The Lie - A Review
To all who are reading this,
Today's post is a book I found on the Kindle. It captured my attention with the blurb, and the cover is also very mysterious. Add into the mix it was an author I had never heard of, this made the read all the more exciting.
A standalone novel, The Lie by C.L. Taylor was published in April 2015. An adult novel, it blends thriller and crime together, with a touch of romance. It was an intriguing read, worthy of a review.
There may be spoilers.
Blurb
This was no accident...
I know your name's not really Jane Hughes...
Jane Hughes has a loving partner, a job in an animal sanctuary and a tiny cottage in rural Wales. She's happier than she's ever been but her life is a lie. Jane Hughes does not really exist.
Five years earlier Jane and her then best friends went on holiday but what should have been the trip of a lifetime rapidly descended into a nightmare that claimed the lives of two of the women.
Jane has tried to put the past behind her but someone knows the truth about what happened. Someone who won't stop until they've destroyed Jane and everything she loves...
I bought this as a recommended read that was suggested by Amazon UK. Priced at 99p, I found it to be good value for a full length novel. With a promising blurb and an intriguing cover, it sounded like the perfect read. It had several five star reviews too, and boasted as a best seller. Amazon themselves say that it you like Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012) and Daughter by Jane Shemilt (2014), then you will like this.
Then again, I couldn't get to grips with Gone Girl, and I had never heard of Daughter, so that recommendation didn't help me in the slightest.
The cover is simplistic in terms of imagery. We see what we suppose is our heroine Jane Hughes on the front, captured by photography in a haze of sea spray and wind. She appears casually dressed, with no indication of her facial features - this is good, because the reader can infer that themselves. She looks lonely though, lost in her thoughts.
It also features the additional tagline: She trusted her friends with her life... This leaves the reader with all sorts of questions, the main one being: In what situation, would she need to trust her friends with her life?
The novel follows a woman introduced to us as Jane Hughes, 30, as she goes through her day to day life at a Welsh animal sanctuary. She receives a note in the post with the line: I know your name's not really Jane Hughes. And this is where the story begins to get interesting.
The dual narration is split between Jane's new life in Wales, with her loving boyfriend and his daughter, helping the new volunteer adjust to the ways of the animal sanctuary and how things are run, and also figuring out who would send or behave in such a way to her. And why would they do that?
The other half of the narration is when she is 25, and known as Emma. Emma is the youngest child in her family, and from a few chapters early on, we can establish that she feels she has nothing to give. Her siblings have careers whereas she works in a mundane office job as a personal assistant. She is the fourth friend in a group of girls made up of lesbian Al, aromatherapist Leanne, and crazy party-girl Daisy. When Al has her heart broken, the girls decide to help her recover from the pain and at Leanne's suggestion, they head to Nepal for a a girls holiday - something that will be a once in a lifetime experience.
Before long, little tiny cracks in the friendship begin to show, which I think isn't just a plot device. Take four headstrong young ladies together, fuel them with alcohol in a place where nobody knows them, then we can we what they truly think about each other. Still, they persevere with the holiday for the sake of Al, as they trek up the mountains to a retreat, run by chain roll up smoking, Isaac, and his friends. They have a new way of life, with meditation and yoga.
The novel is told from Jane/Emma's perspective the entire way through, so we can see that the holiday isn't all sunshine and rainbows. At the retreat, Emma begins to question the people around her, how her friends are now acting, and whether it would be better to pack her bags and trek back down the mountain again. And then, murder hits the group, and Emma decides to rethink her strategy, even with the weirdness of a cult growing around her.
I didn't feel like I knew the settings well at all, which made me lack connection. There was a lack of description of this wild and beautiful, yet harsh country, and I felt like there could have been a few more paragraphs here and there to establish and remind us of where we are. Once the girls hit the retreat, we imagine it to be placed on top of a mountainside, and there is a repetitive notion of going to bathe or shower or frolic under the waterfall.
And yet in Wales, we seem to establish that we are in a very small town, almost village like in appearance. There is a school, and the sanctuary, and houses, but we don't seem to know much else. The fact that Jane can bicycle to work everyday and it doesn't take her long to travel says how small the place is. At least, they have a local pub.
The problem with the novel that I found were the unfolding events that made up the plot, and the characterisation. Something that goes hand in hand.
The events that were happening five years ago, were a little far fetched. Yes, I understand that Isaac had his own cult mentality and why he behaves the way he does, but surely, the others understand that something is amiss. And they simply let these things happen. I'm referring here to scenes of a sexual nature.
Emma and Al seem to be the only ones of the group who have that spider sense that something isn't right, and whilst Al was a character I could connect to emotionally, she was the only one. At times though early on in the chapters, it seems that she is the token gay character from a group of friends, which I found a little saddening. She seems stereotypical - "butch" in appearance, and able to drink and smoke like a fish, even though she struggles with asthma.
Whilst each member of the group of girls has a tragic back story, it's all quite coincidental, and plays into Isaac's twisted hands a little too well. And I plain disliked several of the characters, including, Emma/Jane. In both persona's, she seems flat, and is the typical doormat. Even though she is a personal assistant, and later an assistant in the sanctuary, she lacks intelligence, and perhaps a little common sense. Even her emotions are lacking, and once more, it features a token characteristic - here we see white, middle class girl, with mental health problems that is never fully addressed.
Leanne and Daisy, I dislike in equal measure. They have nasty, spiteful personalities, and yet Emma seems to enjoy hanging around with them. If that were me, I would have walked away.
Yet with the other hand, this is what makes them slightly realistic.
The writing style is the redeeming feature in that it is a piece of darkly written prose. It did hook me, but I had solved the ending - something I don't normally do in a crime, thriller style novel. I would still read more of the author's books though, to see how they differ, and if I am still able to solve the mystery surrounding her characters.
You can find C.L. Taylor on the Internet in the following places:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Amazon
Website
Yours, with eternal ink,
Zoe
---
Currently reading: Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Today's post is a book I found on the Kindle. It captured my attention with the blurb, and the cover is also very mysterious. Add into the mix it was an author I had never heard of, this made the read all the more exciting.
A standalone novel, The Lie by C.L. Taylor was published in April 2015. An adult novel, it blends thriller and crime together, with a touch of romance. It was an intriguing read, worthy of a review.
There may be spoilers.
Blurb
This was no accident...I know your name's not really Jane Hughes...
Jane Hughes has a loving partner, a job in an animal sanctuary and a tiny cottage in rural Wales. She's happier than she's ever been but her life is a lie. Jane Hughes does not really exist.
Five years earlier Jane and her then best friends went on holiday but what should have been the trip of a lifetime rapidly descended into a nightmare that claimed the lives of two of the women.
Jane has tried to put the past behind her but someone knows the truth about what happened. Someone who won't stop until they've destroyed Jane and everything she loves...
I bought this as a recommended read that was suggested by Amazon UK. Priced at 99p, I found it to be good value for a full length novel. With a promising blurb and an intriguing cover, it sounded like the perfect read. It had several five star reviews too, and boasted as a best seller. Amazon themselves say that it you like Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012) and Daughter by Jane Shemilt (2014), then you will like this.
Then again, I couldn't get to grips with Gone Girl, and I had never heard of Daughter, so that recommendation didn't help me in the slightest.
The cover is simplistic in terms of imagery. We see what we suppose is our heroine Jane Hughes on the front, captured by photography in a haze of sea spray and wind. She appears casually dressed, with no indication of her facial features - this is good, because the reader can infer that themselves. She looks lonely though, lost in her thoughts.
It also features the additional tagline: She trusted her friends with her life... This leaves the reader with all sorts of questions, the main one being: In what situation, would she need to trust her friends with her life?
The novel follows a woman introduced to us as Jane Hughes, 30, as she goes through her day to day life at a Welsh animal sanctuary. She receives a note in the post with the line: I know your name's not really Jane Hughes. And this is where the story begins to get interesting.
The dual narration is split between Jane's new life in Wales, with her loving boyfriend and his daughter, helping the new volunteer adjust to the ways of the animal sanctuary and how things are run, and also figuring out who would send or behave in such a way to her. And why would they do that?
The other half of the narration is when she is 25, and known as Emma. Emma is the youngest child in her family, and from a few chapters early on, we can establish that she feels she has nothing to give. Her siblings have careers whereas she works in a mundane office job as a personal assistant. She is the fourth friend in a group of girls made up of lesbian Al, aromatherapist Leanne, and crazy party-girl Daisy. When Al has her heart broken, the girls decide to help her recover from the pain and at Leanne's suggestion, they head to Nepal for a a girls holiday - something that will be a once in a lifetime experience.
Before long, little tiny cracks in the friendship begin to show, which I think isn't just a plot device. Take four headstrong young ladies together, fuel them with alcohol in a place where nobody knows them, then we can we what they truly think about each other. Still, they persevere with the holiday for the sake of Al, as they trek up the mountains to a retreat, run by chain roll up smoking, Isaac, and his friends. They have a new way of life, with meditation and yoga.
The novel is told from Jane/Emma's perspective the entire way through, so we can see that the holiday isn't all sunshine and rainbows. At the retreat, Emma begins to question the people around her, how her friends are now acting, and whether it would be better to pack her bags and trek back down the mountain again. And then, murder hits the group, and Emma decides to rethink her strategy, even with the weirdness of a cult growing around her.
I didn't feel like I knew the settings well at all, which made me lack connection. There was a lack of description of this wild and beautiful, yet harsh country, and I felt like there could have been a few more paragraphs here and there to establish and remind us of where we are. Once the girls hit the retreat, we imagine it to be placed on top of a mountainside, and there is a repetitive notion of going to bathe or shower or frolic under the waterfall.
And yet in Wales, we seem to establish that we are in a very small town, almost village like in appearance. There is a school, and the sanctuary, and houses, but we don't seem to know much else. The fact that Jane can bicycle to work everyday and it doesn't take her long to travel says how small the place is. At least, they have a local pub.
The problem with the novel that I found were the unfolding events that made up the plot, and the characterisation. Something that goes hand in hand.
The events that were happening five years ago, were a little far fetched. Yes, I understand that Isaac had his own cult mentality and why he behaves the way he does, but surely, the others understand that something is amiss. And they simply let these things happen. I'm referring here to scenes of a sexual nature.
Emma and Al seem to be the only ones of the group who have that spider sense that something isn't right, and whilst Al was a character I could connect to emotionally, she was the only one. At times though early on in the chapters, it seems that she is the token gay character from a group of friends, which I found a little saddening. She seems stereotypical - "butch" in appearance, and able to drink and smoke like a fish, even though she struggles with asthma.
Whilst each member of the group of girls has a tragic back story, it's all quite coincidental, and plays into Isaac's twisted hands a little too well. And I plain disliked several of the characters, including, Emma/Jane. In both persona's, she seems flat, and is the typical doormat. Even though she is a personal assistant, and later an assistant in the sanctuary, she lacks intelligence, and perhaps a little common sense. Even her emotions are lacking, and once more, it features a token characteristic - here we see white, middle class girl, with mental health problems that is never fully addressed.
Leanne and Daisy, I dislike in equal measure. They have nasty, spiteful personalities, and yet Emma seems to enjoy hanging around with them. If that were me, I would have walked away.
Yet with the other hand, this is what makes them slightly realistic.
The writing style is the redeeming feature in that it is a piece of darkly written prose. It did hook me, but I had solved the ending - something I don't normally do in a crime, thriller style novel. I would still read more of the author's books though, to see how they differ, and if I am still able to solve the mystery surrounding her characters.
You can find C.L. Taylor on the Internet in the following places:
Amazon
Website
Yours, with eternal ink,
Zoe
---
Currently reading: Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
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