Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Tell Me Lies

✩✩✩✩

I enjoyed the writing of this book. From the beginning I enjoyed it, but I did not enjoy the back and forth toxicity from Steven. Steven was very cringey, narcissistic, and had no consideration for women. It seems like he was taking his mother abandonment issues out on these woman. It took the beginning to the end of the book to help us understand from the first four pages that Steven and Lucy would not end up together; he didn’t deserve her and she needed to figure her mess out sooner.

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readingwithrylanne's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I'm pretty sure I'm just a sucker for drama because I was OBSESSED with this book. The beginning of it was rough, especially on audio, but I soon found myself unable to put it down and zoomed through most of the book in two sittings. Lucy was a pretty self-absorbed character for a lot of the book, but a part of me also . . . related to her? Especially when it came to figuring out what love is/is not; it's so easy to be blinded by who we think someone is rather than who they actually are. My heart tweaked at the end of the book, and I genuinely think we saw growth in Lucy, and I loved that! This is a super messy, dramatic, and toxic book, but I was addicted and can now watch the show on Hulu!

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stellavb's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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alissakorwek's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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ginareadspararom's review against another edition

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sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I usually don't leave reviews BUT this one...BABY! We have to talk about it. LOL.

In the beginning of reading it, I was really enjoying it. I had a strong feeling of "okay, where are we going with this". It seems like other than his green eyes, she wasn't even initially attracted to Stephen, and yet, she was able to fall for him really hard anyway.

made it so much worse that we had his perspective as well, because we could tell for the majority of the story he was not even thinking about her.

I was all set to give this book a solid 3 stars.

The only thing that changed it to 4 stars was the enormous growth that Lucy made in the last 2 chapters.

It seemed like that growth was going to come earlier in the story but NOPE, it did not last.

I loved that the book did touch on mental health and the struggles that Lucy had with it. I personally think that with her lack of empathy for other characters it was more than just the one mentioned that she should have been diagnosed with.

Overall, I hated everyone BUT the book was pretty good. It was watching a train wreck. Painful to keep watching/reading but I was unable to look away/put the book down.

Great job, Carola Lovering. I hated the book but that's what also made me love it.

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katymat18's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

Woof. I listened to this via audiobook, and partially because of the show on Hulu. I wanted to compare the two; and also I just wanted to know how the story ultimately unfolded. So came here for the spoilers and finished it because of the chaotic drama. This book is filled with bright neon RED flags. It’s really not a great book, and I did not find it enjoyable, but I am here for the messy people.

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kelly_twardziak's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Picked up this book because I've been enjoying the Hulu series. The book is poorly written, but the story showcased the ways a toxic person can wriggle his way into a young woman's life and completely derail things in a way that rung true

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lindsayerin's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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