Book Review: "Keep It in the Family" by John Marrs

I've been reading a lot of thrillers lately and we all know how it goes when I start doing that. Step one, I think everything is fine and I'm genuinely shocked by certain things, step two is that I become hypercritical and then, finally there is step three. Step three is where I kind of go off them because they've become too similar. Unfortunately enough for me, I tend to become addicted to crime novels and thrillers. I mean a few years' back, you probably remember how I basically read nothing but British Library Crime Classics for a few months. Let's just hope I can stop myself before I just read nothing but these for ages too...

I have to say, I was first shocked into reading John Marrs by his novel The Good Samaritan - which was basically a book I genuinely refused to put down until I had learnt everything there was to learn about that twisted and dark story. When it comes to Keep It in the Family there's something else here - the main characters aren't really as likeable as I thought they would be because I think sometimes Marrs is trying to write the dialogue as sardonic and funny rather than actually creating the atmosphere at times. It cane take the reader out of the story a bit. I am however, willing to forgive all of that for the sake of the storyline being a little bit better than I expected. Even though it's about this new couple who have bought this dilapidated house and choose to do it up. There's something strange about the man (Finn) of the relationship having a photograph of his ex-girlfriend around - even as far as still having a tattoo of her face on him.

However, the book isn't really just about the tense relationship the woman (Mia) has with Finn's parents and sometimes, with Finn. It's also about that house. The house that has been abandoned all those years, the one that the local pub's landlady can't remember being occupied. There's something really strange about it for the people who have been there for ages. It's just these newbies that find it to be a 'project' to be taken on rather than a building to be ignored. When Mia becomes pregnant, we are not just met with the fact that now Finn and Mia must race to complete the home so that they may raise a family there - we are also met with the narratives of Finn's parents who are both hiding secrets of their own. They even hide them from each other. John Marrs writes these parts with more precision than the opening chapters of the novel and so, we are of course, back on track to keeping up with everyone's secrets. Even those strange chapters in which a woman breaks into the house whilst Mia is asleep.

"I WILL SAVE THEM FROM THE ATTIC." The words that a pregnant Mia finds carved inside the house. But what that is all about is dark as hell and will fling Mia into a world of terror, nightmares and strange happenings around the house. I think this would be a much better line for Mia to find if Mia was a likeable character in any way but she isn't and so, the reader finds it difficult to care about what happens to her. I think that all of the four main characters needed to be redone with some redeeming qualities because it was difficult to feel the feelings the writer wanted us to when we were so focused on just trying to get through these terrible flaws they have. They are so unlikeable it does cut the atmosphere up a bit. I think Mia was definitely the wrong choice of main character. I would've liked someone more like the ex-girlfriend. She seemed much nicer and more relatable as a person rather than this little spoilt brat who cannot stop talking about herself. I would say this is a pretty big mistake on John Marrs' part because otherwise, it would have made a five-out-of-five read.

As we see what kind of secrets are buried, I have to say what happens in the epilogue seems somewhat predictable. Be that as it may, I enjoyed the interspersed chapters of podcasts and newspapers, interviews and people writing books. This was a fun read.