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A review by melaniesreads
All I Said Was True by Imran Mahmood
4.0
3.5 stars
All I Said Was True is a title that just screams liar to me and the saying “the lady doth protest too much, methinks” quickly sprang to mind. Especially when the narrator Layla was so unreliable or is she cleverly making you think just that? After all this book is as much about fate, free will and choices as it is a murder. However is free will just an illusion too like the possibility of Michael?
As a lawyer she knows that the police only have so long before they have to charge or release her and in a then and now narrative we have her police interview and the events leading up to the rooftop murder.
This cleverly woven tale had my mind caving in on itself with backstories, betrayals, the idea of more than one truth, predestination vs free will and it’s ingenuity of blurring her erratic behaviour with her unreliable narration. It makes you question everything and everyone.
Picking apart her story along with police you will wonder if Michael is a figment of her imagination or if there is more at play here. Is she just a pawn in a game of chess with no idea who is actually playing or is she the grand master?
While there were many times I did have to suspend disbelief and shake my head at Layla’s responses this had so much more going on than I was first led to believe. Some well placed twists and a clever plot will always suck me in but Layla was too much even for me sometimes and I love an unreliable.
All I Said Was True did however take me down a rabbit hole and had me internalising my own life and what led me here. Was it fate or my own choices?
All I Said Was True is a title that just screams liar to me and the saying “the lady doth protest too much, methinks” quickly sprang to mind. Especially when the narrator Layla was so unreliable or is she cleverly making you think just that? After all this book is as much about fate, free will and choices as it is a murder. However is free will just an illusion too like the possibility of Michael?
As a lawyer she knows that the police only have so long before they have to charge or release her and in a then and now narrative we have her police interview and the events leading up to the rooftop murder.
This cleverly woven tale had my mind caving in on itself with backstories, betrayals, the idea of more than one truth, predestination vs free will and it’s ingenuity of blurring her erratic behaviour with her unreliable narration. It makes you question everything and everyone.
Picking apart her story along with police you will wonder if Michael is a figment of her imagination or if there is more at play here. Is she just a pawn in a game of chess with no idea who is actually playing or is she the grand master?
While there were many times I did have to suspend disbelief and shake my head at Layla’s responses this had so much more going on than I was first led to believe. Some well placed twists and a clever plot will always suck me in but Layla was too much even for me sometimes and I love an unreliable.
All I Said Was True did however take me down a rabbit hole and had me internalising my own life and what led me here. Was it fate or my own choices?