Lies You Never Told Me by Jennifer Donaldson



★★★

Somewhere in my blog's general description I wrote that I review most genres. What I don't review is romance. I can't stomach the codependent swamp that romance characters swim in and the choices they make to throw away life, limb, freedom and belongings all to pursue someone who I find questionable. It's worse when one of the characters (often the male) stalks and harasses the object of their affection and the object finds it endearing. Partway through, I throw the book down and stomp around my house in a sour mood for a day or two. "This is not love!" I shout in my head. So I don't review romance because I would trash all of them and that isn't fair to them or helpful to you. For the same reason, I exercise caution in taking on young adult titles. They often employ the same formula as romance and I find it unforgivable to feed drivel to the next generation.

I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway and am so pleased to tell you this book is not romantic drivel. Sure there is romance involved but that is not the focus. The focus is on the mystery, the suspense and the big twist ending advertised on the sleeve in which my advance reader copy was delivered. I enjoyed that twist and did not see the ending coming until a few pages before the disclosure. Good for Ms. Donaldson; she's crafted a terrific plot and the story moves along at a nice pace. She uses vocabulary a step or two above what I often see in YA novels and her use of Shakespeare as a plot point earns her extra credit. Additionally, one of her main characters is quite bookish and is admired for this, not mocked. I appreciate that she expects a bit more from her readers. I also enjoyed the imagery she uses and found that, too, advanced beyond what the typical YA novel uses. There's a lot of clever use of a character's hair as a curtain to hide behind and at one point "the line his fingertips etch across my cheek burns." You bet it does.

I had several problems with the book however. All of the characters are quite two dimensional. We see no development of their characters throughout the story, nor do we see depth or complexity. They're not stereotypes (with the exception of "Sasha" who has been written as a classic mean girl), but they're not fully human either. I prefer characters that are both likable and flawed. I also would have liked to see more time spent exploring the deterioration of one of the primary relationships in the book. I'm treading lightly here to avoid spoilers. Suffice it to say it would have been important to explore that period. What we get instead is a jump from point A to point Z and are left wondering how it all went so wrong. 

I believe this was Ms. Donaldson's first novel and I can easily see her honing her craft with successive books. Three stars. 

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