A review by eleana
Never Lie by Freida McFadden

adventurous dark lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I enjoyed reading this really for the most part, but then it didn't really come together at the end for me. I played along and followed the breadcrumbs for the big reveal and they just didn't lead to a satisfying ending.

We got all these hints about Ethan being untrustworthy and dodgy about his family, so finding out at the end in just a small chapter that his mom was a patient felt so anticlimatic, the hints we got felt so much more sinister and impactful and it was just "this character that had no impact on the story was murdered" aight...word... I'm also usually very onboard for an unreliable narrator but Trisha just didn't work. It should not have been narrated in first person because it just made most of the book just seem insignificant. I thought the hints Adrian dropped about Trisha and her fiance were cool to piece together, it would just have worked better if we weren't seeing this through Trisha's POV I think.

Doctor Adrian pissed me right off too, what a bizzare character. The stakes of the blackmail were just so low I could not respect the situation she got herself in. So what if her slashing some tyres went out to the public? oh no her third book wouldn't sell as well, she would be slightly less rich in her mansion, wah wah, woe is me. For someone so often described as smart I thought it was incredibly stupid to pin so much weight on EJ's blackmail. Honestly I think that's the main crux of this book for me. I wish any of the proofreaders or editors were just like "is this enough stakes", because it absolutely was not and it just weakened the entire narrative. Did enjoy this anyway overall, would still read more from Freida and hope for better plot in the next one.