Books
How to Kill Your Family

by Bella Mackie
Overlook Press, August 2022, $27

First of all, if you couldn’t tell from the title, Grace, the main character of Bella Mackie’s How to Kill Your Family, is not a good person. If not precisely a sociopath, she’s darn close. Her interior life seems to be dedicated to disliking things, which she then lets everyone know about. Grace, of course, had a deprived childhood—I guess most people don’t entertain the idea of killing their entire family without one. But even if she hasn’t gotten her “fair share” in life, are her crimes justified?

For all her talk of vengeance against her mother, Grace is similarly interested in getting her hands on her father’s vast wealth. Created from a fling between her mother, a young model at the time, and powerful businessman Simon Artemis, Grace didn’t even know her father’s name until she was older and his side of the family barely acknowledges that she exists. Her mother adored the man, and was often trying to coax her way back into his life, something Grace finds pathetic.

Grace’s own feelings toward dear old dad are far less charitable.

After her mother passes, Grace vows to make Simon feel the pain she did growing up and kill not just those family members personally close to Simon, but every potential inheritor to the fortune. It’s pretty clear she’s had some success. Shame that, in true noir fashion, Grace is currently in jail for the one murder in her life she didn’t commit.

Framed as a “how we got here” journal, Mackie’s work takes a leisurely pace. It’s a character study, and her character is acerbic and unhappy in her own skin, even as she lauds her own attractive looks. There is some comment here on how revenge doesn’t make for a good life, as well as an ironic look at Grace, who constantly rages against the wealthy upper class while dreaming of becoming one of them.

Grace is an unsympathetic, misanthropic protagonist in the vein of Patricia Highsmith. She is our villain narrator, a fascinating person backlit by green smoke who tells herself and the world with icy disdain that she was right all along. We don’t see protagonists like Grace often—perhaps there is a reason for that—but it certainly makes for a novel debut. You likely haven’t read much else like it.

Margaret Agnew
Teri Duerr
7556
Mackie
August 2022
how-to-kill-your-family
27
Overlook Press