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A review by toebean5
Seven Lies by Elizabeth Kay
3.0
Update: whoa, the book club really liked this! Two of them even voted it their favorite read of the year! O-O I was not expecting that. They all thought it was pretty creepy and they had so much to contribute about friendships, unreliable narrators, truth relativity, etc. I say it often, but I just never know with them.
I actually read this again, although I had planned to skim (and I admit, there were parts I glossed over). And... yeah, I think it's alright. I still found the sister angle to be kind of odd, but the discussion helped me come to better terms with that. I think that it has some really great writing about grief, that maybe I didn't appreciate the first time around.
---2020---I read this pretty quickly and over a week ago, so I may be forgetting some parts. I thought this was a really fascinating study of a codependent friendship, and aside from the psychopathic parts, I found myself able to relate to Jane (yes, it's troubling- I know). Are Jane and I the only ones who didn't know how to make or keep friends, so the ones we had we latched onto with everything we had? No? You're all normal? Okay.
As usual with unreliable narrators, I'm still not totally convinced of what was real and what wasn't. It took me all the way until the Christmas party to realize that Jane's sister was real- I was convinced she was dead. Which... was a weird choice for the author to make- I'm still not sure how I felt about her inclusion or what her eating disorder meant. And I'm not totally convinced that Jane wasn't romantically in love with Marnie- there were some really strong homoerotic undertones. But the friendship itself was very realistic- someone who loves to be worshiped, until she doesn't; and someone who happily steps into the role of worshiper, but doesn't realize they're expendable. It was interesting and held my attention- a nice change of pace.
I actually read this again, although I had planned to skim (and I admit, there were parts I glossed over). And... yeah, I think it's alright. I still found the sister angle to be kind of odd, but the discussion helped me come to better terms with that. I think that it has some really great writing about grief, that maybe I didn't appreciate the first time around.
---2020---I read this pretty quickly and over a week ago, so I may be forgetting some parts. I thought this was a really fascinating study of a codependent friendship, and aside from the psychopathic parts, I found myself able to relate to Jane (yes, it's troubling- I know). Are Jane and I the only ones who didn't know how to make or keep friends, so the ones we had we latched onto with everything we had? No? You're all normal? Okay.
As usual with unreliable narrators, I'm still not totally convinced of what was real and what wasn't. It took me all the way until the Christmas party to realize that Jane's sister was real- I was convinced she was dead. Which... was a weird choice for the author to make- I'm still not sure how I felt about her inclusion or what her eating disorder meant. And I'm not totally convinced that Jane wasn't romantically in love with Marnie- there were some really strong homoerotic undertones. But the friendship itself was very realistic- someone who loves to be worshiped, until she doesn't; and someone who happily steps into the role of worshiper, but doesn't realize they're expendable. It was interesting and held my attention- a nice change of pace.