Taboo relationships and how being brought up in a messed up, abusive environment are at the heart of All the Beautiful Lies. Even just by reading the blurb, yes, the whole book is absolutely off-kilter. If graphic descriptions of incestuous relationships, manipulation, and abusive household are triggering for you, then maybe skip this book or tread with caution. 

While it gripped me from start to finished, I think there are some things that didn't work for me with this book. I did like how it showed how our earlier experiences really shape who we are and how we can potentially pass that down and/or project to our future relationships as well.

All the Beautiful Lies by Peter Swanson is a twisted, unsettling "whodunit" that leans heavily into the author's signature themes of obsession, deceit, morality, and family. While the synopsis suggests Harry is the main character, this is really Alice’s story—how she got here, the choices she made, and the destruction left in her wake.

The novel unfolds through multiple shifting perspectives and a dual timeline (THEN vs. NOW), which keeps the reader off balance in a way that works well for this kind of psychological suspense. That said, it won’t be for everyone. Swanson doesn’t shy away from taboo relationships—there are age-gap dynamics, step-parent/step-child intimate relationships, and a generally uncomfortable undercurrent of predatory behavior throughout. If you've read The Kind Worth Killing, there is definitely a Lily vibe to a few of the characters, which is bound to make some readers squirm. The body count is high (as expected in a Swanson novel), and the story gets pretty dark.

Despite all that, I never felt fully engrossed in this one the way I have with Swanson’s other books. Maybe it’s because this is one of his earlier works and doesn’t feel as tightly executed, or maybe I just didn’t connect with the characters. It’s not bad—there are some solid twists I didn’t see coming—but it didn’t quite hook me the way I wanted it to.

I actually stumbled upon this book in a used bookstore during a recent trip to Richmond (which, oddly enough, feels like the kind of place Harry’s dad, Bill, would have enjoyed). That discovery alone made reading it a bit more fun, but in the end, it’s a middle-of-the-road Swanson for me. Dark, unsettling, and very twisty—but not my favorite.

An impressive depiction of a truly traumatic series of grooming relationships. While I found none of the characters likable, I thought the portrait of sexual abuse was unflinching. Incest (even step- relationships) and grooming are far more prevalent in our society than we’d wish and, while I found this book hard to read at times, this attempt to detail the perversions of attachment that are ingrained in these relationships was a feat.