The Family Bones
The Family Bones
By: Elle Marr
“The retreat could be the match that ignited the dry kindling of our family pyre— disastrous, just like last time.”
Olivia Eriksen is part of a family of psychopaths.
“My cousin Alfred confided to me the truth of our family during a camping trip: we were psychopaths. Or rather, our family carries with it a long history of antisocial personality disorder that manifests in myriad ways— psychopathy, sociopathy, borderline personality disorder, and narcissism, among others.”
Olivia, herself a neurotypical, is working on her grad paper, studying the relationship between psychopathy and the age-old question- nature or nurture?
So, of course, she is going to attend a family reunion out in Oregon on a wilderness resort to talk with family members and understand their experiences.
Because what could go wrong?
The Family Bones reads like a classic horror film— who will survive the cold rainy night?— but without a ton of guts and gore.
After a storm knocks out the power and fallen trees block the only way in and out, the body count starts rising. Someone up there is on a killing spree. And the suspect list is unending!
The identity of the killer is figureoutable, the clues are all there, but I still enjoyed a few surprises.
The format of the book includes first person POV chapters by Olivia giving us the scoop on the psycho-show happening on the ole ranch as she tries to figure out what’s going on.
Then we have chapters from Birdie Tan, a half-Chinese, half-white woman who is entrenched in the unsolved crimes podcast scene. She focuses on the cases of unexplained murders or disappearances of people of color and puts out her own podcast episodes.
Her current case will send her to Oregon where her path will cross with the Eriksen clan.
I’ll add here that I think it would have been better if Birdie and Olivia’s paths had crossed sooner in the book. Birdie’s perspective is pretty one-dimensional. It’s focused on her research. Her family is mentioned but they are very marginal characters. I felt like there was a tiny something missing from her ‘circle.’
The last element of the book’s formatting are the interspersed news articles and journal entries that fill in details from the ‘last reunion,’ the killer, and the current fiasco.
It’s kinda a freaky read. With psychopathy manifesting in so many different ways, you’re just never sure which family members are lying or manipulating other ones. No one seems trustworthy.
Plus, there’s the added element of Olivia bringing her new fiancé to the reunion. With how notorious her family name is, I wondered if her boyfriend was there with ulterior motives, especially because he disappears for a good chunk of the book.
In fact, I think I’m a little disappointed with how that aspect of the story worked itself out. I think there was more that could/should have been done with him.
Of course, with any setting like this, there are certain parts where reality is stretched. I mean, they all had to give up their phones at the beginning of the reunion and we all know that nothing good happens when all parties relinquish their only connection to the outside world. I would never do it. Safety first.
I was a psych minor and took an Abnormal Psychology class but I’m fantastically far from being an expert on the subject. Were these disorders portrayed accurately? Were people’s reactions feasible? Who knows?
But, no one reads these types of books because they want a 100% accurate portrayal of a wilderness killing spree. And if you do, you may want to consider reading some happier content every once in awhile…. or stick to textbooks?
This is a fast and thrilling read that I would definitely recommend if you like a good psychopath killing story.
It’s not going to be a book where you adore the characters. It’s not going to give a whole lot of academic insight into the actual question of nature vs nurture.
(I keep saying psychopath and horror and I think many people will think it’s some sort of slasher book but it’s really not that bad in terms of violence and gore.)
But it will be an engaging read you don’t have to commit a lot of time to so the payoff standards don’t have to be super high.
She has several other books I’m considering reading, including Strangers We Know because Marr has said it’s an #OwnVoices book. And she’s got a new one coming out in 2024 that I’m fixin’ to get a copy of.
A fun little sidenote: I read this on my Norwegian cruise vacation where we departed from Amsterdam and within the first 30 pages of the book both Norway and Amsterdam were mentioned! What are the odds…?
[Content Advisory: a handful of f-words, often in groupings; some sexual content, including incest, but nothing extensive]
**Received a physical copy from Wunderkind PR in exchange for an honest review**
This book released March, 2023. You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.
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