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3.13 AVERAGE
3.13 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Read this for my YA lit class. I thought it was “fine.” Great mood, spooky setting, well paced, but it never really made my heart pound or affected me emotionally.
It’s about a group of theatre kids who are stranded in a spooky hotel during a huge blizzard. They meet another group of robotics kids and trying to make the best of being stranded by playing games and messing with the ouija board. Also at the hotel are the owner’s son, the custodian, and a few other guests. As the snow comes down, things inside the hotel get serious as people start turning up dead, the power goes out, and the kids have to race to figure out what is going on before they are all doomed.
It’s about a group of theatre kids who are stranded in a spooky hotel during a huge blizzard. They meet another group of robotics kids and trying to make the best of being stranded by playing games and messing with the ouija board. Also at the hotel are the owner’s son, the custodian, and a few other guests. As the snow comes down, things inside the hotel get serious as people start turning up dead, the power goes out, and the kids have to race to figure out what is going on before they are all doomed.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
You can read my full review on my blog, The Bookwyrm's Den, here.
Many thanks to Christy Ottaviano Books and TBR and Beyond Tours for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
Overall
There’s a special place in my heart for young adult mystery, especially mystery thrillers. And locked room mysteries? Definitely my thing. So of course I had to give this a try as soon as I read the blurb.
Two Truths and a Lie is a young adult suspenseful thriller that captures all the nostalgia and vibes of cheesy ’90s horror movies that we absolutely loved with none of the gore.
This was a pretty average book that hit all the tropes. It was a fun, entertaining read that was quick to get through and kept me entertained. However, the whodunnit was very easy to solve, and the plot relied on contrived scenarios that didn’t always make sense.
My Thoughts
- Two Truths and a Lie is your classic locked-room scenario set in a murder hotel where the past is coming back to haunt the present. Potentially literally. I mean, I feel like at this point in time, with how prevalent these stories are on the Internet, the whole “don’t mess with a Ouija board” should be a given, right? Yet, teens never listen, do they? No, of course not. They’re all, “Hey, wouldn’t it be fun to try to summon angry murder spirits and solve the cold case that happened here decades ago?” Well, not so much fun when people start dying, is it?
Hmm. Maybe I should back up. The basic premise of this book is that a group of people end up stranded in this out-of-the-way hotel due to a blizzard. The hotel just happens to have been the scene of a couple unsolved murders, which doesn’t seem like such a huge deal until people start showing up dead.
If you’re into locked-room mysteries, this was a pretty fun one. While not chock full of surprises on its own, Henry uses a lot of the popular mystery tropes to great effect.
- Henry manages to capture the old-school nostalgia of a ’90s horror movie with the atmosphere of her novel, and I loved it! I’m a sucker for nostalgic ’90s horror movies. You know the ones. They don’t always make sense, and they’re not always technically sound movies, but for some reason there’s nothing better than making some popcorn, turning off the lights, and having a horror movie bingefest.
Henry manages to capture the same tense atmosphere that I’ve come to know and love. Sure, some of the plot points sound like excuses (like we can’t call the police because the phones don’t work without power . . . because an old-school hotel doesn’t have a corded phone?!). Despite all that, though, Henry weaves a compelling enough story that readers may be persuaded to forgive some of these convenient excuses like I was because you get invested in the mystery.
- Since this book is a young adult with a mostly teen cast, it’ll maybe come as no surprise that there’s a lot of glorious banter and sarcasm in this book! If that’s not your thing . . . I mean, what are you even doing here, honestly? Are you lost? Can I call someone for you? I enjoyed hanging out with this group of teens. While I didn’t feel like I got to know them all that well, they did all have distinct personalities and interests, and I enjoyed the way they interacted. Obviously, I’m a fan of banter and sarcasm, so the fact that teens are 92.4439% sarcasm worked out great for me. It wasn’t even just the teens, either. These are some salty adults (and I lose that term loosely for some of them), which made the scenario all the more interesting!
Sticking Points
- As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the mystery is very easy to solve, and there are some plot points that don’t entirely make sense but are necessary for the plot. There’s not anything necessarily wrong with this. As I said, this is almost part of the charm of the book for me. This book felt like the cheesy movie version of the book world, and I absolutely love cheesy movies. The cheesier the better. Cheesy movie books are my guilty reading pleasure, and I eat them right up like popcorn.
However, I decided to add this because if you’re looking for a solid mystery with twists that’ll keep you guessing, this probably isn’t what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a story you can just sink your teeth into and enjoy in a single afternoon as a fun read, this will be more your style!
Many thanks to Christy Ottaviano Books and TBR and Beyond Tours for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
Overall
There’s a special place in my heart for young adult mystery, especially mystery thrillers. And locked room mysteries? Definitely my thing. So of course I had to give this a try as soon as I read the blurb.
Two Truths and a Lie is a young adult suspenseful thriller that captures all the nostalgia and vibes of cheesy ’90s horror movies that we absolutely loved with none of the gore.
This was a pretty average book that hit all the tropes. It was a fun, entertaining read that was quick to get through and kept me entertained. However, the whodunnit was very easy to solve, and the plot relied on contrived scenarios that didn’t always make sense.
My Thoughts
- Two Truths and a Lie is your classic locked-room scenario set in a murder hotel where the past is coming back to haunt the present. Potentially literally. I mean, I feel like at this point in time, with how prevalent these stories are on the Internet, the whole “don’t mess with a Ouija board” should be a given, right? Yet, teens never listen, do they? No, of course not. They’re all, “Hey, wouldn’t it be fun to try to summon angry murder spirits and solve the cold case that happened here decades ago?” Well, not so much fun when people start dying, is it?
Hmm. Maybe I should back up. The basic premise of this book is that a group of people end up stranded in this out-of-the-way hotel due to a blizzard. The hotel just happens to have been the scene of a couple unsolved murders, which doesn’t seem like such a huge deal until people start showing up dead.
If you’re into locked-room mysteries, this was a pretty fun one. While not chock full of surprises on its own, Henry uses a lot of the popular mystery tropes to great effect.
- Henry manages to capture the old-school nostalgia of a ’90s horror movie with the atmosphere of her novel, and I loved it! I’m a sucker for nostalgic ’90s horror movies. You know the ones. They don’t always make sense, and they’re not always technically sound movies, but for some reason there’s nothing better than making some popcorn, turning off the lights, and having a horror movie bingefest.
Henry manages to capture the same tense atmosphere that I’ve come to know and love. Sure, some of the plot points sound like excuses (like we can’t call the police because the phones don’t work without power . . . because an old-school hotel doesn’t have a corded phone?!). Despite all that, though, Henry weaves a compelling enough story that readers may be persuaded to forgive some of these convenient excuses like I was because you get invested in the mystery.
- Since this book is a young adult with a mostly teen cast, it’ll maybe come as no surprise that there’s a lot of glorious banter and sarcasm in this book! If that’s not your thing . . . I mean, what are you even doing here, honestly? Are you lost? Can I call someone for you? I enjoyed hanging out with this group of teens. While I didn’t feel like I got to know them all that well, they did all have distinct personalities and interests, and I enjoyed the way they interacted. Obviously, I’m a fan of banter and sarcasm, so the fact that teens are 92.4439% sarcasm worked out great for me. It wasn’t even just the teens, either. These are some salty adults (and I lose that term loosely for some of them), which made the scenario all the more interesting!
Sticking Points
- As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the mystery is very easy to solve, and there are some plot points that don’t entirely make sense but are necessary for the plot. There’s not anything necessarily wrong with this. As I said, this is almost part of the charm of the book for me. This book felt like the cheesy movie version of the book world, and I absolutely love cheesy movies. The cheesier the better. Cheesy movie books are my guilty reading pleasure, and I eat them right up like popcorn.
However, I decided to add this because if you’re looking for a solid mystery with twists that’ll keep you guessing, this probably isn’t what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a story you can just sink your teeth into and enjoy in a single afternoon as a fun read, this will be more your style!
DNF. I wanted to like this one. The premise was fun. But I didn't like the characters, especially the MC and I didn't care for the writing. So, I'm DNFing this one.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I received this ARC from the publisher and NetGalley in an exchange for my honest review.
In this YA thriller, we follow a group of theater teens who are on their way to a competition, when they run into a heavy snowstorm, and need to find shelter. They stumble upon a creepy, old motel, and have no choice but to spend the night.
Here they meet another group of stranded teens who were on their way to a robotics competition, along with a few other drivers, seeking shelter from the storm.
The two teen groups decide to hang out together in the common room when one of the students, Knox, decides to play the game Two Truths and a Lie.
The teens are having a lot of funny playing this risky little game, until our main character, Nell, draws a paper with some terrifying information on it.
1. I like to watch people die.
2. I don't like mushrooms.
3. I lost count of how many people I've killed.
To make matters worse, they learn about the horrifying history of the motel where two people were murdered in 1996.
One by one, people at the motel start disappearing, and they begin to wonder, has the murderer returned?
--
This was actually a very fun read for me. I really enjoy the "whodunnit" books, and I didn't want to put this down because I really needed to know who actually did it. I had my suspicions, but April Henry did such a good job of making EVERYONE suspicious, that you really weren't sure until the end. This was a very fast paced book, I had no issues with finishing this in a day, which is the fastest I've ever read a book. The only negative thing I would say about this, is it reads more like a middle school thriller than a YA thriller. But other than that, it had me guessing the whole time, so kudos to April Henry!
In this YA thriller, we follow a group of theater teens who are on their way to a competition, when they run into a heavy snowstorm, and need to find shelter. They stumble upon a creepy, old motel, and have no choice but to spend the night.
Here they meet another group of stranded teens who were on their way to a robotics competition, along with a few other drivers, seeking shelter from the storm.
The two teen groups decide to hang out together in the common room when one of the students, Knox, decides to play the game Two Truths and a Lie.
The teens are having a lot of funny playing this risky little game, until our main character, Nell, draws a paper with some terrifying information on it.
1. I like to watch people die.
2. I don't like mushrooms.
3. I lost count of how many people I've killed.
To make matters worse, they learn about the horrifying history of the motel where two people were murdered in 1996.
One by one, people at the motel start disappearing, and they begin to wonder, has the murderer returned?
--
This was actually a very fun read for me. I really enjoy the "whodunnit" books, and I didn't want to put this down because I really needed to know who actually did it. I had my suspicions, but April Henry did such a good job of making EVERYONE suspicious, that you really weren't sure until the end. This was a very fast paced book, I had no issues with finishing this in a day, which is the fastest I've ever read a book. The only negative thing I would say about this, is it reads more like a middle school thriller than a YA thriller. But other than that, it had me guessing the whole time, so kudos to April Henry!
