Reviews

Tell Me No Lies by Andrea Contos

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molly_dettmann's review

3.0

This was an okay mystery. Two sisters, total opposites. One’s POV is from the past right before her sister’s BF’s disappearance. The other is following the disappearance and trying to figure out what happened. Twisty ending but nothing that made up for what was a very okay journey to it. I did like the writing and would read other mysteries by this author.

elisabeth_li's review

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dark fast-paced

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

2.0

lawbooks600's review

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2.0

Trigger warnings: Murder

5/10, this was such a confusing crime/thriller novel and I couldn't even understand what was going on half of the time. It was a really bad decision by the author to make the book have multiple POVs set one month apart from each other and the only thing telling them apart was Nora's POV being written in past tense and Sophie's POV being written in present tense making this book non-linear. The only other book I remember that was as confusing as this is Genuine Fraud and it was very confusing because the story went backwards in time except the beginning and the end (it was also a non-linear book) and I didn't enjoy that one. Another book that I read which was called It Should Have Been You was slightly better but only because it was linear, unlike this book.

Both of the main characters were flat and annoying, and I couldn't feel anything for them since Nora was a liar and she was disrespectful to some people but that might come from all the people who picked on her, Sophie was an attention-seeking ballet dancer, she even admitted it! Garrett was so frustrating to read because he was in the background half of the time and I didn't even know whether he was with Nora or Sophie or not. To be fair Garrett was a good antagonist considering that he was part of a cheating ring with a bunch of other people including Adam, Jude, and the principal and he probably killed anyone who tried to find out about it but why would he let someone access his computer so easily when Nora found out the password on a sticky note? There was a plot point about Maddie's death, Sophie initially thought Maddie killed herself but it was later revealed that Adam and Garrett killed her just to figuratively throw her away like trash.

Sophie was an unreliable narrator since she said Garrett disappeared then she said Garrett sent her some texts and is on a trip on the East Coast of America, which was kind of vague and confusing and even more so when I found out that Nora killed Garrett but Nora messaged Sophie to clear up the confusion in the end. The ending was just the people who were in the cheating ring facing some academic consequences, and that was it? If you like a mysterious action-packed novel try Cop and Robber by Tristan Bancks instead of this.

eilac's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I liked this book but the ending was confusing and did not rap up the story as a whole. But, overall it was a good story and very mysterious.

neznel's review

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

For fans of Mindy McGinnis as it is a bit darker/grittier than a lot of other YA mysteries. I enjoyed that the main characters of this book weren’t wholly lovable - had their hearts in the right place, but made questionable decisions along the way. Would read again.