Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - This Lie Will Kill You

My cover of This Lie Will Kill You announces that its audience is ‘fans of One of Us Is Lying’, which I’ve neither seen nor read. Despite that, I picked it up at my local tube station because the premise sounded interesting. Reading a mystery by a completely untried author is a different experience than with other genres. Whenever a clue is sufficiently noticeable, you have to ask yourself whether this is going to be a red herring or if the author just isn’t very good.

Fortunately, Chelsea Pitcher proved not to be an author who’d drop clues too obviously and too early. Early indications did point in one particular direction, which was paid off around the midpoint of the book and, crucially, did not turn out to have given the ending away within five chapters. In addition to whatever similarities This Lie Will Kill You bears to One of Us Is Lying, there are also clearly inspirations from Agatha Christie. The structure is similar to And Then There Were None in that the reader is trying to work out which of the characters summoned to the location is involved in the plot, as well as the truth about all of their pasts.

Instead of (supposedly) rational adults, Chelsea Pitcher’s characters are teenagers, so of course the emotions are turned up to eleven, especially when romance is involved. Adult readers may not be convinced that a brief high school relationship amounts to soulmates meant to be together forever — but what matters is that it’s totally in character for Chelsea Pitcher’s teens to think so. The elegance and beauty of the prose helps to sell it without becoming distracting.

In some ways, the plot is similarly over-the-top and doesn’t entirely hold up to rational scrutiny, but then, high conceit mysteries don’t really play by the same rules as more realistic fare. It’s inherent in the subgenre that people are going to go to an awful lot more trouble than is really credible. As long as it holds together in universe, it’s still enjoyable reading. Where This Lie Will Kill You somewhat steps out of keeping is when it expects the reader to sympathise with the person putting this whole machination together. Given what ends up happening, the ending is just a little too light and hopeful to feel comfortable. (The ending would’ve hit harder if it had engaged with the darkness the way The Tulip Touch does.)

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hibsdontlie's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

2.0

not a fan of the narration style
first five chapters are kinda redundant; five character introductions but every character is a cliche and they all want to “get away from this town”? please.
this book lacks subtlety??? like oh a character named Ruby Valentine? gosh i wonder what color her hair is and oh it’s red because of course it is
parker being the one who recorded the video was the reveal i didn’t realize was a reveal lmao
you’re telling me the obsessive rich ex-boyfriend who has abusive tendencies is the one who was spreading the video of the girl who rejected him? no way dude /s
and mind you there are like 7 characters total like who else could it have possibly been
idk that whole part was written weird like why are any of the characters so shocked? are they all that naive or just dumb?
only thing that really saves this book is ruby and her father but that’s like one chapter all the way at the end
sometimes this book felt like it was written by a man idk
there were some parts when it would start to get good but then it just doesn’t v frustrating
rant over thanks for reading xx

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valyn_grebe's review against another edition

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dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.25

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jillkaarlela's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.25

CHECK TRIGGER WARNINGS!! Mysterious letters arrive inviting students to a murder mystery themed scholarship dinner for a $50k scholarship. It seems legit, until they arrive and things go horribly wrong. This dark, twisty ya mystery explores revenge and how loss can affect your psyche. So many twists and turns kept me listening for more. This book is very dark and could be quite triggering for many people, so I would seriously check the trigger warnings. However, this book was not very remarkable and did not stand out much from the other mysteries I have read before. I could predict many plot points. I don’t know if it’s just because I’ve read so many in this genre, but I am just not very affected by this book. I probably won’t remember it in a few weeks. It was fairly good, not bad by any means, it just didn’t stand out compared to the others I have read in this genre.

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maferencak's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I loved the story. It was compelling, mysterious, and even though I sensed very early on of who was the person behind it all, it still kept me on my toes until the end. The characters are very morally qustionable and my feelings toward some of them are, well, complicated. I love them, I understand them yet I don’t quite condone them. The only thing that kind of struck me as a tad too exaggerated were some of the relationships and the conversations. I know they had to be as strong for the story to make sense, but it didn’t stop me from cringing at some parts.

Seriously, the conversations between Shane and Ruby made me want to barf at times.

I did, however, like the way the book touched certain triggering topics.

But seriously, Ruby, get help. Like, professional one.

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brookeschroeder's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

In my opinion I think it had some poor LGBT representation and had some hurtful stereotypes. It asks had way to much backstory

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