this 👏 book 👏 is 👏 everything 👏 to 👏 me!!!!!!! lucy, her grandma, and savvy have easily become my newest favourite characters and i just… 😭 i’m angry that i’m incapable of articulating just how much i enjoyed this book, but just know that everyone should read it rn.

interesting plot that had me hooked from the start. sure it was kind of easy to guess the twist, personally I enjoy how we get to that point. 
the only thing for me was the writing, it felt more like a YA book at times such as scenes with her love interest. Nothing wrong with YA books but this is not marketed as such so sometimes I felt like I was reading YA romance due to the wordings and descriptions. 
I really did enjoyed the discussion on the ‘perfect victim’, very true and unfortunately always relevant. 

I'm always a bit sceptical of thrillers that get a blockbuster success. Oftentimes, they are very okay books, 'correctly' constructed, with an engaging if rarely original premise. They steer clear of controversial or heavy themes, and don't delve too deeply into character work and fraught emotion. The narrative is the goal, the suspense, the tension. There is nothing wrong with such books, with 'popcorn thrillers' and I enjoy them a lot.

But if Listen for the Lie started as one of those -- fun, entertaining, engaging but neutral, accessible, light in its darkness - it took a turn at the 39% mark. A turn for the best.

Let me first say that the first third of the book - the more classicly 'popcorny' portion - is masterfully executed, with a wonderfully catchy premise, a funny, engaging voice, and an intriguing main character. It includes some of my favourite thriller tropes: small town crimes, and podcasts.

After the 39% mark however, it starts to include strong feminist themes, not in a forceful, preachy way, but in an organic, extremely realistic way. It talks about strong female friendships and solidarity between women, but also about prejudices, what we conceive as 'good' women, how eager we are to protect men, yet how quick we are to judge women. I was surprised to find myself at times frustrated and at times very touched by the way these things were portrayed.

As for the conclusion, it is very satisfying and surprisingly heartwarming. 

my mom recommended me this as a fast thriller, which it is! the sense of humor was definitely not for me; the millennial sarcasm fell flat for me and the pop culture references just felt out of place. the mystery was interesting enough, though sometimes it was hard to take the narrator’s voice in her head seriously, especially at first. the ending was definitely a surprise! for me, this was mid overall but fun to read

The ending was a bit much for me but overall a good read. 

A really well written crime thriller! It pushes along quickly leaving you keen to find out what the truth is. It’s got some good themes too, and is very much a page turner. Read it!!