Title: The Darkest Lie
Author: Pintup Dunn
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Contemporary
Pages: 287
Publisher: Kensington Publishing
Year Published: 2016
Format: Paperback Copy (Own It)
First Line: "It's time to view the body."
"The mother I knew would never do those things. But maybe I never knew her after all."
Clothes, jokes, coded messages... Cecilia Brooks and her mom shared everything. At least, CeCe thought they did. Six month ago, her mom killed herself after accusations of having sex with a student, and CeCe's been the subject of whispers and taunts ever since. Now, at the start of her high school senior year, between dealing with her grieving distracted father, and the social nightmare that has become her life, CeCe just wants to fly under the radar. Instead, she's volunteering at the school crisis hotline- the same place her mother worked.
As she counsels troubled strangers, CeCe's lingering suspicions about her mom's death resurface. With the help of Sam, a new student and newspaper intern, she starts to piece together fragmented clues that point to a twisted secret at the heart of her community. Soon, finding the truth isn't just a matter of restoring her mother's reputation, it's about saving lives- including CeCe's own..."
My Rating: 3/5
I would like to start with the fact that this book has triggers for sexual assault, assault, depression and suicide. Going into this I didn't realize that it was a thriller/mystery so when I started to read and those aspects came to light, it threw me off reading this book. That being said, I sped read the last half of this book due to the mystery and my interest in "who done it". I think that while this book was an interesting read, it wasn't all I wanted it to be and the mystery aspect (while entertaining) didn't turn out to be as shocking or surprising as I hoped. Overall this was just an OK read for me, but I would be interested to read more works by the author.
Thanks for reading,
Sidny
This novel wasn't at all what I expected. When I'd heard of this book it had been described as a contemporary, which is the romance aspects I suppose it is. But other than that it's a sexual thriller. I don't know if that description makes sense to anyone but me. But here we go. Throughout this novel, we follow CeCe whose mother committed suicide after a student came forward stating that she had sex with him. Even after the mystery aspect is put out there this book does a strange thing where it switches between a love triangle and how bullied CeCe is mixed in with the idea that this suicide was likely a murder. It also seemed when reading the description that CeCe and Tabitha (her mother) were quite close but we see little evidence of this throughout the book itself. Needless to say, this wasn't my favourite book although I look forward to reading some of the authors other works.
Characters:
CeCe: I think that while she was an interesting character to read from, she was very gullible at many plot points. As well as the fact that she seemed more interested half the time in boys than solving what happened to her mother. Ah to be a high school senior again...
Tabitha: For me, this was the most hard-hitting part of the book. It showed the things that her mother had kept from her daughter. Times of abuse, depression and the rumours that spread about her. I think that she was the most developed character throughout this story.
Sam: He was alright. He kinda had the whole Clark Kent thing going for him. Nerdy, but buff. I also appreciated that he wasn't willing to hurt everyone to get his story. I can admire that.
Liam: Ok this is sick, but I wish that his backstory had been expanded on so we could learn more about the way his father treated him related to Tabitha and how he came to the idea to one-up his father.
Tommy: Shows what a "small" rumour can actually do.
Memorable Moments:
Final Line: "Let them stare."
Thanks for reading,
Sidny
