How to Kill Your Family

Four years earlier, Grace steps off the plane near Puerto Banús in Marbella, Spain. Trying to avoid attention, she’s dressed plainly but catches the eye of a man named Amir. He works in nightclubs and offers her the use of one of his cars for her trip. She decides to take him up on the offer and gets his number before leaving the airport. Two hours later, Grace arrives at her rental and feels “woefully unprepared” to murder her grandparents, part of her plan to avenge her mother. Kathleen and Jeremy Artemis are the racist, bigoted, “disposable” parents of Simon Artemis, Grace’s father. After Grace’s mother Marie died, Grace lived with Marie’s friend, Helene, for a short while. Recently, Helene visited Grace in London and confessed that, just before she moved back to France, she visited Jeremy and Kathleen. They described Grace’s mother as “ghastly,” proudly telling Helene how they talked Simon out of giving Marie money when she was pregnant with Grace. When Helene told them that Marie had died, Kathleen became violently distraught, and Jeremy’s posh accent disappeared, becoming rough and hard. They blamed everyone but Simon. So, Grace decided they should die first.

Grace goes to the restaurant where she knows the Artemises will eat and opens her copy of The Count of Monte Cristo. When they arrive with another couple, Grace notes Kathleen’s obvious plastic surgeries, dissatisfied face, structured hair, and red nails. Grace notes Jeremy’s Regency Club tie, proof of membership to the exclusive men’s club. She sees the accessory as Jeremy’s attempt to hide his working-class roots, and she resents their happiness. When she overhears them saying they will be out on Thursday night, her plan begins to take shape. Grace follows them home and sees that they live on a curvy and somewhat dangerous road.

Grace texts Amir, asking for the car, and they plan to meet at his club. She dresses plainly again, though she’s aware of her beauty and the privilege it gives her. Amir is late, but after Grace gives him a fake name and chats him up, he finally gives her the keys. Grace waits in her car at the casino, watching the Artemises go inside, and when they reemerge, she drives toward their home. She pulls off the road and, when she sees their car coming, turns on her lights and drives straight toward them. Jeremy swerves off the road, flipping the car off a small cliff. Grace knows she should leave, but vanity urges her to climb down. Kathleen is dead, but Jeremy is suspended by his seatbelt, unconscious. He awakens when Grace strokes his face, and she tells him who she is and that she’s going to kill his entire family. Then she takes his necktie and sets the car on fire.

Back in the present, Kelly asks Grace if she wants to talk, but Grace brushes Kelly off. When Kelly leaves, Grace retrieves her notepad and writes about her childhood. Her mother was Marie Bernard, a young Frenchwoman who came to England to be a model. In Marie’s youth, she enjoyed the London nightclub scene, and she fell in love, though her career never took off as she hoped. After she had Grace, they lived in a tiny apartment above a chicken shop.

Now, when Grace thinks about this man, she tenses. She claims to be a “master of self-control” and breathes deeply to regain focus (39), then returns to the story of her mother. In 1991, Marie met Simon Artemis, who was 22 years her senior. He saw her at a nightclub and sent her champagne, but she refused it. She met him at another club two weeks later after he told the bouncer to let her in. His “powerful combination of arrogance and charm” intoxicated her (42), and they began an affair. Simon was already married with a baby, though Marie didn’t know this. As Grace grew up, Marie told her a fairy-tale version of her father. Once, however, she showed Grace his mansion and claimed Grace would have a room there someday. Even then Grace knew it wasn’t true.

There was never enough money for food or electricity, and Marie’s mother refused to help them because she disapproved of Marie’s choices. Helene was Marie’s only friend, though Marie often wrote long letters late at night. One day, Grace plucked a discarded draft from the trash and read it, learning her father’s name and that he wanted nothing to do with her. It was then that she realized he was one of the richest men in the world.

Grace says her childhood wasn’t all bad. She was loved, and Marie hid much of their hardship from Grace. Marie worked as a barista and cleaned houses. Grace met her best friend, Jimmy, in elementary school. Marie got cancer when Grace was 13, and Helene Latimer took Grace in when Marie died. One day, Grace found a box marked “Grace/Simon” under Helene’s bed, and inside, there were photos of Marie and Simon. Grace was revolted by his obvious vanity and “pathetic” need for attention, and it made her hate him and Marie, too, for being taken in by him. Newspaper clippings identified his wife, Janine, and daughter, Bryony, who is 13 months older than Grace. They also acquainted Grace with Simon’s work, his ownership of Sassy Girl, a few hotels, a budget airline, a vineyard, and more. She found a letter from Simon, in which he rejects Marie’s request that he meet Grace, and Marie’s letter to him, which he sent back. Grace condemns her mother as “weak” and vows to use her rage and strength to avenge Marie.

It was harder for Grace to kill Andrew Artemis, though. Andrew was the son of Simon’s brother, Lee, and he took pains to distance himself from his family. Telling herself that Andrew was still one of them, Grace volunteered at the same marsh project where he worked to get closer to him. Though she didn’t meet Andrew right away, Grace saw his picture and was surprised by his bohemian appearance. When they meet, she notes his “carefree, simple, and hardworking” attitude (70). Within a few weeks, Grace got him to open up, and he told her about his work with Kambo, a frog secretion that some researchers believed could cure depression. He kept exotic frogs at home and was working on finding the correct dose. Grace lied about having depression and asked if she could try it, knowing that this is how she’ll kill him. Andrew initially refused, citing his concerns about the dose, but when she talked about having panic attacks, he agreed. They went for a drink after work the following Saturday, then returned to the center. Though Andrew was already drunk, she plied him with more vodka-laced wine. After they took the Kambo, she grew comfortable and warm and didn’t want to move. However, when Andrew grasped her hand, she rolled him into the water and held him under. Then she reached in to remove Andrew’s necklace, cleaned up, and went outside to catch her Uber. Grace had an “eerie feeling that someone is behind [her]” (84), but she blamed it on the drug’s effects. Getting out of the Uber 10 minutes from her flat, she allowed herself the walk home to feel sad, letting the tears fall and feeling some regret.