The Lies They Tell by Gillian French
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Author: Gillian French
Genre: YA
Publisher: Harper Teen
Year of Publication: 2018
Main Character: Pearl (3/5)—She’s a pretty headstrong female character, which is all but wasted when she can’t see the forest for the trees.
Secondary Characters: Bridges—he’s as harmless as a filthy rich boy gets, but he has virtually nothing to offer the world. Akil—annoying, cocky, and disrespectful, what you see is what you get with him. Tristan—lonely on the surface, but a cold, calculating utilitarian with a god complex underneath.
Pacing: French’s writing style was very tight with dialogue and interaction among characters, but had unnecessary tangents in the longer narrative sections.
Accuracy of Publisher’s Synopsis: They get the premise spot on, but then try to cast an air of mystery on the book that just isn’t there.
Resolution: I was so hoping for something grander to happen that I didn’t realize that we were in the big action scene until it was half over. It wasn’t an ending befitting a murder mystery, but the lack of drama definitely matched the rest of the plot. My disappointment stems just as much from the villain’s lackluster demise as from anything else.
The Good: There was a pretty diverse cast of characters who each had unique, if cliché, personalities. It was interesting to watch Pearl enter the world of the privileged and fumble her way through each outing with the boys. As someone who doesn’t know what it’s like to live in New England or in an area with such disparity and division between social classes, this book had much to offer from a sociological perspective.
Pearl’s drive to protect her father from the harsh whispers around town paired with her misguided quest to solve the mystery and clear his name made Pearl endearing and relatable. I may not agree with some of her actions, but I can say this: she was a breath of fresh air, a tether to normalcy during the scenes filled with the outlandish privileged crowd. They were living the high life, but Pearl, an excellent foil character, somehow managed to remain entirely separate from the happenings around her.
One thing Pearl offered as a heroine that not many other female main characters do is self-control. She had opportunities to dismantle others’ lives with the secrets she learned, but somehow this underprivileged plain Jane rose above the petty, pampered rich kids in maturity. And despite having an inordinate amount of romantic offers from unlikely suitors, she managed to not get too sidetracked by any of the guys’ impromptu advancements. Kudos to you, Ms. French, for creating a female character who represents the largely ignored ground between lustfulness and prudishness.
The Not So Good: Pearl’s friendship with the summer boys—Akil, Bridges, and Tristan—was just as spontaneous as it was enigmatic. Although Pearl plays off her involvement with the boys as purposeful, she’s also clearly reeled in by her desperation to be liked. She has not a single thing in common with the guys other than living in the same area for a few months each year, but she never thinks to ask why they want to hang out with her, and they don’t care to offer an explanation. My take is that it’s some twisted sort of pity friendship that they form with her out of boredom that’s packed with enough bribery and illegal activity to leverage against her if needed.
As far as the writing, some of the author’s narration felt rushed, like she skipped the connection between the character’s thoughts and their actions. One sentence, someone’s inside the house, thinking about going for a drive; the next, they’re describing the scenery as they travel down the street.
One of the most confusing things for me was how Reese was magically revealed as Pearl’s best friend less than a hundred pages from the end, despite them having almost no interaction before that. It’s hard to sympathize with Pearl’s sadness over damaging her friendship with a guy I assumed was only a random crush for the last two hundred pages. On a side note, I hated Indigo (Reese’s sometimes girlfriend) so much that I could taste it. If Reese wants to date someone like that, then he’s obviously not the guy Pearl thinks he is, so him not reciprocating her feelings is actually a blessing.
As for the great mystery of the novel, don’t let the author’s wild goose chases fool you—you’ll guess the real killer from the first few pages. The only reason I considered any other possibilities was because I really thought we’d moved past the obvious in this genre, but the author proved me wrong. And now for my burning question: how is it possible that the only person who doesn’t recognize Pearl as the daughter of the Garrison family’s groundskeeper is the only surviving member of the Garrison family? I’m still trying to figure that puzzle out.
Overall Impression: Despite a perfectly ripe setup for a mystery, this novel is a bland whodunnit wannabe made somehow less captivating by a posse of vapid, superficial rich boys and an unflatteringly desperate heroine.
Would I recommend it? It’s an entertaining enough read, but it’s not something I’d pick up again. This book was more of an exposé of societal norms in New England coastal towns than a mystery or a crime thriller.
The Word Snob 