Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

 

 I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Random House UK in exchange for an honest review.

Every so often a thriller comes along that gets a ton of hype. Listen for the Lie is one of those books and I actually think that this hype is in detriment to it.

Listen for the Lie is the story of Lucy, a woman who was accused of killing her best friend 10 years ago and could never be proven innocent or guilty. She returns to her hometown at the request of her grandmother, only to discover that a podcaster is making a series about the murder. Everyone in the town thinks Lucy did it and she has very few friends as a result. She is also prone to wild fantasies of constantly murdering those around her.

In a vacuum, this book is great. It has fantastic pacing and a nice steady plot which makes it very easy to read. The characters, the mystery, the general events are all excellent. But I have some issues and almost all of them stem from things I have read about this book. Do I wish I could ignore them? Absolutely. Does the modern marketing world make this impossible? Yes.

Firstly, I've seen this book advertised as having 'an epic twist' multiple times. This is just not true. It's not that kind of thriller and doesn't need to be. It has great pacing as I mentioned and a number of interesting surprises that crop up throughout the plot, but none of them are a gut punch 'this changes everything' twist. Expecting a twist disrupted the reading experience for me and almost put me on edge, and I worry this marketing will leave a lot of people disappointed.

Secondly, this book is allegedly a dark comedy. Humour in books is so hard to pin down. There are almost no books which make me laugh out loud and I am one of those weird people who will cry-laugh at TV shows when I'm entirely alone. I honestly didn't even know this book was supposed to be funny which I think is a bad sign. Does the humour come from the fantasy murder sequences? If so, these needed to be actually elaborate escapades and not one or two lines of repetitive dialogue.

I feel like I've ragged on this book quite a bit and I want to stress, I did really enjoy it. It's a great example of how to write a thriller without a huge twist, and books of this kind honestly deserve more credit. I loved the messaging around family, and the relationships between Lucy, her parents and her grandmother. There was some thought-provoking stuff around how you can let down those around you by thinking them capable of terrible things, and that was explored from several different angles.

Overall, this book is definitely worth picking up if you enjoy thrillers. Just try to go in without the expectations pushed on by the marketing or other readers, and there's a lot to enjoy here. Tintera is a great writer and I look forward to more thrillers from her

Overall Rating:

Try Not to Die on Slashtag by Jon Cohn

 I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Vincere Press  in exchange for an honest review.

I was a huge fan of Choose Your Own Adventure books as a child. I particularly loved the Goosebumps ones and I was super intrigued when I discovered a whole series focused mostly on taking horror properties and turning them into Choose Your Own Adventure books. The first one I read was a little bit of a disappointment but I am so glad I tried again.

Try Not to Die on Slashtag is the story of two people who get invited to playtest a horror reality TV show focused on outwitting an evil ghost. To do so, they will have to overcome horrific puzzles and deathtraps, like a mix of Saw and an escape room. This is already a great premise and I really enjoyed how it was integrated into the CYOA format. Admittedly it is a shame that there is only one right path, but the correct choice was obscured fairly well throughout most situations and I enjoyed not knowing whether I was making a good call or not. The Kindle version is also fantastically formatted, with quick links to take you directly to the correct choice you didn't make, after your grisly death of course.

I believe this book is based off a fiction book (which I now fully intend to pick up) but it absolutely did not matter in the slightest for knowing what was going on. I went in blind and I fully enjoyed the story and the characters. I didn't feel lost at any point and I was able to slip into the world seamlessly. Overall I would say the writing was strong, with good emotion, peril and plenty of fun horror content throughout. I already mentioned how the right choice wasn't always predictable, and that made it more rewarding when I did manage to make a good call.

Overall, this book is a ton of fun and I strongly recommend it for any fans of the CYOA genre, particularly if you want to recreate the Goosebumps feel with a more grownup novel. It was an absolute blast and I am definitely going to give others in the series a try

Overall Rating:

The Next Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Quercus Books in exchange for an honest review.

Look, I get that some books are a tough act to follow. Back when I originally read The Last Mrs. Parrish, I adored it. When I reread it before reading the sequel, I also loved it although I wasn't fully as gripped the second time. I was also of the opinion that there weren't many places for the story to go and unfortunately, that opinion was not challenged by reading the sequel.

The problem with The Next Mrs. Parrish is twofold. Firstly, in order to exist it must undo the ending of the first book and then heap more misery upon our main characters. This is not particularly fun to read about, nor was it something I wanted to see. Secondly, the first book was so good because it had a strong twist. There were other factors which also made it good but the twist was really the key, and you can't recreate that kind of magic twice. At least, it would be near impossible.

This book tells the continued story of Amber, Daphne and Jackson as they fight each other for custody of children most of them don't care about, abuse each other emotionally, sexually and physically, and generally go through bad stuff. Is it awful? No. But is it something I really wanted to read? Absolutely not.

This book is perhaps worth picking up if you are very curious but I honestly don't think it needs to exist. It doesn't add anything to the original (and in fact, it detracts from the ending quite substantially) but I can't say I hated it or that I regret reading it. I believe there is now a prequel and I think it needs to stop. It unfortunately feels a bit like a cash grab

Overall Rating:

An Improbable Season by Rosalyn Eves

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Macmillan Children's Books in exchange for an honest review.

I, like most of the world right now, am obsessed with Bridgerton, so when the opportunity to read a romance book set in a similar period came up, I was more than a little curious. An Improbable Season is the tale of three young women coming out to society in Regency London, some more eager to meet their husbands than other. We have Kalli, a starry-eyed romantic who is immediately forced to make a match when she is caught in scandal, her sister Thalia who dreams of being a poet (and has zero common sense) and finally Charis, my personal favourite being autistic-coded and obsessed with science. Each of the three girls has their own romance plotline which gets explored throughout the book.

As with any book with multiple plots/characters, people are bound to have favourites. In my case, I thought the Charis romance was by far the most interesting. Kalli's was fine but predictable, and Thalia's outright annoyed me. Minor spoilers here but Thalia gets immediately taken in by an obvious hot guy rake, and every decision she makes with regards to this is frustrating and predictable. There was little tension, just annoyance at how stupid she was being. Kalli fairs a little better, being predictable but enjoyable still. There is a little doubt as to which suitor she will end up with, which is also nice.

Charis's romance is good. There isn't much representation of someone like her in this kind of romance (at least, not to my admittedly-limited knowledge) and it was really refreshing. I loved that she bonded with her romantic partner through science, that her attitudes and behaviours weren't a problem for him and that she had a small breakdown anytime she thought she might have romantic feelings for someone. I adored her story and if the whole book was focused on her, it would be an easy 4-5 stars.

Overall, this book is definitely worth checking out if you're enjoying Bridgerton and want more of the same with a YA twist. The historical elements aren't too heavy so that might irritate readers of the genre, but it's still a lot of fun for the most part. Just be aware there are a few obvious tropes/cliches alongside the good stuff

Overall Rating:

.5