‘The Bandit Queens’ by Parini Shroff

Genre: Adult Fiction – Thriller

Published: 2023

Format: eBook

Rating: ★★

A revenge comedy sounded interesting, but I was disappointed. There wasn’t a lot of comedy, even dark comedy, and it was difficult to read. Perhaps because I’m not au fait with the culture and a lot of the language and terminology it just felt like a hard slog, and I didn’t enjoy it at all.

One thing I did like was the interactions with the children. They’re just trying to make the best of their lives, whether it’s being cheeky, helpful, or trying to get one over on others. They were nice diversions and I wish there had been more of them. I didn’t like any of the women really, they were difficult to connect with, and not just because of the cultural differences between them and myself. They weren’t very likeable and there were a lot of contradictions in them which didn’t seem to make sense.

Even when the women murdered their menfolk I wasn’t engaged in the story. It just felt a bit ‘oh well’, and it all happened ‘off stage’ as it were so you didn’t feel involved which was a massive let down in terms of the story telling. The climax in the last 30 or so pages was the best bit of the book, but the first half was so slow, it could easily have been condensed down to half the length without losing the story.

I wouldn’t recommend this book unless you’ve got a particular interest or knowledge of the culture otherwise parts of it just don’t make sense, and I don’t like to keep Googling words and phrases when I’m reading fiction. I just want to enjoy it and this one, I didn’t.

‘How to Kill Your Family’ by Bella Mackie

Genre: Adult Fiction – Crime / Mystery

Published: 2021

Format: eBook

Rating: ★★★★

I’ve wanted to read this for a while, basically since it came out! So, when I saw it was on kindle sale I couldn’t resist. I wasn’t disappointed either. The characters aren’t particularly sympathetic or likeable, but it works. And being told in the first person, part as a written memoir and part an account of time in prison, is a winning combination.

There were humorous moments and a twist at the end. I figured the end wouldn’t be as straight forward as Grace had imagined it would be, getting her hands on the Artemis fortune. But I didn’t see what happened at the end coming at all. And the end wasn’t even told from Grace’s point of view, which was a bit of a let-down. There were points when the book was just too long and rambling, and parts could have been cut down or left out altogether.

However, it was a very engaging and generally well-written book and, although the characters aren’t very likeable and don’t really elicit any sympathy, you want to know what happens to them and follow their journeys. It was funny in places, with comments about social media and the lifestyle of the rich and famous, but that wasn’t the main object. It was a satirical acknowledgement that some people get it better than others, and that from Grace’s point of view it was always those who didn’t deserve it and were horrible people, hence her murder crusade.

Some of the chapters were perhaps overly long and could have done with being split. I like to be able to stop reading at the end of a chapter but that wasn’t always possible here. However, I did enjoy the book. It’s different to other things I’ve been reading recently, and the premise engaged me straight away. I wanted to know how Grace would do it, and whether she would face any consequences at the end for the murders she did commit, rather than the one she didn’t.