I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
All the Blood We Share by Camilla Bruce Published by Berkley on November 22 2022
Genres: Adult, historical, Horror
Pages: 416
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
The nitty-gritty: Macabre and full of dark humor, All the Blood We Share explores the surprising and complex lives of a family of serial killers.
“Maybe it’ll pass,” I said. “This affliction of mine—”
“Oh no.” Ma shook her head. “I don’t think one can heal from bloodlust.”
Camilla Bruce is a must read author for me, and I was thrilled when All the Blood We Share was announced, a fictional account of a real life family of serial killers nicknamed “the bloody Benders.” If you enjoyed Bruce’s In the Garden of Spite, you will love this book, as it has a similar storyline and is also an historical accounting of a female serial killer.
The story takes place in the 1870s and follows the Benders, a family of grifters who have just relocated to Labette County, Kansas, after an event that forced them to flee their Pennsylvania farm. Elvira is the matriarch, William is her husband, John is her stepson and Kate is her twenty-year-old daughter. When the story opens, Elvira and Kate have just arrived at their new homestead in Kansas and are sorely disappointed by the house William and John have built for them, a far cry from the spacious home they left behind. But hoping to make the best of things, Kate has a plan to bring in money as a spiritualist, while Elvira sells her homemade salves and medicines. The family also hopes to attract travelers and advertises home cooked meals and a place to sleep, for a price, of course.
And it isn’t long before the Benders realize they can target wealthy travelers, kill them, and keep their money. After all, they’re only passing through, so who will miss them? But disposing of the bodies proves to be harder than they thought, and what if someone figures out who the killer is?
The chapters alternate among the points of view of Kate, Elvira, and a local boy named Hanson, who lives next to the Bender’s claim and develops an intense interest in the family. As in Camilla Bruce’s other books, the female characters shine the brightest. Kate may be a killer, but I found her to be a fascinating character. She’s smart and wily and will do whatever it takes to survive, even if that involves questionable things like seducing men and pretending to “see” spirits for money. I also loved Elvira, who blames Kate for losing her Pennsylvania farm and tries to stop the others from killing travelers. All she wants is a peaceful life, but she’s surrounded by idiots who are preventing her from having it. Hanson’s chapters give us an outsider’s perspective, and I thought it was a great idea to include his point of view.
The best part of this story was watching the Bender family implode. The first half is rather slow, as the author introduces multiple side characters and situations, some of which don’t seem to fit the main plot. But you have to trust this talented author, because she slowly builds the tension until it reaches an excruciating pitch. The spiritualist subplot, as well as Kate’s dalliances with various men in town, are merely distractions, in my opinion, but work especially well to show Kate’s devious character and her determination to make her own life outside of her family’s influence. From the beginning, Bruce drops hints about just how messed up the Bender family is. Elvira beats her husband with a chair after he explains his plan to invite strangers into their home. John proclaims his love for Kate (his step sister) and acts like a jealous boyfriend whenever Kate talks to other men. And Kate freely admits she has a “darkness” inside her that can only be assuaged by spilling blood. As the bodies (literally) start to pile up, the family realizes that once again they have dug themselves into a deep hole that might be impossible to climb out of. Watching each family member unravel was a horrifying delight!
The only negative for me was the spiritualist storyline, which I didn’t find very interesting. It takes up a lot of page time, especially in the first half, which is probably why it dragged for me. Kate is determined to become well known for her abilities to “talk to” the dead, and the author spends lots of time describing Kate’s methods of swindling people out of their money by staging fake séances. I was much more interested in the murders and watching the Bender family come apart at the seams!
Bruce mentions in her Afterword that there is very little known about the actual Bender family. All the Blood We Share is equal parts fact and speculation, and I thought she did a great job of mixing these two elements. It seems that no one actually knows what happened to the Benders. Accounts of the family’s whereabouts after their bloody escapades in Kansas are mostly rumor and conjecture, but I loved how Bruce ended her story, leaving some things to the imagination and keeping the mysteries of the family intact.
All the Blood We Share was a bloody good time, made better by Camilla Bruce’s excellent prose. It isn’t as gory as In the Garden of Spite, so if you’re looking for a less graphic serial killer story, this might be a good place to start.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
I’m having a bit a moment reading serial killer stories so this might be one for me to look out for – a whole family of them! Glad you enjoyed it 😀
Pages and Tea recently posted…Book Review: Practical Magic (Practical Magic #1) by Alice Hoffman
It’s definitely worth reading:-)
Very intriguing, thanks for sharing! For some reason the mix of fact and fiction you mention makes me think about Alma Katsu’s The Hunger, and the chance to learn something more about a history page I know nothing about.
That’s a great comparison! Now that you mention it The Hunger shares many of the same elements:-)
Great review, but I think this probably isn’t the book for me. I didn’t do well with her last book, and this sounds similarly grim (and maybe I just don’t get along with books about killers, lol).
Camilla Bruce doesn’t hold back when it comes to “grim” so I totally get it:-)
This sounds interesting. 🙂
Yes, it was a lot of fun.
I am honestly not sure how I feel about reading about the lives of serial killers… 😉
It’s definitely not a topic for everyone, but this was so interesting because the family is a mess, so it’s entertaining:-)
You’re the 2nd bookblogger I know who enjoyed this book! It’s crazy how I want to read all of these horror books, which is out-of-the-blue for me.
There have been so many awesome horror books this year, I think it’s hard to avoid them:-)
“If you enjoyed Bruce’s In the Garden of Spite, you will love this book” — OK, yea, I’ll def read this too. Thanks for the recommendation.
I hope you get to read it:-)
I have yet to read In The Garden of Spite, but I have to put this one on my TBR all the same because your enthusiasm is infectious!! I need this book!
If you love historical fiction with a bit of horror, you’ll really enjoy these!
Agreed, I think it got good once the family started imploding! I was also ambivalent about the spiritualist part, I didn’t dislike it but I also didn’t think it was necessarily needed – reading about Kate was entertaining enough even without it!
I thought the family dynamic was the best part of the story, so well done:-)
This sounds fascinating and I did love In the Garden of Spite!
I think you’d enjoy this too!
Kate wants to become well known for her abilities to talk to the dead, and what better way to practice her art than to be sure there are plenty of dead to talk to right? It all makes sense, right? 🙂
LOL I never thought of it that way!
I want to read this one now even more after reading your review!
This one sounds so good! Not to mention that it’s based on a true story and set in Kansas, right next to where I live in Missouri. Your review just makes me want it even more! Thanks for sharing!
Lisa Mandina (Lisa Loves Literature) recently posted…Blog Tour Review: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not by Aimee Brown
I have a copy of this and will hopefully be picking it up soon.
Lynn 😀