The Family Bones by Elle Marr seemed like just my type of book but sadly it was not for me. I did not connect with it or the characters.

After reading the synopsis of this novel, I was excited to see where the story would go and how it would develop. I was impressed by the author's style of writing and characterization of the various individuals featured in the novel. I was particularly interested in the notion that individuals from many generations past in your family could influence your personality and actions in the present day and the course of your life. The main character, Olivia Eriksen, is completing/working on her thesis on cognitive disorders and ends up interviewing her own grandfather Edgar. Olivia ends up getting invited to the Eriksen family reunion at her uncle's lodge, which is where the story gets quite interesting. The members of the family had intriguing stories about their lives and backgrounds, and I enjoyed reading about each of them. I do feel, however, that there were just too many characters involved in the novel. The ending was also a bit too predictable for my liking.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The Family Bones was an unexpectedly great read! It was an excellent representation of the domestic suspense genre, as it contained many familiar tropes I love and expect to find in such books. I was captivated by the story from beginning to end. There are so many surprises throughout and I finished it in a single day.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This book has a great premise, but it ended up a bit of a mess. The main protagonist is concerned because her family has a history of schizophrenia, For some reason, in this world, the mental disorders show up at a specific age, and she wants to find out everything she can before her next birthday. There is a bit of a nod to And Then There Were None, as the family is in an isolated hotel that ends up being barricaded from the rest of the world. Family members start dying, and police cannot get in to help. While all of this is going on, a separate plotline is happening in which a young mother tries to solve a missing person cold case...on her own. The two stories SLOWLY wind their way towards each other, but the reader loses interest long before the book ends. Instead of being a page turner, the book droned on and on for so long that I didn't care who the killer was or why.

Book Review:
Title: The Family Bones
Author: Elle Marr
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/3 stars

Whoa. This book was all over the place! I had to keep a mental notebook in my head of all of the different characters and what neurological diagnoses each one had! It was tough! My brain hurt after finishing!

Olivia Eriksen should have just declined the invitation to her families weekend reunion. Especially since she's been estranged from that side of her family for years and for good reasons. When the Eriksen's get together, it's absolute chaos! Olivia has a thesis paper due on cognitive disorders, and what a perfect opportunity to interview her grandfather, Edgar, on all the perils his family has struggled with. Unfortunately, she may have bit off more than she can chew. I mean, sure, who would have thought that a reunion surrounded by grudges, secrets, and isolation would have ended so badly? Maybe Olivia should have used other resources 🙂.

Published: March 7th, 2023

Thank you, @netgalley and #thomasandmercer , for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The synopsis of this book gripped me, but the execution....not so much. I didn't feel as though the plot and/or writing were cohesive in this one at all. It was also a major slow burn, which is fine if you like slow burns....but i do not. I also feel like the podcast element is great when it is done right, but that was really lacking in this one.

A quick read that held my interest right to the last page. The story combines a true crime c podcast aspect to that of an insider l o ok into a family known for crime. The book was intriguing and the two stories were so different and the way they came together was quite spectacular

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

This book was really pushing the limits of how far I could lean into its "reality". I can't tell if it was trying to deliberately be campy, or if the writing was not at the level for adult readers.

There was literally a scene where they are fleeing their reunion because someone died, and when they noticed they were blocked in from flooding, proceeded to pull over and hook up??????

The premise had great potential, but the writing lacked finesse. There was also an entire storyline of someone writing to their journal as if it was a person who talked back to them. It seemed like it was a book written by a teenager in a way this kind of story would go down. It was overly dramatic in all of the wrong places, and it was extremely difficult to get into.

Elle Marr has done an amazing job of putting together a complicated story and turning it into a thriller that you can't put down!

First the premise: A family of psychopaths and neurodivergents (diagnosed and not) are coming together for a family reunion, 10 years after their last. And in the vein of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians or Ruth Ware's One by One, people are disappearing. As a storm rages on, this remote mountain retreat is cut off from electricity, police, and ambulances. Olivia, one of the Eriksen family, has come to answer her dissertation question: is psychopathy nature or nurture? Are some people born with it? With all the mayhem that ensues, and her elusive grandfather who might hold all the answers, will she be able to find the answers she's looking for?

The author has done an outstanding job of providing research, and showing the different personalities of each of the Eriksen family members. Chapters are told from various points of view: Olivia, who accepts the invite to the reunion along with her fiance Howard, a podcaster researching the disappearance of Li Ming Na, journal entries from an unknown (to us) author, and local news reports about the Eriksen family. All of them are hints, though seemingly unrelated, to the story that unfolds

Thanks to Goodreads and Thomas & Mercer for an eBook copy.

Engaging and entertaining. A recommended purchase for collections where crime and thrillers are popular.

I was lucky to receive an advance copy of The Family Bones by Elle Marr from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review and opinions. Holy cow this book takes you on one heckuva ride. You will find you can't read fast enough to find out what is going to happen next. Absolutely gets the adrenaline flowing. So good and the ending will take your breath away.

Love, love, love Elle Marr’s crazy good, “The Family Bones,” which could more accurately be described as the family that’s crazy together, kills together. This surprisingly terrific tale seamlessly weaves multiple timelines, multiple points of view, and multiple perspectives on missing and/or murdered individuals.

The novel’s two primary protagonists, Birdie, a True Crime Podcaster, and Olivia, a doctoral candidate in psychology, both are on a quest that will converge with unprecedented and unexpected outcomes.

Birdie in San Diego receives an anonymous message about an unsolved missing person case from years past. Being of Chinese ancestry herself, Birdie is intrigued and totally immersed in the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Li Ming Nu from Oregon years ago. Was this about discrimination against foreigners, she wonders? With a mixed race child who is experiencing taunting and harassment at school, she knows on a firsthand basis that this could be the situation.

On the other hand, Olivia needs primary resources for her research documentation topic regarding at what age does psychopathy typically display itself in a individual. Can it be detected from infancy or do to the traits typically emerge in early adulthood? For these answers, Olivia has perfect references if she can get them to talk. Her family, the Eriksens, have generational histories in her direct line of murderous, and delusional mental disorders.

Birdie and Olivia’s separate research paths diverge on a remote mountain in Oregon during a Eriksen family reunion. The retreat turns unpredictable when a horrendous storm hits the area creating mudslides, flooding, power outages and roadblocks for days on end. Family tensions run hot and cold; staff members are terrified; and dead bodies keep turning up. With finger pointing and accusations flying, everyone is a suspect, but one person in particular, Olivia!

But why are family members blaming her? She’s probably the sanest one of the bunch. With a wonder twist of an ending, “The Family Bones,” is a killer of a thriller!

JoyReadergirl1 graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Elle Marr, and Amazon Publishing for this advanced reader’s copy (ARC) for review.

Olivia Eriksen, psychology student, brings her boyfriend to a family reunion for some research. Her family is known to be full of psychopaths, sociopaths, and narcissists. Olivia wants to know if it is caused by nature or nurture. But could she be a psychopath as well? Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I want to start off by saying I did enjoy this book. There are a lot of characters though, and that’s always a hard thing for me to follow. Off the top of my head in total, there was more than 12 that played in the day to day parts of the book, with the descriptions of what’s happening. But throughout the whole book, there was probably over 20. Not a bad thing, but hard for me to keep track!

The plot in the overall storyline is really good. I love the intrigue and suspicion it brings. The mystery, suspense and questions you constantly have.

I love the the dual POV from Birdie and Olivia. It is definitely a book that has you guessing and wondering, and wanting more consistently. While, it’s only 303 pages, I feel like it could probably be a little shorter. It felt dragged on, and I felt like, even though it’s well detailed, it didn’t need to be as detailed and drawn out.

It makes sense in the end, why Olivia isn’t AT ALL worried or fretting about her fiancé being gone almost 70% of the book. But I hated it. It constantly annoyed me 🤷🏻‍♀️

The premise of this book sounded great but I struggled reading it. It took me a very long time to read it and I struggled to connect with the characters. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and I struggled to keep it all straight. This book just wasn't for me.

This was a decent book. I loved the twists and it was fast paced and easy to read. Thank you netgalley for making this book available to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Loved this book. The psychology aspect of it was well researched. The story itself was great. Kept me waiting and wondering what was going to happen next. Great dive into a very abnormal family.

This was unfortunately a DNF for me just couldn't get into the story. I want to thank NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review, just not the book for me.

This book reminded me of “Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone” by Benjamin Stevenson; a family full of psychopaths at a family reunion. I didn’t like this one as much as I liked the other & perhaps that’s due to me preferring the main character of EIMFHKS.

This book was a slow burn & I had a difficult time connecting with the characters… which is actually fitting, but makes for just an OK book.

Thank you Net Galley & to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.