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A review by maartabarrales
The Truth Lies Here by Lindsey Klingele
Did not finish book.
I must admit that this just hasn’t been the best reading year for me so far. Many of my recent reads have turned out to be disappointing to put it kindly. Sadly, The Truth Lies Here was not the exception.
The story follows Penny, she needs a big story to include in her college application. So, she heads back to her hometown to interview people about a tragic event that happened many years ago. Around the time of her arrival, a series of mysterious murders start to happen. And the circumstances on which they occur suggests that there might be more to them than what meets the eye. On top of that, her dad goes missing, and nobody seems to care enough to go looking for him. So, when the police fail to provide a believable explanation, she decides to take matters into her own hands.
I was so excited when I learned I had been approved for an ARC. I’m a big fan of The X Files (which is constantly mentioned in the book), and I hadn't read any mysteries recently. In fact, I hadn't read any mysteries in a pretty long while.
I didn't have particularly high expectation for this book though, but I was still hoping to enjoy it. Which only makes my experience bleaker.
Penny was just… Bland, to say the least. Her entire personality is based on how disappointed she is of her dad. He sells stories for a living, the paranormal kind, about bigfoot and the yeti and aliens. When she was a kid she had the impression that he really believed in all these things. But after an accident she learnt that he only pursues them because they pay his bills. It was kind of the end of the world as she knew it. And everything that happened to her after it seems to derive from it.
She wants to be a journalist to uncover the truth, it’s her passion, supposedly, and yet there doesn't seem to be anything else that she likes about it, but the fact that it's the opposite of what her dad does.
She's obsessed with this idea of “The Truth” that she has. Where the world is always black or white, and people are either good and honest or bad and liars. She's naive like that. And her being so very sorry for all these poor people trapped in a small town, who will never the see the lights of the big city, was beyond annoying.
And in case her disdain for her dad's lifestyle wasn't obvious the first time around, she also manages to find a way to comment on it every ten minutes.
I grew tired of her quickly. Which sucks, because you're stuck with her for the entire book. I think it could have been bearable if at least one of the other characters were interesting. But they were more of the same, which takes me to the thing that really killed this book for me.
There is (drum rolls, please) a Love Triangle! Yes, with capital letters, because it's exactly the kind of love triangle that should be trademarked by YA authors. That is, the one between a girl and two guys, one of which is a best friend, skinny and geeky, opposite to the other, who is the crush, perfect in every way.
Please know that the mystery element was not nearly enough to make up for Penny figuring out of the two guys liked her. While also letting you know that all these strange things that are happening are indeed, very strange. It made the entire book feel juvenile, and took the seriousness away from the main issue, which were the murders.
I went through seventy percent of the book or so until I realized I didn't care enough to keep reading. I wouldn't recommend it, as you can tell. There must be better YA mystery books out there.
I’d like to thank the publisher and Edelweiss for providing this ARC.
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The story follows Penny, she needs a big story to include in her college application. So, she heads back to her hometown to interview people about a tragic event that happened many years ago. Around the time of her arrival, a series of mysterious murders start to happen. And the circumstances on which they occur suggests that there might be more to them than what meets the eye. On top of that, her dad goes missing, and nobody seems to care enough to go looking for him. So, when the police fail to provide a believable explanation, she decides to take matters into her own hands.
I was so excited when I learned I had been approved for an ARC. I’m a big fan of The X Files (which is constantly mentioned in the book), and I hadn't read any mysteries recently. In fact, I hadn't read any mysteries in a pretty long while.
I didn't have particularly high expectation for this book though, but I was still hoping to enjoy it. Which only makes my experience bleaker.
Penny was just… Bland, to say the least. Her entire personality is based on how disappointed she is of her dad. He sells stories for a living, the paranormal kind, about bigfoot and the yeti and aliens. When she was a kid she had the impression that he really believed in all these things. But after an accident she learnt that he only pursues them because they pay his bills. It was kind of the end of the world as she knew it. And everything that happened to her after it seems to derive from it.
She wants to be a journalist to uncover the truth, it’s her passion, supposedly, and yet there doesn't seem to be anything else that she likes about it, but the fact that it's the opposite of what her dad does.
She's obsessed with this idea of “The Truth” that she has. Where the world is always black or white, and people are either good and honest or bad and liars. She's naive like that. And her being so very sorry for all these poor people trapped in a small town, who will never the see the lights of the big city, was beyond annoying.
And in case her disdain for her dad's lifestyle wasn't obvious the first time around, she also manages to find a way to comment on it every ten minutes.
I grew tired of her quickly. Which sucks, because you're stuck with her for the entire book. I think it could have been bearable if at least one of the other characters were interesting. But they were more of the same, which takes me to the thing that really killed this book for me.
There is (drum rolls, please) a Love Triangle! Yes, with capital letters, because it's exactly the kind of love triangle that should be trademarked by YA authors. That is, the one between a girl and two guys, one of which is a best friend, skinny and geeky, opposite to the other, who is the crush, perfect in every way.
Please know that the mystery element was not nearly enough to make up for Penny figuring out of the two guys liked her. While also letting you know that all these strange things that are happening are indeed, very strange. It made the entire book feel juvenile, and took the seriousness away from the main issue, which were the murders.
I went through seventy percent of the book or so until I realized I didn't care enough to keep reading. I wouldn't recommend it, as you can tell. There must be better YA mystery books out there.
I’d like to thank the publisher and Edelweiss for providing this ARC.
INSTAGRAM | BLOG | PINTEREST | GOODREADS