In the Blood

by Lisa Unger

Lana Granger lives a life of lies. She has told so many lies about where she comes from and who she is that the truth is like a cloudy nightmare she can't quite recall. About to graduate from college and with her trust fund almost tapped out, she takes a job babysitting a troubled boy named Luke. Expelled from schools all over the country, the manipulative young Luke is accustomed to controlling the people in his life. But, in Lana, he may have met his match. Or has Lana met hers? When Lana's closest friend, Beck, mysteriously disappears, Lana resumes her lying ways - to friends, to the police, to herself. The police have a lot of questions for Lana when the story about her whereabouts the night Beck disappeared doesn't jibe with eyewitness accounts. Lana will do anything to hide the truth, but it might not be enough to keep her ominous secrets buried: someone else knows about Lana's lies. And he's dying to tell.

• ISBN10: 1451691173
• ISBN13: 9781451691177
• Publish Date: 7 January 2014 (first published 2 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Lianne]

I received an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/01/17/review-in-the-blood/

In the Blood was a fascinating read. On the surface, it seems like a typical psychological thriller: a troubled child, a friend gone missing, secrets and lies all around with Lana at the centre of it all. But the further the story goes, the more the reader learns about what’s really going on with Luke, what Lana is really hiding, how there’s so much more to their respective stories than it initially seems.

The subjects of nature and nurture, parenting and children who have psychpath/sociopath tendencies and behaviour (for lack of a better term–not sure how they describe this these days) are really addressed here and play a major role in the story, especially given that Lana is studying abnormal child behaviour. There are no easy answers in this novel and the subjects really try on the characters’ patience and limits. These themes weave in nicely with the stories but they aren’t presented in a heavy-handed or information-overload manner but nonetheless touch on these issues nicely.

Overall In the Blood is quite the page turner and leaves the reader guessing at times as to how everything connects, what will happen next, etc. No doubt it was stressful at times to read, especially with all of the lies adding up and Lana trying to contain everything in, but the author does a wonderful job in keeping the reader’s interest.