What a way to go really took me by surprise by how much I enjoyed it. I found it really funny and often caught myself laughing aloud. I found the point of view from husband, wife and local true crime enthusiast really worked and heightened the entertainment value enormously, especially when told from Anthony’s perspective in the afterlife holding centre. The writing is sharp, witty and flows really well. The cast of characters are delightfully awful and the twists and turns keep you wanting to come back for more. I know a number of people who will definitely enjoy this and I will be recommending it !

I make it no secret that How To Kill Your Family is one of my absolute favourite books, and I've had this one in my sights since it was an untitled coverless listing.
Anthony Wistern has died in suspicious circumstances, and what follows is how his family deals with it, as well as an Internet detective. We also saw Anthony himself witness everything after his death, and get his perspective on at all, as he tries to piece together how he died. This in particular was a unique and interest addition to the story. I loved seeing the family dynamic play out, often turning on each other as they looked for the truth.
Another aspect I enjoyed was the Sleuth - a nod to the growing obsession with true crime and people taking solving crimes into their own hands.
Full of characters you love to hate, Bella has created another story of dark humour that gives you lots to think about morally - and once again takes some very interesting turns.

A very funny, entertaining story and super quick and easy to read. My second Bella Mackie book and she just keeps getting better. 4 stars.

Anthony's wife Olivia has organised an extravagant 60th birthday party for him that proves memorable for all the wrong reasons. Anthony's unexpected demise and fallout are explored from Anthony's viewpoint as he negotiates his new state, Olivia's, and a true crime YouTuber called The Sleuth. The murder mystery aspect has many suspects and twists, and a contemporary investigation method makes this engaging and immersive. It is a detailed but pacy story that uses sensory imagery to draw you into it. The satirical comment that runs through the narrative, which is politically astute and socially aware, gives the story authenticity and contemporary relevance that I enjoyed. I like the characterisation. There are many unlikeable characters, but you still invest in their lives and want to know what happens to them and how they will react.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

📚 review 📚
what a way to go - bella mackie

ya’ll know i am a sucker for bougie rich people drama - especially when they get what’s coming to them. bella mackie did that with such gusto and hilarity with how to kill your family and she’s done it again with what a way to go.
honestly when i saw that bella mackie was releasing a follow up that involved more people murder, i prayed to the publishing gods that i would get an early copy and i must have been particularly pious that day cos here we are!

in what a way to go, we meet the wisterns, a dysfunctional and obnoxious family unit who are holding a party for patriarch, anthony’s sixtieth birthday. only, to wife olivia’s chagrin, the whole thing gets cut short because anthony manages to get impaled on a spike and dies.

everyone in that family has secrets, none of them are good people (except maybe freddy. he just wants to plant trees) and all those secrets and double crossings start to come out as anthony, looking on from an afterlife waiting room ala beetlejuice but without a moulding ghost in a stripy suit, tries to figure out how exactly he came to be impaled. in life, he isn’t the only one trying to prove what happened - a local amateur sleuth is also on the case and is convinced there is a murderer on the loose. as their follower count grows and anthony’s secrets start to come out, some interesting points are raised about the nature of the true crime community and the consequences of being an awful human.

told with bella mackie’s usual humour, this is another funny, intriguing book about some seriously dysfunctional rich people and those that get pulled into their orbit.

thank you @netgalley for the early copy. what a way to go is out now

3⭐️⭐️⭐️



✨ different povs
✨ darkly funny
✨ psychological thriller



✨ a influential finance boss found dead on a lavish 60 th birthday in the Cotswold .
A psychological thriller which has the base of ‘whodunit’!
✨ tbh, this is a very slow paced of a story. I almost dnf it but I want to finish it as it was my first book on this author. Funny and witty at the middle of chapters until it gotten boring again.
Predictable ending and I thought it would be different kind of recipe .



Thankyou for the opportunity to read this arc for a honest review.



🫶🏼 shaye.reads

A very entertaining book with a difference. It’s not often you get to hear from the dead man themselves, trying to find out how they died.
A dysfunctional family with money to burn caring only about themselves are described perfectly. The style of the writing is great, the book flows effortlessly and keeps you reading on and on. The humour is there throughout but cleverly understated and not custard pied in your face.
I haven’t read the author’s previous book but I intend to remedy that based on this engaging read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book!

The premise of this book is so good but it didn’t gel for me as I couldn’t read anymore but I think it’s because I am in a slump and not because of the book.

It’s a book o hope to come back to but I have tried to pick it up from the 15% mark so many times with no luck!

I was looking forward to Bella Mackie's second novel as had enjoyed her first and this did not disappoint. A dysfunctional family dragged into the tabloids following a death. The idea of a 'holding' place while you had to puzzle out your own death gave a new dimension to solving the crime with watching your family.

Can't wait for her next one.

A witty and entertaining whodunnit which sees the victim, Anthony Wistern, observing the aftermath of his demise from the great beyond, tasked with remembering the last moments of his life before he can “move on”. With a family desperate to inherit his money, a mistress, a number of defrauded investors and a true crime fanatic also wanting to solve the mystery of his unexpected death, the story is funny and engaging and easy to read.

This was so much fun to read- an entertaining darkly funny thriller with plenty of twists.
I love Bella Mackie's writing style and brutal commentary. Personally, I would have preferred the book to be a little shorter as there were a couple of occasions I felt my interest lagging, but overall I did enjoy it!

This was one book that tested my patience a lot and I would have given it up if it wasn't an ARC. I was really excited to read the book initially because the author's previous work-How to Kill Your Family was popular on Bookstagram and I had missed reading it.

Anthony Wistern gets killed by being impaled on a spike on his grand 60th birthday party, organized by his wife, Olivia. It turns out that Anthony was highly successful and owned an investment company but there were quite a few people who hated him enough to want him dead, including his own children and wife. Few chapters are narrated by Anthony himself, where he is in a limbo-like state waiting for the memory of his last few hours on earth to return to him and find out how he was killed. Without this knowledge he cannot move on to the next phase of death.

The book was quite enjoyable in the beginning, but I really hated all the characters including the one called Slueth, who desperately wants to believe that Anthony was murdered and wants to investigate this crime. I didn't really get why this character's name wasn't revealed until the very end, especially when there was no angle to it. In brief, I did not enjoy reading this book and it put me into a book slump for the entire month of August.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the advanced copy of the book.

Murder mystery that fizzles out

Beginning with a not-so-secret reveal that the recently deceased is a narrator in this kaleidoscopic novel, the action and the detective story that follows are narrated by the deceased, his wife and an internet sleuth, revealing the true story behind his sudden death at his own sixtieth birthday party. Could it be his avaricious children? His put-upon wife? or could it be something to do with his business in financial investments? Or just some ridiculous accident?

As one of the narrators is the deceased, we get a glimpse at the purgatory he ends up in, trying to figure out his last moments, the last thirty minutes of his life erased in the bureaucracy of the afterlife, before he can move on to the next place. What that place is... you'll have to discover for yourself and let me know if you think the preceding thousands of words have set you up for the denouement.

Three stars.

Anthony Wistern has everything most people ever dream of, that is until his 60th birthday when he unexpectedly dies. With his wife and children set to inherit his fortune secrets and lies creep out from every corner. With the topic of murder arising in steps “The Sleuth” a YouTube amateur investigator looking to solve the crime, can she beat the police to the murderer and will she live to tell the tale.

The waiting room for the afterlife gave me quite a laugh, it made me think slightly of Beetlejuice. I really hope that’s not where we are headed though. Having Anthony’s point of view where he is watching his family brought a fun little twist to the regular murder mystery.

I enjoyed the story but I think it is aimed at the teen to young adult reader and as such I would recommend to this age group. I would say it is an easy to read dark comedy, murder mystery with a twist.

What A Way To Go starts with a bang! Rich businessman, Anthony Wistern, is found dead at his opulent 60th birthday party and finds himself in death's waiting room where he is tasked with remembering the details of his death before he can move on. He can watch the movements of his cold-hearted wife and four gold-digging children, which is an eye-opener for him.

The story is told from three points of view - Anthony, his wife Olivia and 'the Sleuth', a local woman turned detective.

This book is twisty and hilariously dark in places. It was a refreshing change from a typical murder mystery and I enjoyed the element of the narration from the after life.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

This book reminded me of two things in particular. First the game chinese whispers where a comment is whispered to one person who passes it on to another and so on. By the time it has been passed on to a number of people it has inevitably been mis heard and the meaning changed.
Second the film Betelguice. The waiting room for the afterlife and Anthony's reaction to it is laughable - in a good way for readers.
I enjoyed the book and the way it was told from different viewpoints. I especially liked Anthony's view of all the happenings.
I think Anthony was disappointed not to die up to his living extectations. Livvy got all she deserved and Will finally showed the family just how much use he could be to them all.

I think I enjoyed this book more than I enjoyed How to Kill Your Family, and that says a lot considering I brought that into work with me every day for a week and read it under a desk.
The way the story was told was unique and really helped make each character three dimensional and believable. It was full of Bella Mackie's usual dark, chatty, satirical humour and I think this is the perfect book to gift people. The twists were easy to follow but engaging, it isn't your typical murder mystery, and it wrapped up really nicely.

I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced and easy to read. It’s told from multiple points of view, which I love. Bella’s writing is great, it’s engaging and humorous and really makes it hard to put the book down.

The characters were well written and the relationships between them were believable. There were a lot of twists but the story was easy to keep up with.

I love the idea of a processing centre after you die, this was one of my favourite things in the book! I will definitely be picking up more books by this author.

Gifted

I had to make use of the sunshine we’re having to get a shot of this conversely dark book!
Having recently read and enjoyed Bella Mackie’s How To Kill Your Family, I was delighted to receive an early copy of #WhatAWayToGo.

Told from three different perspectives, this is a murder mystery with a twist; the victim is also trying to solve the case, from the afterlife.
Anthony Wistern; wealthy, influential, hugely successful, and let’s face it, an utter horror of a human being, is celebrating his 60th birthday at a lavish party organised by his wife (also terrible), and kids (equally awful) when the man himself is found dead under bizarre circumstances. Anthony later finds himself in a sort of limbo; he can’t move on to the “next stage” until he remembers accurately how he died. He can watch his loved ones for clues, which he diligently does but soon finds that actually plenty of people had very good reasons to want him dead.

Meanwhile, a local armchair detective, nicknamed (by herself) “the sleuth”, sets out to solve the case while also drastically increasing her follower count on tik tok. She quickly discovers True Crime is much trickier when you’re actually living it and not just listening to a podcast.

Lastly, we also hear from Anthony’s long-suffering wife Olivia, regularly dismissed by her ungrateful children, cheated on by an uncaring husband, and now the prime suspect in his death. She’s no Angel, but is she a murderer?

I enjoyed this book so much, more than How To Kill Your Family, I think. I love a good Murder mystery and this one kept me guessing. Pretty much all of the characters are unlikeable, but that actually works well here; it feels almost tongue in cheek sometimes. Plenty of dark humour and you’re given permission not to empathise with anyone in the book and just enjoy the journey.

This is a fun, clever, and dark read, that felt utterly unique to me. I think it’ll be perfect for snuggling up with over Autumn.

With many thanks to @harpercollinsire for my copy, all opinions are my own, as always. Available to buy now!

First of all thank you for approving my request!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The authors writing style had me hooked throughout this book.

I didn't want it to end, a book I really couldn't put down.