Book: The Family Tree

By: Steph Mullin & Nicole Mabry

Published: June 10, 2021

Publisher: Avon

Pages: 400

Genre: Thriller

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About The Family Tree

The Family Tree follows Liz. Her cousin pushes her to take a DNA test with her and when she gets her results back she realizes that her family isn’t her family. She was adopted. She’s upset no one told her and kept it a secret all of these years.

As she tries to find her biological family and get to know them, she finds out that someone in her family is the Tri-State Killer. She thinks she knows who it is but can she really throw her new family member under the bus? He doesn’t seem so bad so maybe she’s just overreacting.

What I thought

I actually got an advanced copy of The Family Tree but I’m getting to it a little late. The concept of this story actually really caught my attention. I couldn’t imagine doing a DNA test to find out that the family I thought was my family actually wasn’t my family at all. On top of that she finds out that someone in her family, her actual biological family is a really big killer. The police have been trying to find him for years.

The cover is something that kind of stood out to me as well. I’m not even sure why. I am by no means saying that the cover is ugly or anything but it’s not really spectacular. I’m pretty sure it has a lot to do with the red in the background. Red is my favorite color and usually with colors like that on the cover, it really catches my eye! Hopefully, I’m not the only one like this!

So, I have mixed feelings about The Family Tree. This is a medium-paced story with quite a bit of slow parts to it. I normally wouldn’t care about this, but this is a very plot-driven book. There’s not much character growth in the story. In fact, there’s nothing really that interesting about the main character to begin with.

The other thing that kind of bothers me is her “cousin”. How do you conveniently forget that your cousin is adopted? I get it she was young and everyone reacts differently but I think I would be just as pissed as Liz. It would be a huge betrayal to me.

Other than that I think that the victim’s perspective was more interesting than Liz’s. I know it would have defeated the purpose of this story but I would rather have their perspective of things and more of what they went through. What would have made it more interesting is if Liz had gotten kidnapped before she found out who her family was that way.

I do have to admit that the best part of the story to me was how it actually ended. A part of me was expecting something to happen but not what did. Granted I probably shouldn’t have got this far since I found the story kind of meh.

If you like thrillers make sure to check out my summer thriller list.