These bites are a bit big for them to chew though. The breezy tone and the constant chatter to the reader kept me from loving anyone enough to fear or care.
I thought of The Unworthy - i finished it recently. It was shorter but only had a few elements - it’s a brutal story told through hidden diary entries. And you care. Augustina Bazterrica gives you a focus to care about and leaves you wondering.
This is fun! But so scattered that it’s easy to breeze past the truly awful elements and not feel them.