Lies Like Poison

Mess of a book.

This book was dark, and gritty, and had me hooked from the beginning. Between the lies and the secrets and the shady characters, I wasn’t sure who to believe or where to look. It was captivating and revealing in so many ways.

I think what I loved most about this book was how guilty each character seemed. Each of them did have secrets they were holding onto, things they had done wrong in their lives, but finding the big secret, who killed Evelyn, was the hard part. Pitcher masked the true story of the murder so well that it took the whole book to unveil all the facts and lies. I loved that it kept me guessing the whole book.

Also, part of what made this book so haunting and gritty was the difficult family situations the main characters were stuck in. Between abusive parents, absent parents, and no parents, most of the boxes were checked on “hard to live with parents”. As well, a lot of the families were so wrapped up in this murder case that it made it even harder for the characters to leave behind. Although I hated to see these characters suffer so much from their home lives, it was a good look into how rough some people have it, no matter their social or economic status.

This book also consisted of lots of flashbacks. These flashbacks made things more interesting in my opinion. The author would hint towards a lie or a secret being kept, but then we wouldn’t really learn about it until a few chapters later through a flashback. As well, these flashbacks ended up being the key to most problems. I loved that they served so many purposes and were weaved into the present storyline so well. 10/10 on that part.

My only negative to add is that I didn’t really like any of the characters. I know they were all supposed to look guilty as if any of them could have committed the crime, and that wasn’t my drawback. I just didn’t get attached to any of the characters. I love it when my favorite character ends up being the murderer or my favorite character’s love interest is. That’s part of the fun for me, but I didn’t really love any of these characters so I never really gained a favorite.

Overall, this was a solid murder-mystery that points out the importance of standing up for what you believe and making a family and future of your own.

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Review first posted on Girl Who Reads. A free copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

Three years ago, Belladonna, Poppy, and Lily planned a murder to protect their friend Raven. They never went through with it, but someone has now killed Raven’s stepmother just before his seventeenth birthday as they planned. Only, it was just Belladonna in her tea, so Bella is arrested. Her former friends are asked to prove her innocence, but a lot more is at stake when the truth is revealed.

Bella might be the one arrested, and Raven sent away for the prior three years after nearly killing himself, but Poppy and Lily are sure that Bella isn’t the killer. Poppy has become Jack, more comfortable in boys’ clothes even though she is still the pronoun of choice out of fear that others will hate Jack-as-a-boy. Jack’s mother is racist and homophobic, casually abandoning her children when the mood strikes her to stay with boyfriends. Lily was in a psychiatric facility because of her disordered eating, but even that isn’t what it looks like.

Everyone in the book lies for various reasons, and the relationships between the four friends/couples are strained in different directions as they mistrust each other and doubt their memories. They each have different variations on the truth, their perspectives warped by time and emotions. Just when I thought I knew who killed Evelyn, that theory got yanked out and upturned. The fragments of story leading up to the night Evelyn died finally coalesce at the end so that we know exactly what happened and why. It’s a devastating ending for Raven, but he still has hope for the future and a life free from the lies that had dogged him for years. I’m not sure it’ll be as rosy as he thinks it will be, but I’m rooting for them all.

The story of who killed Evelyn, seventeen-year-old Ravens evil stepmother, is told through the alternating voices and memories of Raven, his stepsister Lily, and his best friends Poppy and Bella. Three years earlier Poppy and Bella hated how Evelyn was mentally and emotionally torturing Raven. Bella, Poppy and Raven had role played fairy tales, with Bella taking the part of a witch so she wrote down a deadly brew for killing Evelyn that would involve poisoning her tea with petals from deadly belladonna and poppy plants. Lily insisted on being part of the plan, having her own reasons for wanting her mother dead. She suggested they also include lily petals and took Bellas original recipe for safekeeping. However nothing happened because they backed out of the plan at the last minute.

Three years later, Evelyn is dead. The police find belladonna petals in her tea and Bellas handwritten recipe. She is arrested and its up to the others to clear her name if they can get through their suspicions of each other. Is Bella lying about her innocence? Do Poppy and Lily have something to gain by leaving her in prison? Who killed Evelyn?

This whodunit had many layers, which were cleverly unpeeled one at a time. When the truth is finally revealed readers will be in shock.

Recommended for ages 14 and older.

I received a digital advance reading copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Bought this for my teen daughter, she loves this book

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