📚: The Family Bones by Elle Marr (@ellemarrauthor)
⭐️: 4.25/5 (rounding down on #goodreads)

What happens when there’s not just one psychopath, but a whole family of psychopaths? And what happens when that family is your own family? And when that family decides to throw a family reunion in a secluded mountain resort? That is the reality that Olivia Eriksen faces in The Family Bones.

Olivia has spent her academic life focused on psychopathy, in hopes of understanding her estranged extended family (and their dark generational history). What she’s looking for the answer to? Can someone be born a psychopath? Is it nature or nurture? Finding the answers means reconnecting with her family on a deadly weekend.

Clever, twisty, and unpredictable even when it may appear predictable, I absolutely could not put this book down. Not only was it an #inonesitting binge, but it’ll be having me sleep with a light on tonight. (I only wish we had dug more into Olivia & Howard as the ending unraveled - that left me wanting more!)

Out on March 7th, 2023, a big thanks to Thomas & Mercer via @netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. This was such a great read! #gifted

This book promised it all- plot twists, cults, serial murder, ect. Let me tell you, The Family Bones delivered but deserves so much more than buzz words. I literally couldn’t put this book down from start to finish and it has stayed with me since.

This one was a wild ride! The story centers on Olivia, who is a grad student who comes from a family who exhibit psychopathic (amongst others) tendencies throughout multiple generations. Olivia has tried to distance herself from her family but is working on her dissertation around whether these traits or inherited or not, and wants to talk to her grandfather as part of her research. You also get chapters told by a podcaster named Birdie who is tracking down a missing person, and chapters from an unknown person's journal. All of these are weaved together in a big way as the story unfolds.

I like the style of alternating narrators and I enjoyed reading chapters by both Olivia and Birdie. I really liked Birdie and felt like she is someone I'd want to know better; The author did a great job of creating the scene of the resort where Olivia's family was staying- I could picture it well as I was reading. The story itself was very fast-paced and there was a lot of action (and killing!). I was truly surprised by the end, as I thought the twist was obvious and then it turned out that I was completely wrong. Well done to Marr on tricking me! My one nit with the story is that there were an awful lot of characters and I kept forgetting who was who and how they were all related, and then had to reference back to remind myself.

Overall, this was a unique read and was a fun mix of of the mystery and psychological thriller genres. It had kind of a "locked room" vibe since the family was in a secluded area but people kept disappearing. I'd recommend to those who are fascinated by psychopathy and also just like a good mystery. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, just wow! This book had me constantly questioning every single character involved and where they actually stood in relation to the family. This book focuses on Olivia and her "crazy" family and the way in which she views herself in amongst them. The family gets together for a family reunion, which could only mean one thing: trouble. Secrets are unearthed over the course of a few days, but there are alternating chapters from a podcaster as well as journal entries and newspaper clippings. I don't want to spoil anything, but be prepared for twists and turns along the way that have you second guessing everything! Great read!

A superb fast paced thriller. I absolutely loved the story and couldn’t stop reading it. It’s perfect for all readers, especially thriller lovers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for sending me an Arc copy of this book for free in return for my honest opinion.

Sadly, I just couldn’t get into the writing style of this book. The premise is very intriguing and I so wish that the style suited with me better! It was promising, but I tried and tried and tried again and just couldn’t get into it. It’s a very slow burn for sure.

nteresting concept with a family of psychopaths but a lot of it played out just like any thriller... a bunch of people with secrets and grudges stuck together in a remote place and people start disappearing.

The person behind it all was a little silly, and didn't really make sense to me. The other plot twist you could see from a mile away; no surprises there. Decent read in that it kept me interested, but I don't think it was very well executed, and the ending was disappointing.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not going to lie, the description sounded (still do) very promising and I was very very excited to read this book. But it somehow fell very flat.

Some parts were very interesting, and I actually found myself invested in the book, which is a very good thing. But again, somehow the story felt very predictable, and the twists felt very cliche to me.

It was fun to read, and if you're looking for some casual thriller you would probably love this. It's not going to blow your mind, but for one time it is a good choice!

I am a fan. This was another book that I had a hard time putting down. Full review to come closer to pub date.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Elle Marr is one of my favourite authors, so, as soon as I spotted that Advanced Reader Copies of her latest book, “The Family Bones” were available, I was keen to get hold of a copy. And, once I did, I wasn’t disappointed.

Like the previous book, “Strangers We Know”, it is largely set in the North-West of USA – an area that I feel as though I’m getting to know better thanks to Marr’s books, and also books such as No Place To Run by Mark Edwards (I have also been to Seattle a couple of times, but not Oregon yet).

While I would probably still say that “The Missing Sister” is my favourite book by Marr, that’s also, in part, now driven by the fact that, as a result of reading that book, I visited the Paris Catacombs which feature in the book. But, otherwise, “The Family Bones” is probably my favourite – it’s what I call a ‘confliction’ book – where you have the conflict between wanting to not put it down as you want to know what happens next, while, at the same time, you don’t want it to end as you’re enjoying it so much.

I don’t want to say too much about the story as you really should read it for yourself (when it is more widely available). I suppose one thing to point out is that there are largely four styles of chapters. Two of these are written from the view point of the two protagonists – one is from a family that has a range of psychological issues (which she herself is trying to understand through academic studies) and the other is a podcaster with an interest in crime. Some chapters are entries from a journal – the author of which remains unclear until close to the end of the book. The other chapters are snippets from newspapers that help provide additional context to what we learn about characters. This jumping between the four types of chapter works really well, in my view.

Let me turn now to some specific bits of text that stood out for me.

This is yet another book, like “Blackout” by Erin Flanagan and “Impossible” by Sarah Lotz, that has brought up the discussion of ‘nature’ versus ‘nurture’. I think it has also come up in other books I’ve read this year, but those are the two that stick in my mind and I commented on in my reviews. I do find this debate of ‘nature’ versus ‘nurture’ interesting, and I find it interesting, also, that it’s been a theme in a number of books I’ve read in the space of a few months. I wonder if there’s a particular reason why authors are focussing on this at the moment. The more I think about it, the more I think that ‘nature’ is a key component. But, surely, nurture is also important. Surely teaching is about trying to nurture new ideas, ways of doing things, etc. into people. If nature always prevails, then surely teaching (and by teaching I include all forms of training or therapy) is doomed to fail. I find that hard to believe. Or, rather, I want to believe that it’s not the case. I do like it how this story does point to the significance of ‘environment’ (i.e. those we work and live around) as an aspect of the ‘nurture’ influence – I don’t think I had fully appreciated that before, despite this aspect being something that I even considered within my PhD thesis in terms of what influences what a person is like (and what the government does, or does not, have control over… in that respect, in my thesis, I didn’t really discuss ‘nature’ at all, but I was looking at things from a different perspective).

Another thing I can relate to is when one of the characters comments ‘Oh, to be young. Or, rather, almost twenty years younger.’ I haven’t minded getting older at one level – particularly, as in the ways that many of our societies are set up, getting older often comes hand in hand with greater economic freedom to buy and do the things you like. But there are many aspects of being younger that I miss, and twenty years would be about right.

From my research about the JL123 plane crash and associated work on plane crashes, I found the comment that ‘the media and nightly news barely raised an eyebrow at yet another person of color’s tragedy’. I do find the media’s selection of stories and the degree to which they follow some and not others to be beyond frustrating at times. Of course, the JL123 crash was covered extensively by the media – but there are so many more plane crashes (generally those with less than 40 fatalities, according to one study I read) that don’t get the coverage. But in the end, all the victims were humans and their stories all deserve to be told (as the Take To The Sky podcast tends to do so well). That, in this case, rather than number of deaths, it is race (which often comes up in some form in Marr’s writing, though much more subtly and easier-to-read than some books I’ve read in the past year) that is the focus of the media’s behaviour is of no surprise.

One thing that I did find slightly frustrating is that this was another book (I’ve read several in the past year or two) where a female graduate student is dating a member of staff. As an academic myself, I find it a bit tiring to come across this trope. I’m sure such things happen. But do books need to go bring it up so often – particularly if it’s not really adding to the story at all?

One of my favourite lines was ‘I should crawl back beneath the sheets beside my loving husband. Instead, I stare at the inbox of my forum messages, willing my computer to ping with a reply.’ I think all of us in the modern world have those moments where we are willing our computer or phone to show/sound a message/email notification.

Another line that I liked was

knowing what it is to look put together on the outside, but to really be surviving thanks to the Scotch tape twining your body. Each of us has a silent struggle we carry.

Being an Advanced Reader’s Copy of the book, I suppose I should not have been surprised that part of the book is effectively set in the future. It will be a past date by the time the book is officially published, but it was the future (March 2023) for me. I don’t think I’ve had this happen before when reading an ARC.

While “The Family Bones” does contain a mention of a cave and going underground (as exists in “The Missing Sister”, “Lies We Bury”, and “Strangers We Know”), it is perhaps the most peripheral of the four. It’s good that Marr is able to move on from the seeming safety-net (albeit the places are far from being places of safety in the stories) that these physical spaces seem to offer as places to set a threatening situation.

Overall, I really enjoyed “The Family Bones”. Yes, as with all novels (and I also noted in my review of “Strangers We Know” too), there are bits where believability is pushed a bit, but I have no issue with this. This is part of the balance of getting ‘pillars or cantilevers of truth‘ into a book and making a book entertaining. I would strongly recommend this book and hope that, one day, we see a version of it dramatized.

It's a fascinating plot to this story. Olivia is doing her dissertation on psychopathy, and it happens to be that her family is full of them. Psychopaths have always been a hot topic for me. It's so interesting because it all concerns the human brain. There is so much mystery there. Marr did a great job bringing that into this story. Part of the story is about psychopaths and Olivia's research; the other part is a "who dunnit" story. A mystery with a sprinkle of science. Olivia's character is fully developed. She is standard enough, yet something about her makes me wonder if she is genuinely exempt from a family full of psychopaths. However, I think there are way too many characters that it's hard to keep apart who is whom and how they are related to each other. Then there is the staff at the hotel that plays an intricate part in the story and adds more characters.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for letting me read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It had a very unique premise surrounding a family of well known psychopaths stuck together on a family retreat. I have always been interested in psychology and psychiatry so this was right up my alley and explored the nature vs. nuture debate with regards to psychopathy. I loved how we had multiple examples of psychopathy in this book as we met each new family member. The family dynamics were so bizarre and some moments were even funny to me with how little the characters cared about, well, anything. I will say certain twists I did see coming so I would have preferred it to be less obvious. I also feel that Birdie's perspective was unnecessary and the character building that was done on her would have been allocated to some of the Eriksens I wanted to get to know better. It kept me hooked from the beginning I could not stop reading but I was kind of disappointed I guessed most of the twists. This book is especially good for those people who like true crime and psychiatry/psychology which I fit the bill for both this was right up my alley for sure. Pretty good read overall the plot was very well developed and it was very immersive.

Synoposis: Olivia Eriksen's family has a generations-long history of psychopath. When psychology grad student Olivia is invited to the first Eriksen family reunion in ten years, she thinks it will be a great opportunity to interview family members for her dissertation and introduce them to her fiance. When a family member is found dead, things prove to be more dangerous than she even imagined.

Review: I really wanted to like this book. I think the premise was amazing and the ideas behind it were really intriguing. But, I think unfortunately this was a case of great ideas, poor execution. I struggled to get through this book. It was confusing, over complicated, and at times (most of the time) felt as though the author was trying to cram two or three books into one. Overall, it wasn't for me.

When a book starts with a family tree, it's a sign that you should really pay attention. I usually have no problem when there's several different characters to follow and never thought I'd say it but, this was a little too much. Maybe it would of worked for a TV show where each character gets an episode but with an average sized book, it didn't. I've always loved the nature vs nurture concept and this was an interesting read, I just feel it had a little more potential. I'll rate this Three Stars.

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer for this ARC.

I really enjoyed this book, but I have to admit, I had higher expectations for it also. It was good though!

I loved the premise of this book - it was so orignial and intreguing! The different character POVs were interesting, although it was hard to keep track of the large number of characters, especially when each character was mentioned from a different person's POV. But this was necessary for the nature of the story. I also enjoyed the all the second guessing/back stabbing that went on throughout the plot, kept me guessing right until the end!

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book to be fascinating - I’ve always had a morbid curiosity about psychopathy, so what sounds like a better book than a family of psychopaths stranded at a retreat together?

I found the first several chapters a bit hard to get into, only because there are SO many characters in this book, several perspectives, journal entries and news articles. My advice - use the family tree in the book as you read - once I started referencing it, I enjoyed the book much more.

Olivia was a fascinating character. I enjoyed all of the breadcrumbs left throughout the book as well, it was very intelligently done!

I wish that some characters were developed a bit more, because they didn’t add much to the story. I know that is hard to do given the sheer number of them, but I would’ve liked to see more of Howard and Kyla in particular.

Overall, I give this 4.5/5 stars ⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts!

The first part of the story had me hooked, I couldn't read it fast enough and had a hard time putting it down to get anything else done in my life. I was invested in this book totally. Elle Marr is a gifted storyteller.
Olivia Erikson is a psychology student writing a dissertation on Nature vs. Nurture, which becomes the premise of the book's storyline. With a family line of mental illness, Olivia wants to interview her grandfather, but he is not returning her calls. Then by chance an invite is delivered to the Erikson family reunion being held at a secluded cabin retreat. Encouraged by her mom to attend, Olivia and her fiancé decide to go. Within the first night, the death of Olivia's favorite cousin occurs. Danger is lurking in the woods and family secrets are about to be exposed.
There is a second story being told as well. It is about a true crime podcaster, Birdie Tan, and she is looking into the story of a missing female. While researching the story she is being sent in the direction of the Erikson family.
Though I enjoyed the book, I found it difficult to remain interested in all the characters, especially the ones who have no influence on the story. I have never thought this before, but I would have rather read this as a series with more background on Olivia's parents, her relationship with her fiancé and if Birdie's family are going to be characters in the story, some background on them as well.
Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Reading The Family Bones was like watching a fantastic episode of Law & Order: Elle Marr crafts fantastic characters, a fun mystery and a sense of suspense but the ending and in my opinion an unnecessary secondary character stop this story from being a phenomenal thriller.

I have to say that Marr's strength is characters with Olivia and her eclectic family all being fantastic and that shows Marr as a great character writer but characters such as Birdie and Howard both fall flat in my eyes with Birdie being able to be cut out completely and nothing would change with Olivia's story. I feel that cutting Birdie's story would improve the pace and overall enjoyment of the story because you already have the journal interludes that I feel are suspenseful and build tension as Olivia deals with deaths and her family history of psychopathic tendencies.

Overall The Family Bones is a fun, fast thriller that could be great but can not pass over hurdles that cause it to not meet that five out of five status that I wish it could be.

The Family Bones is one of the most page-turning locked-door thrillers I've read in years. The premise surrounding a family filled with psychopaths is interesting enough on its own, but the true crime component really grabbed me.

There were some parts that felt unnecessary, such as the journal entries and newspaper articles, as well as one of the sub-plotlines. But overall, I thought it was a great and well-done concept.