When I tell you, I love this book I mean it. The dark academia setting was perfect. It almost felt like I was reading a version of the Addams family but different. The betrayals and plot twists were very unpredictable. Another reason why I loved it. This book is the perfect fall read. I would recommend this to everyone to read it.

✨ Book Review: The Morton’s by Justine Larbalestier & Scott Westerfeld ✨

This book sucked me in completely. From the very first page, I was hooked and didn’t come up for air until the end. I love a good legacy or mob-style story — and this one? Truly one of the best I’ve read.

Larbalestier and Westerfeld build such an interesting, chilling world — one that feels both elegant and brutal. The Morton family is the kind of dynasty that commands your attention, with hearts as cold as ice and rituals that will leave you both horrified and fascinated. Every member of this family feels alive on the page — flawed, complex, and unforgettable.

The pacing is spot-on from start to finish. It never drags, never loses focus — it just tightens its grip the deeper you go. By the time I turned the last page, I was utterly in love with this story, this family, and the dark, glittering world they inhabit.

If you love stories about power, bloodlines, and the haunting cost of loyalty, The Morton’s is one you won’t be able to put down.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

I hope this book is a hit. It's got a unique premise, a Wednesday-Addams-like voice, and an intricate and well-formed plot that is engaging and clever. At its heart, the book examines, "Do we have to be who our families think we are 'supposed' to be?" but with knives, murderous intent, and wry humor. Larbalestier captures the spirit of growth and self-examination that often accompanies the college years (especially as Jessica spends the summer in the art world, where she is often on her back foot in terms of worldliness and experience).

For all book professionals, the scene near the end, when Jessica is tripped up in the library ("But the book in my hand was not checked out") should make this five stars for that laugh-out-loud moment alone!

The husband-wife writing collaboration, as detailed in the afterword, makes this book extra appealing. Would highly recommend.

Cousins of the Morton family experience life in a private New England college, while learning how to be expert assassins and earning their place among their dark family. It's a true kill or be killed situation and nobody to truly trust.

I really enjoyed this. Dark academia plus crime with some originality! Interesting characters and world building.

So much more than I expected. I went in thinking this would be a fairly standard dark‑academia/crime‑family thriller, but it absolutely wasn’t. I honestly was worried I’d be disappointed because it’s one of my favorite genres. Instead, I got completely sucked into the world of the Mortons—this impeccably polished, utterly ruthless dynasty where murder is just part of the family business.

I especially loved following Jessica Morton at Helshire College. At first she seems like the perfect heir: confident, controlled, and terrifyingly competent. But once she carries out her first kill and the fallout begins, the book kept peeling back layers I didn’t see coming. The whole storyline around Peter and what his “rebellion” really meant added so much emotional weight and moral complexity. Every time I thought I knew where Jessica, her grandmother, or the wider Morton clan were headed, another twist shifted my understanding.

What surprised me most was how invested I became in these deeply compromised characters. The authors don’t just rely on shock value; they build a world where loyalty, legacy, and violence are all tangled together, and then force Jessica to question what she’s been raised to believe. The reveals about Helshire, the other crime families, and the Mortons’ own history were genuinely gripping.

I picked this up expecting a familiar A‑B‑C thriller. Instead, I got a sharp, twisty, character‑driven novel that kept challenging my sympathies and my expectations right up to the end. I’ll be thinking about Jessica and the rest of the Mortons for a long time—and I’d happily read more books set in this world.