Rating: 2.5/5
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Introduction
I started reading Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes after a recommendation from Lemon8 where it had gotten a bit of popularity.
The premise of the book itself was super interesting, and it seemed to be a perfect read for the spooky Halloween holiday coming up.
McMasters Conservatory of the Applied Arts is a school not unlike Hogwarts for witchcraft and wizardry, but the students at McMasters aren’t learning magic; they are learning how to commit murder!
The book itself serves as a manual for teaching this exact skill.
The rules and guidelines that are set for the students are truly fascinating to read about and you do end up rallying behind each of the characters in the end as they make their case for if their employer’s murder is truly necessary.
As a reader, you want them to see it through to the very end. And as much as I wanted to like this book, there were a few stand out issues that kept me from doing so.
Pros
The first thing I want to say about this book is that there are many aspects that I appreciate about it.
I appreciate the effort in the writing, the development of the story and the setting, and all the research that has clearly gone into the different methods of “deleting” someone as they do not use the term killing at McMasters.
The writer must be very passionate about this subject as the methods listed in the book are not only well thought out, but they also seem entirely plausible.
You almost feel like you shouldn’t be reading about it in the event you might try to go out and do it yourself.
I also appreciated the intricacies of the characters’ stories and how they weave together even though I did not feel very connected to any of the characters personally.
Cons
That being said, this book was not for me. The writing in itself was too “wordy” for my taste.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good vocab word or two but it almost seemed to be wordy just for the sake of it.
I don’t necessarily feel like it added anything to the story and after looking up the meaning of twenty words I decided to forego any more research and just use context clues for the rest of the book.
This also made the story drag on considerably.
It took me 9 days to get through it, which is not really common for me. I can finish a book in a couple days if I’m really into it.
I only kept reading to see it through each character’s thesis of murdering their employer at the end. But it was not a very enjoyable read for me.
My Least Favorite Part
The part of the story that I ended up disliking the most was the school setting.
At first, I thought it would be charming-a school for murderers, but it just kind of came off as cringey? Maybe?
Not that the idea itself is cringey, but the way the fully grown adults acted like teenagers just jetting off to college did not appeal to me.
Despite this, I felt that it could have expounded upon the actual classes a bit more as well, as that seems like one of the more interesting subjects that this author could write about.
Instead, it all felt very surface level with just enough information to make the point and move on.
As much as I had looked forward to the Hogwarts-like setting of the school for murder I just found myself wishing I could skip through some chapters and get to the “deletions”.
It’s Worth It in the End
By the time the characters do leave the school the story did get a bit more tolerable.
After trudging through the book for a week at that point I was able to finish the remainder out in two days.
I’m glad I stuck through it, if only for my own sense of accomplishment as I don’t like to DNF books for the most part.
The culmination of their studies in the deletion or attempted deletion in one case managed to be satisfying enough.
The ending of the book was sweet in its own way, but that’s all I can really say about it. The writing and the school setting really did not lend itself to my tastes leaving me with scoring it a 2.5/5.
Discussion
Have you read this book and do you like it?
What did you think of the McMaster’s school setting? Was it cringey to you like it was for me?
Until next time <3
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