Family

The novel explores how interacting with family helps individuals to confront how and why they behave in the way that they do.

Ern is forthcoming about his relationship with his family, as well as how the public may view the Cunningham family. The title Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone puts the family reputation front and center. Ern is about to explain to the reader how and why his family members have killed. Ern is clear that the Cunninghams are “not a family of psychopaths. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate” (2).

At the start of the novel, Ern is estranged from his family because Ern testified against his brother Michael in court. There is tension between Ern and his mother Audrey because Audrey feels like Ern betrayed the family by siding with the police. When Michel and Ern are...