Considering the kind of reveal and explanation readers get near the end of the book, it feels like Not a Happy Family could have been a much shorter read. Some tighter editing might have made this more appealing. It was still fast paced and I wanted to keep reading. Definitely well written in terms of language, but I can’t entirely say that about the plot and reveal choices.
Title: Not a Happy Family
Author: Shari Lapena
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction
Publication Date: July 27, 2021
Review Date: November 17, 2025
Number of Pages: 349 (hardcover)
My Rating: 2.5/5
Buy here:
Book Blurb of Not a Happy Family:
In this family, everyone is keeping secrets–especially the dead. Brecken Hill in upstate New York is an expensive place to live. You have to be rich to have a house there. And they don’t come much richer than Fred and Sheila Merton. But even all their money can’t protect them when a killer comes to call. The Mertons are brutally murdered the night after an Easter Dinner with their three adult kids. Who, of course, are devastated.
Or are they? They each stand to inherit millions. They were never a happy family, thanks to their capricious father and neglectful mother, but perhaps one of them is more disturbed than anyone knew. Did one of them snap after that dreadful evening? Or was it someone else that night who crept in with the worst of intentions? It must be. After all, if one of your siblings was a psychopath, you’d know.
Wouldn’t you?
Book Review of Not a Happy Family:
Fast paced and engaging, but started to really stretch out after a point. It was slow burn, but not a slow burn reveal. I didn’t actually like how the reveal was so direct, with an explanation. We weren’t able to follow along and try to decode who the murderer was. I keep going back to Agatha Christie for good reason, I guess!
Coming to the murderer’s identity, it was a bit of a disappointing reveal. Some of the scenarios I was anticipating did not pan out at all, and the actual ending felt like a bit of a letdown because of that. Any more explanation would be going into spoiler territory, so I’m not going to go in that direction.
Another point I want to note is that whoever the author was trying to get us readers to think it was, it was pretty clear that’s not who the culprit was. The red herrings were too obvious, is what I mean. Combined with what I said earlier about not giving us readers the opportunity to follow along and do some “detective work”, my ratings for this really drop.
One of the characters (Audrey) was also very insistent, and is an almost annoying character. However, I felt her heart was in the right place in terms of doing right by her brother. Not that he was a good person or anything (this is not a spoiler, don’t worry). Her contribution was eventually not much, and the epilogue left things open ended.
Considering the kind of reveal and explanation readers get near the end of the book, it feels like this book could have been much shorter. Some tighter editing might have made this more appealing. It was still fast paced and I wanted to keep reading. Definitely well written in terms of language, but I can’t entirely say that about the plot and reveal choices.
P.S. – I looked up reviews online because I was curious how people felt about it, and many people seem to have been disappointed by the ending as well. They also mentioned finding almost all the characters unlikeable, so that’s something to keep in mind too. To be fair, a lot of people seem to have really enjoyed it, and mentioned they were not able to guess who it was till the reveal. So take that as you will.
Here are some other mysteries and thrillers worth a read! I still think no-one does thrillers like Gillian Flynn. If you like mysteries more, I do adore Agatha Christie.
