From the author of bestselling THIS LIE WILL KILL YOU comes another unputdownable thriller about a group of friends who will do anything to protect each other – even murder . . . Perfect for fans of RIVERDALE, ONE OF US IS LYING and A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER. The recipe for the perfect murder…Poppy, Lily, and Belladonna would do anything to protect their best friend, Raven. So when they … Lily, and Belladonna would do anything to protect their best friend, Raven. So when they discovered he was suffering abuse at the hands of his stepmother, they came up with a lethal plan to stop her from ever hurting Raven again. But someone got cold feet, the plot faded to a secret of the past, and the group fell apart.
Three years later, on the eve of Raven’s seventeenth birthday, his stepmother turns up dead and Belladonna is carted off to jail.
Desperate to prove her innocence, Belle reaches out to her estranged friends, but who can she trust?
Praise for This Lie Will Kill You:
‘The story . . . was dark and full of conflict and passion and so many twists. No one is who they seem and everything was captivating’ NetGalley user
‘Definitely keeps you on your toes’ NetGalley user
‘This book kept me hooked from the start’ NetGalley user
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Lies Like Poison is a compelling young adult mystery with great LGBTQ representation, bringing old friends together to form their own family.
Family
The story’s core is about finding and making one’s own family with their fails to love them. Belladonna, Raven, Lily, and Jack (Poppy) all come from complicated homes.
Each of them has parents who abuse them in various ways. From emotional to mental abuse, these kids come from fractured homes.
It speaks volumes about society today how people are starting to form their own families with friends because their “blood” family is toxic. This story encourages readers to do that, to make your own family with people who love you, with people who know you, inside and out, and respect you and love you down to your core.
I loved this message because you always hear “or they are family” as an excuse to condone toxic behavior, and that is not okay. No one should ever let themselves be brought down emotionally, mentally, or physically by “family” because of their relation to them. Nope, not okay, so to see these four friends bind themselves together to form their own family is incredibly empowering.
Storytelling
As far as the story goes, it was very engaging. Lily’s mother, Raven’s stepmother, is murdered, belladonna petals in her tea. Of course, Belladonna is the immediate suspect, arrested, the recipe for the murder they wrote as children to get rid of the woman torturing Raven found on the kitchen table.
These four estranged friends are brought back together, forcing them to face their past and come to terms with their identities. None of them trust one another since they have not seen one another for years, but they come together, in the end, to solve the murder and save Belladonna from prison.
Also separated into three parts, each perspective drives the story forward. The reader is learning more about who these kids are through their perspectives, experiences, and mindset. It also keeps the reader guessing. Any of them could be a suspect for murder. They all had a motive as Lily’s mother was a truly horrible and delusional person, so to see each part as “The Truth According to…” gives the story some range and depth to keep the ending unpredictable and unsuspecting.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Lies Like Poison is a compelling young adult mystery. It has emotional depth to make the characters engaging, and the pacing allows the plot to remain compelling and unpredictable, offering readers an engaging read.
Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Belladonna, Poppy and Lily have always protected their best friend, Raven. When Raven was being bullied at school by some boys in their class, Belladonna stepped in and put a stop to it. When they found out Raven was being abused by his stepmother, they planned to murder her to protect him but ultimately decide against it. When Raven’s stepmother is murdered, the group of friends must uncover the truth of who really killed Raven’s stepmother, and why.
Things I liked about this book: I was excited to see that this book had four queer main characters and featured diversity in almost every aspect of each character. I loved that family dynamics were diverse and each person in the story came from a different background. The plot had a lot of potential and I really liked the mystery of trying to figure out who the murderer(s) were.
Things I did not like: The first half of the book was AWFULLY slow. I also was pretty disappointed with the character development, with the exception of Poppy / Jack, however that even fell a little flat for me since you were told right away he was transgender but it wasn’t acknowledged out loud until the final chapter. I also found Raven’s character to be severely contradictory and did not like his character at all. When Belladonna originally met Raven, as a child, Raven was being bullied by a group of kids in their class and Belladonna was his protector. But during their initial meeting, Belladonna decides to test Raven’s character to see if he’s a decent person and asks his opinion on Sleeping Beauty, to which Raven responds to the effect that the Disney Princesses should save themselves and shouldn’t rely on someone else to save them. I found this response incredibly frustrating since Raven is constantly being saved by Belladonna, Poppy and Lily.
Overall, the book was not terrible, and the plot had great potential, but I likely would not read this again. Keep in mind, I received an advanced readers copy so there may be changes prior to the book’s release date.