vivisms_82 's review for:

Never Lie by Freida McFadden
3.5
dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
My first Freida M book. I get her appeal; quick to create mystery and suspense so you get hooked fast. She also has has terrific pacing to keep you turning the pages. High 5s to all that. I also thought it was a good ending;
(diabolical and unsettling) and does not pander to a happy ending where Luke is saved and the baddies get put in prison. Speaking of baddies, Patricia is one of the most terrifying characters I've read!
And that is why I gave this book such a high rating despite me finding it far from perfect. 
 
I don't mind an unreliable narrator either. HOWEVER, it doesn't work in this book due to it being problematic once you get to the twists/reveals. We as the reader have access to
Tricia's thoughts and her authentic self so making her an unreliable narrator does not make sense. Once all is revealed, she would have and did in fact know the house she is stranded in very well. Does. Not. Work.
 

You also have to suspend belief several times;
like the preposterous idea that any human, let alone an acclaimed psychiatrist and author would think that footage of her slashing a tyre was enough to decide that murder was the solution! I mean WTF?! Apparently this amazing psychiatrist also couldn't give a hoot about patient privacy (the tapes AND telling Patricia about Gail and how she died and about Gail's son inheriting $$$). Next problem are the tapes; Tricia listens to hours of tapes. So where was Ethan during all this time? The tapes would have umm... made noise. I get it's a big house but really? We are supposed to buy this? They had no cellphone, no TV, radio - nothing to occupy them so seriously how is this plausible??! Was he reading? Who knows? Because we don't! And lastly, the nonsense that Patricia was never caught after killing her fiance and two friends - were the cops fumbling baffoons? Text messages would have shown a motive for Tricia killing her fiance and her best friend Alexis and why she is the only one that "survived". And after her grandma died when she had obvious access and motive should have raised suspicion. Any cop would have looked into her and thought "hmm a girl that humiliated her in school died mysteriously, her fiance and 2 friends died in a massacre where only she survived and lastly her grandma dying and get monetary gains!!! Hard to swallow that cops would be this rubbish or not able to pull enough evidence - at least circumstantial evidence for goodness sake!!
    

Don't get me wrong, I finished the book and found it easy to get through but yeah i'd say it was at best a good cleansing palette type book. 
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