A review by plumpaperbacks
Twisted Lies by Ana Huang

emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I love Stella and Christian. I love them so much. But I hate what Christian did; it’s creepy as hell. I hate the whole act three breakup, and honestly, most of the very end of the book. It felt like Ana was trying to do too much, trying to turn a romance into a thriller, and it ruined the vibe of what otherwise would’ve been a perfect book.

I mean that, too. I was having such a blast from the very first page, and up till all of that crap started, I was convinced I had finally found another Ana book I loved as much as King of Pride.

Way to burst that bubble, Harper.

But, I’ll admit, the scenes with the whole crew were highly entertaining, and all of the epilogue and bonus scene stuff was absolutely adorable. As is the fact that he calls her Butterfly. That got me in the feels every time, without fail. 💚

And so did the letters. Good grief. Those were a sucker punch to the gut.

I have to give Christian genuine kudos for respecting Stella’s boundaries after the breakup. He left her alone in every sense of the phrase, wrote about his feelings, even managed to turn the whole thing into a semi-romantic gesture in the end… I think that’s the most mature way a guy in this series has ever handled a relationship crisis.

(Yes, I’m looking at you, Alex.)

Also, on a less-than-impressed note, the fact that Stella was about to die and her ~big realization~ was that Christian would never drug or kidnap her like Julian did and so he’s The One… are you kidding me??? Girlie, that’s the absolute bare minimum in a relationship. The bar is so low, it’s underground. Sigh.

Final series ranking:

1. Twisted Lies (despite everything)
2. Twisted Love/Twisted Hate
3. Twisted Games

Representation:

• multiracial protagonist with anxiety (Japanese, Black & Puerto Rican)
• fat side character
• Chinese-American side characters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Stalking, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Kidnapping, Torture, Death, Murder, and Gun violence

Minor: Suicide

Sexual content is explicit but consensual. One protagonist has a stalker that sends her ominous notes and candid photos of herself, even breaks into her apartment at one point while she’s out. It’s the cause of at least one panic attack, that I can recall. Kidnapping and gun violence are also related to the stalker, contained specifically in the last quarter of the book, as are the rest of the tags in the moderate category. It’s also mentioned a few times that one protagonist’s mother previously took her life in a particularly violent way.