Seven Lies

By Elizabeth Kay

Published by Sphere 2020

What it’s about?

From Goodreads:

It all started with just one little lie. But we all know that it never ends there. Because, of course, one lie leads to another…

Growing up, Jane and Marnie shared everything. They knew the other’s deep-est secrets. They wouldn’t have had it any other way. But when Marnie falls in love, things begin to change.

Because Jane has a secret: she loathes Marnie’s wealthy, priggish husband. So when Marnie asks if she likes him, Jane tells her first lie. After all, even best friends keep some things to themselves. If she had been honest, then perhaps her best friend’s husband might still be alive today…

For, of course, it’s not the last lie. In fact, it’s only the beginning…

Seven Lies is Jane’s confession of the truth—her truth. Compelling, sophisticated, chilling, it’s a seductive, hypnotic page-turner about the tangled, toxic friendships between women, the dark underbelly of obsession and what we stand to lose in the name of love.

What I think:

Seven Lies is a story of friendship and obsession. What happens to girl friends as they grow up, grow apart and meet other people.

Jane is an interesting character. While she isn’t particularly likeable and at no point did I really warm to her, it is possible to feel sympathy for her. Shebis very much a product of her dysfunctional family and her relationships with her sister and mother are just as damaged as he obsessive friendship with Marnie.

Jane lies to Marnie – sometimes white lies – the kind that everyone tells to avoid conflict and upset – and sometimes big, life-changing lies. The book is structured around what Jane sees as seven lies she has told and the consequences of those lies.

Marnie and Jane are such opposites there were points when I found their continued friendship into adulthood unrealistic. Marnie seems much more outgoing and connected to the world than Jane so I did wonder what had kept them together for so long.

All of Jane’s relationships are very intense. Her short marriage excludes almost everyone else and yet she seems resentful when Marnie herself meets someone she wants to marry.

This is a hard book to review without giving any spoilers. All the way through the book Jane is narrating the story so everything is from her point of view. I did wonder who she is talking to and that in itself is one of the twists along the way.

Jane is a great, unreliable narrator. The reader can see how she could misinterpreting things that happen and people’s behaviour. But Jane sees herself as honest, impartial and a good judge of character.

I enjoyed this read. It’s a solid psychological thriller with some real points of tension, particularly towards the end.

Thank you to Tandem Collective for gifting me a copy as part of their readalong. The prompts we discussed were really interesting and it was really good to hear other people’s views on the characters.

See what Jane’s Seven Lies are by ordering the book from;

Waterstones: click here

Amazon.co.uk: click here