Camilla Way | THE LIES WE TOLD

Plot (via Goodreads):

When Clara's boyfriend, Luke, disappears, everyone believes that he's left her, but Clara thinks she knows the truth. Recent evidence suggests that Luke had a stalker, and Clara worries that he's been kidnapped. Then Luke's older sister, Emily, who vanished twenty years ago, suddenly reappears.

Emily wants to help Clara with her search for Luke, but she refuses to talk about what happened--even though it nearly destroyed her family when she vanished. And the deeper Clara digs into Luke's mysterious disappearance, the more convinced she is that the two incidents are connected.

Review:

The opening to this novel left me in a "WTF?!" moment and I knew I was going to be traveling down a road that would leave me shocked and breathless. I was not wrong. Call it intuition, call it fantastic writing, but The Lies We Told by Camilla Way is the beginning of a shining career from someone who will blow your mind and completely terrify you. Reader beware, this is the kind of book you start on a Friday night and let it steal your whole weekend. Also, double check your locks at night - I know I did.

I've said it a million times before on this blog and I'll say it again - I love alternating chapters between different time periods. This one features a period in the 1980s and one in 2017 and I was hooked to say the least. Reading between these two time periods and wondering how they connected was not only thrilling, but really helped with the pacing of this novel (not that it needed help to begin with). One thing I really liked about the present time storyline was that it featured a couple where this time the man goes missing. It was refreshing and rather interesting to watch this brave and headstrong female character get to be the hero and investigate her boyfriends disappearance rather than be a damsel in distress or a victim. With so many stories featuring missing or murdered women, it was nice to see the female character get to take on a different role and Camilla Way really knocked it out of the park with this one. As for the alternating chapters, I loved how they just felt different. Both time periods are rather suspenseful and eerie, but the one set in the past just felt more psychological and kind of featured the storyline I was hoping for when I read the novel Baby Teeth. It was grittier, dark, and illusive at the same time. Getting to enjoy both storylines was pleasurable and immersive. 

The characters in this novel are really spectacular. They not only carry two storylines beautifully, but you get a true feeling as to what their personalities are before you really take on too much plot wise, which was a true testament to Way's writing capabilities. As the novel goes further down not one, but two dark paths, I was utterly blown away with how they collided into present time. Without giving too much away, I want to say that I really found it remarkable how Way combined these stories without too much cliche and didn't have to rely on multiple unbelievable twists and turns. The revelations in this novel were not only dazzling, but truly enjoyable and believable. With an ending that was both haunting and extremely enjoyable, you can say that Camilla Way has found her knack for storytelling and I can guarantee she will be picking up new fans left and right with this twisted and divine novel.

Special thanks to Berkley Publishing for this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 5/5