Reviews

The Lies You Told by Harriet Tyce

ellapope's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

beckimoody29's review

4.0

I bumped it up a star because there WAS suspense and I stayed up way too late to finish, but can't say I will seek out this author in the future. I read a lot of thrillers and I'm used to multiple plot threads. But in most books, these would all come together somehow. Her problems at the school would be tied to her past, or her estrangement with her husband, or her court case, or something. Nope, its all pretty straightforward. Maybe that is a new form of "anti thriller" but it got messy and after awhile I didn't really care about any of it. The past is supposedly a big deal, but we don't really get any details or explanation, so its just there. The court case is mildly interesting but none of the characters are sympathetic at all. I tried to like Sadie, but she seems to go out of her way to antagonize the other moms. I get that she didn't want to be there, but not enough information is given to understand why really. Everything is hints and suggestions --which is fine, but I have to at least believe the characters. I'm marking the spoiler button in case you assumed (like me) that everything would come together eventually.

schmidtytwoshoes's review

4.0

This was another good fun thriller, nothing earth shattering but it was good! The end was a fun and fresh surprise

lo_vana's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

2.5

riipaus's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

3.5

sineaderoo's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

I found this book utterly frustrating. While the plot is reasonably intriguing, the ways the characters behaved was completely ridiculous and unbelievable.

Like, Who goes to work when their daughter is missing?

I finished it as it was a book club pick, but I rolled my eyes a lot to get through it! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping and Child death

abbyaj's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

sparklyowl's review

dark mysterious 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

4.0

emmareads97's review

dark emotional sad medium-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? No

4.0

Chilling read. Written well with two story lines, and another with a different tense. It's actually quite unnerving that this could happen in real life. 

livres_de_bloss's review against another edition

2.0

I didn't care for this - it was too all over the place with unlikeable characters and a completely loopy and unrealistic series of events.

Sadie was what put me off this book from go. She was such a doormat! The way she whinged about how her husband treated her, to the way she lets Zora treat her, to the way she lets those insane mothers treat her... she's a total wet wipe and I didn't have an ounce of sympathy for her. In her dialogue, she's pretty much obsessed with Robin but her actions don't align with this at all (she's never around, sending her away with strangers, etc.)

Those vacuous mothers? Please tell me people don’t actually act like that. Yikes.

The husband plot was pretty insane. I am not a fan of the refusal-to-communicate-leads-to-misunderstanding trope as it is but this book took that way too far (beyond the realms of plausibility if I'm perfectly honest!)

The court case subplot had really nothing to do with the story overall and was just a distracting tangent.

I wasn't overly keen on Blood Orange (it was just "okay" for me) but this was one of the most rambling and chaotic (not in a good way) books I've read this year. Give it a miss.