Is psychopathy genetic or nurtured? Imagine all the ways a psychopathic mind could manifest. Now imagine a family of psychopaths. The concept here is intriguing and caught my attention from the beginning. Beyond the concept itself, my favorite part of this book was how easy it was to read without being dull. I think a lot of the success there lies in how the narrative voice of the different characters were written, which was engaging. Birdie was relatable as a character where Olivia seemed more neutral. While I enjoyed the grotesque cast of characters in the Eriksen clan, I both wanted to know more about them and felt like there were too many to track with any clarity. I definitely referred to that family tree every few chapters. The plot twists were good, if sometimes predictable, but not so blatant as to be cringeworthy. I did second guess myself once or twice. In the end it was an enjoyable read, but raced into a chaotic ending that left me feeling more disengaged from the story than when it began.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for an ARC of this title.

I tried...and tried...and tried some more..but I simply could not find anything enjoyable about the story. It felt like three books that had been haphazardly turned into one but with no actual connection besides the fascination of true crime. The story is told from the POV's of Olivia who comes from a long line of murderers and Birdie a podcaster who focuses on unsolved crimes of minorities and then interspersed with news articles. Reading Olivia's chapters felt like someone had copy and pasted from a medical textbook while Birdie's chapters had no real focus and felt mostly like regurgitated facts on the lack of justice given to a minority who has been murdered. The best chapters were the ones written as news articles and even those lacked a connection. The whole book fell completely flat for me.

Olivia Eriksen is completing her doctoral work on her own family, the theme being, "What makes a psychopath?" Her family, the Eriksens are well known for the many sociopaths and psychopaths, some murderous in Oregon's history, and Olivia has made a career online discussing her family and the science behind the mental disorder.

When an opportunity arrives for Olivia to observe her estranged family at a reunion party, she jumps at the chance and bring her fiance Howard. It isn't long though, before there's a probable murder and the family realizes they are cut off from civilization by a natural disaster. Can Olivia survive the weekend? And are these mental disorders genetic only? This fast moving mystery is interspersed with a journal and a parallel story of a lost woman. How it all comes together is very satisfying. f you like reading about serial killers, psychopaths and locked room mysteries, The Family Bones is for you!
#Thomas&Mercer

“The Family Bones” is a classic locked room who-done-it by Elle Marr. Instead of being a locked room, however, there’s a large family reunion in an isolated (and subsequently cut of from everywhere) location. The story is told focusing on three main people - Birdie, a true-crime podcaster; Olivia, both a family member of the reunion and working on her thesis paper; and a diary writer. It took a while for all three stories to connect. Ms. Marr does a nice dance of leaving red herrings around the story yet also adding in twists and turns to keep one interested. While as a whole this book worked, it didn’t always work for me. However, on the positive, this book was engaging and a pretty fast read. There’s also a family tree if, like me, you need to figure out who is who in this large family.

Thank you to NetGalley, Elle Marr, and the publisher for allowing me to review this advanced reader copy.

This was a remarkable psychological thriller from the beginning. It’s underpinnings were psychological in nature as was it’s reason for existing. The cast of characters was phenomenal and almost too numerous to mention. They were interesting and believable. There were plot twists and turns that were surprising. This book should be required reading for Psychology students everywhere.

Olivia Erkisen has made psychopathy her college major. With a family tree full of dangerously mentally ill people, Olivia has a pressing need to know if the disorder is caused by nature or nurture and just to be sure, she’s kept far away from her family for years. But now she’s engaged to be married and her fiancee wants to meet his future in-laws – what better way than to attend a family reunion. The party soon descends into mayhem and bloodshed as family members are killed or disappear. The unexpected arrival of a true crime podcast host on the hunt for answers to her latest murder mystery tip the scales into complete chaos. Marr is fast becoming one of my favorite thriller writers, her stories are riveting

A stunning thriller that reminded me of the film “ready or not.” This story was an interesting take on psychology and what actually makes up a psychopath and how you can love your family but also want to kill them.

You'll never call your family crazy again after spending time with this one.

It's a familiar premise for a psychological thriller: a group of people with shared history and dark secrets are stuck together in an isolated location with no means of escape... and then they start disappearing. Winter cabins, summer cabins, resorts, islands, ships - you name it, this locked room murder mystery theme has been done to death over the past few years (don't forget, Agatha Christie did it first).

But here we get a family of psychopaths just to keep things really interesting. It's dark, and clever, and sharp, and twisty, and tense, and unnerving. It's anything but formulaic, with subtle clues, wild twists, and a fresh take on the genre with a compelling exploration of nature vs. nature. It's scary enough to wonder if you can trust your family members, but it's far scarier to wonder if you can trust your own mind.