How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

Genre: Mystery Thriller, Dark Satire, Psychological Fiction How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie is a wickedly funny and unsettling debut novel that tells the story of Grace Bernard, a young woman serving time in prison for a murder she didn’t commit—while confessing to six others. Synopsis Grace, the estranged daughter of a wealthy, absentee millionaire, harbors deep resentment over her family’s neglect. She hatches a meticulously planned revenge scheme and systematically kills six relatives—each demise more elaborate than the last. Narrated from her prison cell, Grace offers a chillingly casual and sarcastic account of her crimes, convinced she was justified. Ironically, she ends up jailed for a killing she didn’t commit, leaving her to await an appeal while cataloging every detail of her own handiwork. Key Themes

• Dark Comedy & Social Commentary – Explores class entitlement, privilege, and generational trauma with sharp wit and biting satire.
• Unreliable Antiheroine – Grace is both magnetic and morally repulsive—arrogant, bitter, and disturbingly confident—yet strangely engaging as she details her murderous acts with precision.
• Morality in Black and White – The novel forces readers to question empathy, justice, and whether someone shaped by abandonment can truly be held accountable or seen as a force of poetic vengeance.

Why Read It?

• Provocative and Peel-back Satire – Tackles cultural privilege and family dysfunction with ruthless humor.
• Unique Narrative Voice – Grace’s cool-headed murder diary is as darkly comic as it is unsettling.
• Fast-Paced and Surprising – Twisty, bold, and emotionally edgy—a novel that grips while unsettling.
• Timely and Adapted – A Sunday Times bestseller, the novel was adapted into a Netflix series starring Anya Taylor‑Joy.

How to Kill Your Family is an audacious blend of crime fiction and cultural satire. It challenges readers to empathize with an antiheroine whose revenge is horrifying, but whose wit makes it strangely compelling.