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Not interested in watching my video review, then look below for the major bullet points.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Thriller
Technical Reasons to Read it: Unreliable Narrator, Foreshadowing, Plot Twist
Hello friends!
In this blog, I’m reviewing Never Lie by Freida McFadden. As usual, the first half of the review will be spoiler-free, and more about my overall thoughts, whereas, for the second half, I’ll be doing a technical review. There will be spoilers there to help you strengthen your craft.
Never Lie has been popping up everywhere for me and the synopsis made it sound a little more horror than it was. Clearly, I didn’t do my research. I didn’t look closely at the genres. I accidentally read a thriller. *head bonk*
I also didn’t realize that Freida McFadden was originally a self-published author. I’m not sure if Never Lie was a part of that or not. Either way, I can immediately tell, but I will get into more of the particulars in the technical part of the review.
The book starts with a convent setup. Oh no… we’re stuck in this house because of a snowstorm. It didn’t feel too original, but I didn’t mind the setup, especially towards the end when things were explained.
Some great moments drew the reader away from the big reveal, keeping even myself from guessing the ending. I wasn’t trying to guess the ending this time around though, but in hindsight, I don’t believe I was even looking for that kind of ending.
The writing was bland. I saw a lot of self-published mistakes that I see a lot of writers fall into. This is why self-published authors still need to go through the editing process as their traditionally published counter parts do.
All of the twists were believable which sometimes isn’t the case with thrillers. I found the story to be more unique than most thrillers. If you’re a thriller lover, I would definitely give Never Lie a try. Comment below if you did guess the ending.
Now look away if you don’t want spoilers.
Because here we be entering the technical review.
Spoiler, the whole time I thought EJ was Ethan. A great example of what I meant when I said McFadden did a good job of getting the readers attention on the right while snicking in the real ending on the left.
A fantastic example of an unreliable narrator. This is the reason the ending was so successful. Even when Tricia was revealed as the killer, I wasn’t upset because of how well McFadden wrote Tricia.
The writing was my main reason for 3 stars. McFadden sentence choices and flow drew me out of the story. The descriptions were lacking. The suspense could have been built up better. I believe it’s a trap a lot of self-published authors fall into. I’ve seen countless examples in other books. They tend to put their books out there before being ready. Don’t be that person.
Happy Reading!
Love,
Kait