Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Never Lie

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Never Lie by Freida McFadden

162 reviews

sharlapeggy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A good book. I enjoyed it, didn’t see the twist coming and I wanted to find out more. I liked the dual perspectives in this book too. That helps keep me interested! But I doubt I’d read it again and it’s one of her more forgettable ones compared to the others I’ve LOVED and rated 5 stars (ward D, the teacher, the housemaid and housemaids secret).

Content Warnings

vj_thompson's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

4.5/4.75. I see why everyone likes this book out of all the books Freda McFadden has written. The ending was flippin nuts. There was a lull in the middle once the pieces fell into place, I was sucked into the story.

Content Warnings

bringmybooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

~~Bring~~ | ✨Borrow✨ | Bypass

Review: Um. WHAT. That was ... wild? and ... weird? and ... addictive? but ... wow? Filled with tons of tension + lots of twists, only about half of which I'd guessed. This was my first Freida McFadden, and I know she's a bit of a divisive author but I'm not entirely sure why (maybe because they're really formulaic?). I don't necessarily know if I'd pick up another one, but there's a fair amount on Kindle Unlimited, and I imagine if I found myself in a bit of a book slump I wouldn't be adverse to picking one of these up hoping I couldn't put it down!

Overall Rating: ★★★★ / 4.38

Rating each element of the book out of 5★
Characters ★★★★
Atmosphere ★★★★
Writing ★★★
Plot ★★★★
Intrigue ★★★★★
Logic ★★★★
Enjoyment ★★★
Pacing ★★★★★
Dialogue ★★★

★ did not like / ★★ it was okay / ★★★ liked it / ★★★★ really liked it / ★★★★★ loved it

Content Warnings

caroras's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

So at the beginning of this book, I thought that I had already figured out the plot twist. I was really disappointed and thought “what a cheap fucking twist”, but I’m glad I kept on reading to discover the “real” twist.
I don’t think I could’ve ever seen the actual plot twist coming. It was a clever twist, and could have worked… It had big potential.
Unfortunately Freida did not make this work well.

The more I think about this book and the plot, the more I dislike it. At first when I finished the book I thought it was a 4.5⭐️ book.
But as my day went on, and I was thinking about it, more and more didn’t make any sense.
So at this point I’m giving it 2.75⭐️.
To be fair, I couldn’t really put this book down, but I was disappointed at the end.

There were quite a bit of inconsistencies, which I won’t mention due to spoilers.

90% of the inner dialogue makes the characters seem like they’re stupid.
I think Freida came up with the twist before she wrote the first half of the book, and just really tried to make it work.
Unfortunately it didn’t. Some events during the first half of the book make NO sense after we find out the twist.

I didn’t like any of the characters. I didn’t connect with any of them, and they felt very unrelatable.
I felt some of their decisions were really stupid and based on nothing.

Like any book, it had its moments. I don’t regret reading it, but I don’t think I’d recommend it to anyone.

Content Warnings

boba_n_books's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Frieda McFadden does it yet again in this twisty mystery/thriller.

Tricia and Ethan are newlyweds searching for their first home together. But their search comes to an abrupt halt when they get stuck at one of the houses due to a blizzard. The couple is locked inside for a couple days with nothing better to do than to explore the house--and the previous owner's things. The previous owner happened to be a well-known therapist named Adrienne who was supposedly killed by her boyfriend, and Tricia, remembering the story, decides to give the therapist's recorded sessions a listen to see if she can find any clues to help solve Adrienne's murder. The more tapes Tricia listens to, the more she becomes suspicious of some of Adrienne's patients. And the more desperate she is to leave the house that is giving her the creeps.

This book had a couple of twists--one I saw coming, and the other I didn't see coming. The only thing I'd change was the ending. Nothing really happened to any of the characters in the present, which made it somewhat dissatisfying. However, it was definitely a wild ride to get to the end, and McFadden's writing is so engaging that it kept me interested until the bitter end.

Content Warnings

ryendnae's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

crazybooklady89's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Very meh! Just like the other McFadden books I’ve read, the FMC made me so angry, but I am positive that was intentional and goes to show Freida’s talent. The twist at the end was pretty good but not surprising. I’m not sure what the book needed in order to give it more stars. I genuinely think I’m only doing 3.5 because of how much I disliked the FMC, Trisha. Adrienne and Ethan weren’t much better either.

Content Warnings