Everything Is Lies

My rating: * * * *

Goodreads Description

No-one is who you think they are Sophia's parents lead quiet, unremarkable lives. At least that is what she's always believed. Everyone has secrets Until the day she arrives at her childhood home to find a house ringing with silence. Her mother is hanging from a tree. Her father is lying in a pool of his own blood, near to death. Especially those closest to you The police are convinced it is an attempted murder-suicide. But Sophia is sure that the woman who brought her up isn't a killer. As her father is too ill to talk it is up to Sophia to clear her mother's name. And to do this she needs to delve deep into her family's past - a past full of dark secrets she never suspected were there . . . What if your parents had been lying to you since the day you were born?

My Review

The first couple of chapters of this book made for riveting reading and I was hooked instantly. Wow, this one got off to a cracker. I immediately bonded with Sophia, and my heart went out to her. The terrible situation that she found herself in, the guilt, the pain, the "what if's", I could understand it all, and it made me feel immediately invested in the story.

When I started reading this book I was excited to discover that it was a dual time-frame narrative, as I really love those. This story moves between the present where Sophia discovers the death of her parents, and her mother's past and the secrets that it holds, which past has been recorded by her mother in a series of notebooks that her mother had planned on publishing.

For me personally, I loved the chapters set in the past, the chapters explaining the strange and ultimately abusive relationship between her mother and cult leader, Aaron. There were times throughout the story when I felt so irritated with Nina (Sophia's mother), where I just couldn't handle her meek and mild ways, her inability to stand up for herself and to see the truth of the situation for what it was. But ultimately this led to a story that gripped me, that made me feel something for the characters, and of course, that made me want to see how things would pan out.

As this story develops it becomes clear that Sophia's initial gut reaction to the death of her mother and the stabbing of her father - that this wasn't a murder-suicide - is correct. Her mother's strange and secretive past may very well have something to do with the death of her mother.

This is a great book that I really enjoyed. In a year where I'm battling slightly with my reading mojo, this book had me excited to get home every day and to open it up. I highly recommend this one.

My Rating: * * * *

Publication Date: March 2018 (South Africa)

Genre: Mystery / Thriller

Format: Trade Paperback

Source: Review copy received from the publisher. Many thanks to author, Helen Callaghan and Penguin Random House SA for my copy. It was my pleasure to read and review this title.