A review by lexaaaaa
Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Popular girl Savvy is killed. Bff Lucy wakes up covered in her blood with no memories. True crime podcaster Ben wants to uncover what really happened that night in their small town.

If I’m being honest, I wasn’t sure about this one at first. It took a few chapters to have Lucy’s unreliable narrator trope / sarcastic personality grow on me, and not just read her as being indifferent. However, each chapter ends up revealing little nuggets of truth that really propel the story forward and help us understand the characters. I’m glad I stuck to it. I really liked the balance of real time chapters, flashbacks, and the podcast episodes. For the past 5 years, everyone in town has blamed Lucy… but the more you read, the more you realize that any of them could be guilty.

Pros 
- Podcast format was tied in nicely and easy to follow along
- Really intriguing fmc
- Grandma was fantastic

- The reveal that the voice in Lucy’s head was Savvy talking to her! This really helped tie things together imo.

Cons 
- Everyone is either a cheater, abuser, only believes someone if they are a man, or all of the above and it gets a bit tiring
 
- Lucy’s parents were annoying to no end even when finding out their reasonings
- The reveal of the killer happened very suddenly
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