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A review by ashleys_little_library
Lies She Told by Cate Holahan
2.0
I liked the writing in this book and I think the author has potential. This was a cool idea, I just had a lot of disappointment reading it:
- The book jacket told me pretty much everything that was going to happen. It was page 225 of 275 before the last bit of info of the book jacket happened in the book so there was no mystery or thriller aspect. Overall, just really slow pacing.
- Another reason for the slow pacing is the style of this work. Every other chapter is a chapter from the book our main character is writing. Both perspectives are written in first person, the characters are completely indistinguishable from one another, and the storylines are pretty similar. Talk about confusing. I can’t imagine listening to this on audiobook. You would have no idea what was going on!
- I felt weird about making closet homosexuality a plot twist. I dunno, just not into it. Also, repressed memories as a plot twist kind of seems like a cop out. I get the whole unreliable narrator thing but the reader never stands a chance of figuring anything out in that scenario.
- Christine (Chris) officially wins the worst friend ever award. If your best friend is completely emotionally unstable and repressing memories to cope with her trauma, why would you just straight up unload all her baggage on her when you’re already worried she’s at risk of harming herself??? Really? What was her purpose in this book at all? We see her for about 1 chapter, then suddenly Liza thinks she’s the murderer (and is like chill and kind of flattered by it?) and then suddenly she just decides to push Liza over the edge? What???
- There was no closure or resolution. Not even a seemingly purposefully ambiguous conclusion. For the beginning 200 pages to be so slow paced, it felt like the author rushed through the last 70 and then didn’t feel like wrapping up the story.
I only read this book because I got it for $3.50 at my local bookstore and it was chosen as a Book of the Month in 2017 so I assumed it’d be great but oh boy what a let down. Wouldn’t really recommend this one, but I’d be interested to read more recent work from this author.
- The book jacket told me pretty much everything that was going to happen. It was page 225 of 275 before the last bit of info of the book jacket happened in the book so there was no mystery or thriller aspect. Overall, just really slow pacing.
- Another reason for the slow pacing is the style of this work. Every other chapter is a chapter from the book our main character is writing. Both perspectives are written in first person, the characters are completely indistinguishable from one another, and the storylines are pretty similar. Talk about confusing. I can’t imagine listening to this on audiobook. You would have no idea what was going on!
- I felt weird about making closet homosexuality a plot twist. I dunno, just not into it. Also, repressed memories as a plot twist kind of seems like a cop out. I get the whole unreliable narrator thing but the reader never stands a chance of figuring anything out in that scenario.
- Christine (Chris) officially wins the worst friend ever award. If your best friend is completely emotionally unstable and repressing memories to cope with her trauma, why would you just straight up unload all her baggage on her when you’re already worried she’s at risk of harming herself??? Really? What was her purpose in this book at all? We see her for about 1 chapter, then suddenly Liza thinks she’s the murderer (and is like chill and kind of flattered by it?) and then suddenly she just decides to push Liza over the edge? What???
- There was no closure or resolution. Not even a seemingly purposefully ambiguous conclusion. For the beginning 200 pages to be so slow paced, it felt like the author rushed through the last 70 and then didn’t feel like wrapping up the story.
I only read this book because I got it for $3.50 at my local bookstore and it was chosen as a Book of the Month in 2017 so I assumed it’d be great but oh boy what a let down. Wouldn’t really recommend this one, but I’d be interested to read more recent work from this author.