Keep It in the Family

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i was expecting something more suspenseful and thrilling like THE ONE or THE PASSANGERS but this was far from it. from the synopsis, i was expecting a haunted house vibe like HOME BEFORE DARK or THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS but when the plot got going, it gave me THE WHISPER MAN and PRETTY GIRLS vibes… if ya know what i mean 🫣😅🫠😦😱🔪 This is exactly the kind of story that I love to devour. A chilling house, a family with secrets, a mysterious figure lurking behind closed doors. Give me more! Marrs gave so much detail and context to this decades-old story that I felt like it was true. And as soon as I finished it, I suddenly had the urge to find a true crime documentary based on the story to indulge in more. I’ve started a review on this at least three times now & I’m at a loss for words, or I have too many words & don’t know how to properly get my thoughts out on “paper”. As a whole I really dug this book, if I had a do-over I would still read it! This is also my first book by Marrs & certainly won’t be my last. This was a super easy read (in a good way) that made for an easy cruise through the book..I read it in over the course of roughly two days with many (many! haha) interruptions😜 Into this fraught domestic scene are interspersed chapters set at various earlier points, regarding events in the old house that led to the deaths of the children in the rediscovered suitcases. Some of these chapters are from a child’s point of view. (Marrs uses the ‘their’ instead of ‘his’ or ‘her’ even when the gender of the person is known to the speaker, a grammatical trend that creates unnecessary obfuscation.) Some are from the point of view of someone preying on children, whose mental processes are certainly disturbing. There’s not one sane person in Mia's husband's family. Each one has its darkness, all different, and just messed the hell up. When Mia and Finn find 7 bodies in a suitcase while remodeling their new home, it sends them into a downward spiral. Each being affected differently but one is no worse than the other. The secrets from that house are dark and intense and I am here for it

If there is a lesson to be learned it would be we should consider how our own actions can/will/and does affect our spouses, our neighbors and even strangers but especially our children who absorb like a sponge without the experience or knowledge to put things into proper prospective. If they think it is wrong, then why do the parents approve and so on? I just considered such ideas while reading this great book.

Young couple Mia and Finn are excited to buy their first home, even though it has been empty for some time and needs lots of work. Whilst renovating the house, Mia discovers a message carved into the skirting boards – “I WILL SAVE THEM FROM THE ATTIC”. When she decides to investigate, what she discovers is truly horrific – but that proves just to be the beginning of the nightmare … I mentioned at the beginning of this review that there were a few things that niggled me, and that includes the main characters. They are not exactly likeable, and I’m not sure up to what point certain actions are exactly credible. They do play their roles in the plot well, but there was something about them in general that made me enjoy the story less than expected. And then I’m not even talking about the whole cheating/love triangle element, which put a bit of a damper on things. Still, the plot and plot twists themselves are cleverly developed, and I never guessed the full horrific truth behind it all. Since reading What Lies Between Us, I have been anxiously awaiting John Marrs’ next dark and disturbing psychological thriller. Mia and Finn have brought a derelict house and are busy turning it into their dream home when Mia discovers, unexpectedly, that she is pregnant. During an already stressful and emotional time, Mia discovers a chilling message scratched into a skirting board: “I will save them from the attic”. Upon following this clue, a gruesome sight awaits her and Finn, and it’s clear their new home was once a house of unimaginable horrors. In the wake of this traumatic discovery the baby arrives, but Mia cannot stop being fixated by the monstrous crimes that happened in their house. Haunted by what she saw in the attic, her obsession pulls her away from her husband. And when little glimpses of a dark truth start to emerge, Mia realises the danger is terrifyingly present. She will do anything to protect her family, but could it already be too late? There is a psychotic serial killer at the heart of this novel, and the book will appeal to readers fond of that sub-genre, with a little extra difficulty added because the victims were children. Whether in this story you find the killer’s actions plausible will depend on how persuaded you are by the set-up. Some of it was a bridge too far for me. Most of all, I wish the characters were more three-dimensional, giving me a reason to be interested in them. When they’re all so difficult, whether they get their acts together isn’t a high-stakes matter.

The plot is definitely disturbing and Marrs is not afraid to delve into darkness. However, I was able to figure out most of twists before they happened. I did enjoy the excerpts of newspaper clippings, and podcasts sprinkled throughout, which helped to fill in details of the story. There was even one from a YOUTUBE SERIES by ex police detective and crime thriller author, Caroline Mitchell which was a fun touch! 😉 Secrecy shrouds the mystery of the attic, but when shards of a dark truth start to emerge, Mia realises the danger is terrifyingly present. She is prepared to do anything to protect her family—but is it already too late? THIS kind of book from an author as capable and talented as John Marrs....was sadly VERY reminiscent of that type of last-ditch effort that just went nowhere.This is my first book by John Marrs and I'm asking myself why? It definitely will not be my last as I hurry off to find all his prior books.

Keep It in the Family is an unsettling, compelling, psychological thriller that delves into all the deep, dark secrets people keep even from those closest to them and highlights just how easily the most heinous of evil can often live comfortably amongst us merely hidden behind masks of normality. At some point, however, it was enough for me, and I wanted it to end. I found the first 75% of the story excellent, but the last part loses credibility, and, sadly, I found the end rather predictable. The character-driven story is told from alternating first-person perspectives. At first, the identity of the narrator is deliberately left unclear: It remains a guess as through which eyes we are looking to see what is happening, and it seems the alternate first person narrator is sharing secrets the other half is not telling. I bumped this book up to the top of my To Be Read list because it was John Marrs. I've enjoyed all of his books that I have read so far, particularly enjoying his latest forays into the world of speculative fiction. Despite that, unfortunately this one just didn't hit the mark for me. Someone is a third generation serial killer and is doing everything in their means to keep it in the family for generations to come.And that is true. I liked it enough to give it 4 stars. This was dark, I think the author’s darkest book so far! It kept me on my toes, and I really enjoyed the horror aspect of this book and that it wasn’t afraid to go where it did. It made me realise, all the way through the book, that literally anything could happen. Nothing was off the table. And I found the story satisfying - an understatement, I found it enjoyable. In the prologue we hear of events that went on at a house 39 years earlier. What a hook! Very dark. I got me on board for what I hope is a thrilling journey.