Keep It in the Family
In this thrilling novel from bestselling author John Marrs, a young couple’s house hides terrible secrets—and not all of them are confined to the past.
Mia and Finn are busy turning a derelict house into their dream home when Mia unexpectedly falls pregnant. But just when they think the house is ready, Mia discovers a shocking message scored into a skirting board: I WILL SAVE THEM FROM THE ATTIC. Following the clue up into the eaves, the couple make a gruesome discovery: their home was once a real-life murder house, with the evidence still concealed within the four walls.
In the wake of their traumatic discovery, the baby arrives and Mia can’t shake her fixation with the monstrous crimes that happened right above them. Tormented by the terrible things she saw, she is desperate to dig into the past to find answers.
Secrecy shrouds the mystery of the attic, but when shards of a dark truth start to emerge, Mia realises the danger is terrifyingly present. She is prepared to do anything to protect her family—but will the previous tenants stop her from discovering their secret?
- Pages
- 367
- Audiobook
- 10 hr 12 min
- First published
- 2022
- Language
- English
- Edition
- Audiobook
Shelved by 6 Litcadians
Reviews
Finished January 13, 2026
*☆2 stars☆* Much like a lot of thrillers that I'm not usually a fan of, Keep It in the Family, centers around a house that holds many horrors and secrets. Secrets that probably would have been discovered immediately had they even toured the f*cking place. But alas... Mia and Finn are a young couple who want to start fresh, and this fixer-upper of a house could be the perfect distraction to their infertility problems. Nothing is going as planned with renovations, the in-laws are weird, and now Mia is pregnant. The timing is completely off but that's not the only thing about this situation that feels off, (I mean, it's probably the author puppeting Mia to rock her hips like Shakira), and just when renovations are coming to an end, Finn and Mia uncover dark secrets in the attic. Dun dun dun.... While I have a few issues with the plot of this story, I'll talk about the writing for now. The number of stunted sentences, journal entry styled inner-dialogue, and repetitive plot points made this story drag for me. It gave me no motivation to finish it or discover the person or people responsible. As for the characters, none of them were likable to be honest. Mia may have been the only relatable character based off of things that happen to her, not necessarily because the author wrote her in a way that made me feel for her. The way this author represents women and pregnancy really shows that this was written by a man. I don't think men are incapable of writing women, but from what I've seen here, this author cannot. Aside from the writing and characters, the plot felt all over the place. At times, it really felt like the author just slapped wtf moments in for pure shock factor and it never amounted to anything. I mean, what was up with that one chapter? You know the one... I am inside you. 👀 Personally, I love popcorn thrillers as they can be a fun refresher from other things I’ve been reading, but this felt lazy. [Find my reviews on Bookstagram too!](https://www.instagram.com/literarily_laurynn?igsh=aTh6eTZ6dGwxMXpy&utm_source=qr)