Lies You Never Told Me

by Jennifer Donaldson

[Quirky Cat]

3 1/2 Stars

I received a copy of Lies You Never Told Me through BookishFirst in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Lies You Never Told Me is the story about two teenagers, Gabe and Elyse, and how the secrets in their lives affect and change everything they touch. This is Jennifer Donaldson’s debut novel, and I have to say she’s done a pretty good job with it. It’s an interesting and quick read that’ll keep you hooked until the end.



Lies You Never Told Me is an interesting novel; it switches back and forth between Gabe and Elyse’s perspectives, and for the longest time they both seem like they have nothing in common. Slowly more and more is revealed about both characters, allowing us to get a fuller picture of what is actually going on. And that’s where things get crazy.
I imagine that most readers will come back saying they liked one perspective more than the other; at least that’s the case for me. While I found Elyse interesting, up until the end it was Gabe’s chapters I was reading this book for. It was interesting seeing his life affected by a liar like his ex/girlfriend and just how far down the rabbit hole he had gotten. Typically when I’ve read novels focused on liars and how it’ll ruin lies it’s almost always from the liar’s perspective, so I found this to be an incredibly refreshing point of view.
Ironically my focus on Gabe’s chapters caused me to miss some of the subtlety in Elyse’s story. I wonder if I hadn’t been so wrapped up with his woes, would I have figured out what was going on sooner? I did end up sorting it all out before the big reveal, but just barely. I’ll be curious to see how that goes for other readers.
Donaldson does a pretty decent job of representing two totally different forms of toxic relationships. She shows us that they can be subtle and pervasive, or obvious and overwhelming. There are endless varities to the way toxic relationships can form and grow, and these are only two examples, but you can tell that they’re well thought out. It’s sometimes difficult to discuss relationships like this, but it’s very important we’re aware that this can happen. That the victim can feel guilty for things they didn’t do, or that they won’t be believed by others when their partner goes after them. I’m grateful for Donaldson’s novel giving an opening for this discussion, and I hope people run with it.
Like I said earlier, this was an incredibly fast read. I think I ended up reading the whole thing in just one sitting, which was ideal for me in this case. I don’t think I would have wanted to put it down and put off the ending any longer than I did.
There were a few points in the story where I found my immersion breaking; where the belief I was required to give for the sake of the story was just too much. I’m sure this is the sort of writing that’ll be smoothed out with time, as Jennifer Donaldson gets more experience writing I’d be willing to bet that we’ll see less of that.
On the whole I’m pretty happy with this read. Did I feel that some points were larger than life? Sure. But I also felt that there were some very intense and important conversations started here, and that easily balances out that complaint. I’ll be curious to see what Donaldson comes out with next.


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