shirleymak's review
5.0
this book. OHMY. mind beeeepppp. like holy cow. i could not tell the difference sometimes between the two twins & right now I'm still freaking confused. but i think i get it...hahaha BUT OMG THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOOD. it took me 2 1/2 hours to read, so whoop whoop. freaking gooooood boook! I really liked it. but. yeah.
julesgou's review
3.0
I've got to hand it to Warman. She knew how to throw some twists in there.
Definitely didn't expect some of the things that happened in this novel. I was completely thrown for one surprise and there were a couple others that I didn't see coming. Warman did a great job with the twists.
The plot was interesting. The novel is centred around the idea of twins and their connection. In "Beautiful Lies", you must ask yourself just how much twins are connected. Do you believe once one twin gets injured, the other one gets the exact same injury without actually doing the action (if that makes any sense at all)? Twins have always been a interesting phenomenon and Warman does a great job with tying in the supernatural. I also really liked that this novel focused on the relationship between Alice and Rachel. However, I don't like the fact that we don't get to know more about one of the twins. There are some things that they haven't shared with each other and I wish we got to know more about those things.
I liked Alice and Rachel as characters. I thought that it was interesting to see one twin through the other. I also liked the fact that we got one twin's side of the story. We got to see what was going on in her mind and what everyone else thought.
"Beautiful Lies" was a very interesting novel and I quite enjoyed reading it. There were some nice surprises and I really liked the fact that Warman got into the whole twin connection. I am very interested to see what Warman is going to write next!
Definitely didn't expect some of the things that happened in this novel. I was completely thrown for one surprise and there were a couple others that I didn't see coming. Warman did a great job with the twists.
The plot was interesting. The novel is centred around the idea of twins and their connection. In "Beautiful Lies", you must ask yourself just how much twins are connected. Do you believe once one twin gets injured, the other one gets the exact same injury without actually doing the action (if that makes any sense at all)? Twins have always been a interesting phenomenon and Warman does a great job with tying in the supernatural. I also really liked that this novel focused on the relationship between Alice and Rachel. However, I don't like the fact that we don't get to know more about one of the twins. There are some things that they haven't shared with each other and I wish we got to know more about those things.
I liked Alice and Rachel as characters. I thought that it was interesting to see one twin through the other. I also liked the fact that we got one twin's side of the story. We got to see what was going on in her mind and what everyone else thought.
"Beautiful Lies" was a very interesting novel and I quite enjoyed reading it. There were some nice surprises and I really liked the fact that Warman got into the whole twin connection. I am very interested to see what Warman is going to write next!
kpasteka's review
2.0
This book was okay but I found the plot to be slow in the middle and rushed at the end with a number of things not being explained or tied up. For the most part I just couldn't get into this book and I wouldn't recommend it to my friends.
*I receive a free copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway, all opinions are my own.*
*I receive a free copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway, all opinions are my own.*
alexalovesbooks's review
4.0
(Review originally posted on Alexa Loves Books)
The feeling that I got while reading BEAUTIFUL LIES was similar to how The Lovely Bones and The Butterfly Clues made me feel - a combination of fascinated and horrified, afraid of what would be revealed but unable to stop my curiosity. This combination of emotions definitely heightened my experience of the book, and I truly think that JESSICA WARMAN has created a book that I just could not set down.
Twins Rachel and Alice are the main characters of BEAUTIFUL LIES and while they're completely identical in appearance, their personalities are as different as night and day. Rachel's the good one, responsible, studious, behaved, while Alice is the epitome of a teen acting out, with the drinks and the drugs and the running away. In spite of that, the twins are extremely close and sensitive to each other's presence - so when one twin goes missing, the other knows straightaway that something's off.
I've always been fascinated by twins and a big believer in the connection that exists between them. This book explored that kind of connection, the special "twin-tuition", and that was part of the reason I was so fascinated by it. I was amazed to see how strong the connection between Alice and Rachel was; it blew my mind how incredibly physical it could get at times. It was mind-boggling, and I'm still not sure I completely believe it, but it was definitely an appealing aspect of the story.
The mystery that lingers - where has she gone? - left a sour taste in my mouth, but not in an off-putting way. Stories of when girls go missing scare me a little sometimes, and this was no exception. As I read, I was shaken and worried and panicking; but there was also a part of me so removed from the situation that I was actually shaking my head and thinking, "This is crazy!"
And true enough, the way it plays out and the things that occur on the way there were just extremely nuts. I went up and down so many times while reading this book, and though it was mentally exhausting, I found I couldn't stop. I was too curious about how things were going to end for the twins! And even the ending left me feeling shaken and unsettled.
With a mystery this irresistible, it is impossible to not want to stick around until the end of BEAUTIFUL LIES. Though I certainly felt confused and shaken by parts of the book, I feel that it was part of the author's intention in making the plot and the conclusion as mysterious as possible (though I will say I had an idea about a certain character that later proved to be true!). BEAUTIFUL LIES is a book that you won't want to put down until you find out what happens to Alice and Rachel -and that is the true beauty of this book that JESSICA WARMAN has written.
The feeling that I got while reading BEAUTIFUL LIES was similar to how The Lovely Bones and The Butterfly Clues made me feel - a combination of fascinated and horrified, afraid of what would be revealed but unable to stop my curiosity. This combination of emotions definitely heightened my experience of the book, and I truly think that JESSICA WARMAN has created a book that I just could not set down.
Twins Rachel and Alice are the main characters of BEAUTIFUL LIES and while they're completely identical in appearance, their personalities are as different as night and day. Rachel's the good one, responsible, studious, behaved, while Alice is the epitome of a teen acting out, with the drinks and the drugs and the running away. In spite of that, the twins are extremely close and sensitive to each other's presence - so when one twin goes missing, the other knows straightaway that something's off.
I've always been fascinated by twins and a big believer in the connection that exists between them. This book explored that kind of connection, the special "twin-tuition", and that was part of the reason I was so fascinated by it. I was amazed to see how strong the connection between Alice and Rachel was; it blew my mind how incredibly physical it could get at times. It was mind-boggling, and I'm still not sure I completely believe it, but it was definitely an appealing aspect of the story.
The mystery that lingers - where has she gone? - left a sour taste in my mouth, but not in an off-putting way. Stories of when girls go missing scare me a little sometimes, and this was no exception. As I read, I was shaken and worried and panicking; but there was also a part of me so removed from the situation that I was actually shaking my head and thinking, "This is crazy!"
And true enough, the way it plays out and the things that occur on the way there were just extremely nuts. I went up and down so many times while reading this book, and though it was mentally exhausting, I found I couldn't stop. I was too curious about how things were going to end for the twins! And even the ending left me feeling shaken and unsettled.
With a mystery this irresistible, it is impossible to not want to stick around until the end of BEAUTIFUL LIES. Though I certainly felt confused and shaken by parts of the book, I feel that it was part of the author's intention in making the plot and the conclusion as mysterious as possible (though I will say I had an idea about a certain character that later proved to be true!). BEAUTIFUL LIES is a book that you won't want to put down until you find out what happens to Alice and Rachel -and that is the true beauty of this book that JESSICA WARMAN has written.
burstnwithbooks's review
2.0
Maybe closer to 2.5 stars? Does it really matter?
Okay, let me preface this by saying- I understand what this book was TRYING to do. It was basically trying to be Identical by Ellen Hopkins (which is really graphic but other than that highly recommend), but without the unique writing style and with the random (unnecessary) confusion at the beginning and end. I appreciate an unreliable narrator, but even though she was unreliable, she wasn’t consistently unreliable. I saw most of the ending coming (although not the very last part, which makes NO SENSE), but there was just a lot more that I wanted from this book. I wanted the characters to be more fleshed out. I wanted to see more of the previous bond between the twins (don’t tell me they’re close, just show me). I wanted the random little plot lines to ACTUALLY be solved (what’s with the accident guy? Why did we need to know about the ex boyfriend?). I don’t mind red herrings, but there were a solid amount of plot lines that went absolutely nowhere for no reason, and I was hoping that they would tie in by the end, because it would have improved the story quite a bit. All in all, this is definitely not the worst unreliable narrator/twin story. It just needs more meat and more intrigue. I’ve seen it before and I was unimpressed.
I also just discovered that I own another book by this author! I had no idea, but I’ll give her another shot and see if she’s improved since this book.
Okay, let me preface this by saying- I understand what this book was TRYING to do. It was basically trying to be Identical by Ellen Hopkins (which is really graphic but other than that highly recommend), but without the unique writing style and with the random (unnecessary) confusion at the beginning and end. I appreciate an unreliable narrator, but even though she was unreliable, she wasn’t consistently unreliable. I saw most of the ending coming (although not the very last part, which makes NO SENSE), but there was just a lot more that I wanted from this book. I wanted the characters to be more fleshed out. I wanted to see more of the previous bond between the twins (don’t tell me they’re close, just show me). I wanted the random little plot lines to ACTUALLY be solved (what’s with the accident guy? Why did we need to know about the ex boyfriend?). I don’t mind red herrings, but there were a solid amount of plot lines that went absolutely nowhere for no reason, and I was hoping that they would tie in by the end, because it would have improved the story quite a bit. All in all, this is definitely not the worst unreliable narrator/twin story. It just needs more meat and more intrigue. I’ve seen it before and I was unimpressed.
I also just discovered that I own another book by this author! I had no idea, but I’ll give her another shot and see if she’s improved since this book.
adkwriter15's review
I'm sorry, I just can't do this. I don't even want to give it a rating, because this book was just not for me. I'm not a thriller girl and never have been, and this book was doing way too good of a job of making my stomach twist. The writing was a little off the wall and I didn't really get what was happening in some scenes either. Stopped about halfway through.
bmartino's review
3.0
I really liked the idea of the unreliable narrator, and all the pieces were there for this book, but there was just some kind of spark missing. It didn't help that I figured out who did it pretty much the first time the character was introduced, so I read the majority of the book waiting for one more twist that would blow my mind, which never came. The other aspects of what was going on were interesting but not particularly surprising. Maybe I read too much Stephen King?