#BookReview #BooksWorthReading #BookTwitter #BookReviews #BookRecommendation THE USUAL DESIRE TO KILL by Camilla Barnes Out April 2025 The Usual Desire to Kill perfectly captures that special kind of family madness where you simultaneously love and want to strangle your relatives—sometimes in the same breath. It’s sharp, chaotic, and painfully relatable, like being trapped in a house with people who know exactly how to push your buttons because they installed them. Set in a crumbling French countryside home that’s somehow still standing (much like the family itself), the novel follows Miranda as she deals with her delightfully unhinged parents. Her father, a retired philosophy professor, can turn ordering a baguette into an existential crisis. At the same time, her mother lives in a nostalgia bubble so thick you’d need a chisel to break through it. Add in a couple of judgmental llamas and a freezer full of meat older than some world leaders, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for chaos. Miranda spends most of the book playing referee between her parents, who have been married for 50 years yet still communicate like they’re speaking through faulty walkie-talkies. Her growing exasperation leads to what she calls “the usual desire to kill”—which, let’s be honest, is a feeling anyone who has spent more than 48 hours with family can understand on a spiritual level. The writing is laugh-out-loud funny, packed with witty dialogue that feels so real, you’ll swear you’ve had the same arguments with your parents. But beneath all the absurdity, there’s real heart. Camilla captures the strange mix of love, frustration, and reluctant loyalty that holds families together—no matter how many times they drive each other up the wall. Basically, if you’ve ever wanted to hug and throttle a family member simultaneously, this book is for you. Available now to pre-order, try and support all the good and great indie bookshops out there if you can. #CamillaBarnes #TheUsualDesireToKill