ARC review – The Family by P. R. Black

THE FAMILY

Psychological Thriller | N/A pages | 05.02.2019 | Aria

2 STARS

This is a fast psychological thriller about the only survivor of a gruesome ritual killing and her struggle with this memory and the fact that they have never found the guy who did it. When Becky begins to make some serious connections with similar crimes across Europe her hunt for the killer begins and we’re along for that ride.

I struggled with this book for many reasons. Were it not for Black’s, as I said, fast-paced writing, I might’ve DNF’ed this novel. I didn’t enjoy any of the characters. They were either bland or not relatable. The killer was probably my favorite because at least he had a real agenda and an interesting personality. The premise of the book sounded intriguing but ended up being nothing novel or unique. We’ve seen ritualistic killings. (Minor spoiler!) We’ve seen secret societies that enjoy said killings. And most of all, we’ve seen the trope that the ending is based on a million times in this genre. The only thing I believe the author did well (and the reason why this book earned any stars) was how he portrayed the cascading effects of such a murder: the frustration of the police officers for not being able to crack this case, the emotional turmoil of the boy who found Becky back then when she escaped the killer, and of course, Becky’s struggles to fit into society and have a normal day-to-day life. If Black would’ve expanded on that and left out many of the unnecessary plot events, this would’ve been a far better book. And that brings me to the actual plot line. Jeez, were there too many unbelievable plot revelations. How can so many things happen and it be real? I just could not get into that plotline. I could not suspend disbelief. Most of all though, the ending was such a letdown. That plot twist could not be more overdone.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.