THIS LIE WILL KILL YOU

One year ago, there was a party. At the party, someone died. Until now no one has told the truth about what happened.
Tonight, the five survivors arrive at an isolated mansion expecting to compete in a contest with a $50,000 prize.
Nobody questions the odd, rather exclusive invitation until it’s too late…
Five arrived, but not all can leave. Will the truth set them free? Or will their lies destroy them all?
(Quick side note for anyone who hasn’t read it but is thinking about it – this book includes a drinking game. Yay! One shot for every time you read the word ‘porcelain.’ Have fun, and don’t get too drunk!)
(I’m also including a small spoiler-y section way at the bottom, just because.)
Alright! lets get started.
I kind of got Point Horror vibes at the blurb (can we bring those back please??) And the title certainly does its job. Top marks for that. It’s touted as being “for fans of One Of Us Is Lying” (always a risky business, comparing books) but we do follow a similar set of stereotypical characters – there’s the smart girl, Juniper Torres, the pretty and popular girl, Ruby Valentine (love that name btw) the equally pretty and popular Parker Addison, dumb thug Bret Carmichael, and Gavin Moon, the loner. And it’s a good setup for whodunnit. Five kids stuck in an isolated mansion, all keeping secrets from each other. A danger lurking nearby, unreliable narrators…who can be trusted? Anything could happen!
But not a whole lot does. The book’s only 305 pages long and a fair bit of that is backstory, and over the top metaphors. Take this example from chapter eleven:
The scream hit her back. It was raw and jagged, like the knife a killer would use to carve out a doll’s mouth on a person.
Um…what?
But my personal favourite is this:
“There are people who board up their windows when they hear a storm is coming, and there are people who race out the front door.”
“And me?”
“You climb to the roof with a pitchfork in your hands. You summon the lightning. You chase the storm.”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong. I don’t chase the storm. I am the storm. I am a goddess in a land of pyramids and sand, and if I want, I can make all this blow away with the wind.”
Yeah. So there’s a bit of that. Not the most realistic dialogue, and it’s a metaphor that’s brought up a few times. But it wasn’t the only repetition I came across, like the amount of times jaws clench, and fingers curl into fists. Gavin’s heart drops to his knees on one page, and on another, it’s Ruby’s stomach. Space and time is referenced twice, and then of course we have the aforementioned use of porcelain, on almost every other page. A lot of the repeated phrasing is often mere pages apart so it’s still fresh in your mind, which makes it stands out more. It might be a thing few people would pick up on, but I like to focus on the story when I’m reading, not how its been written. (Also, BONUS POINTS if you spot the accidental spoiler in chapter thirty three. Honestly, you can’t miss it.)
(And you guys…THE CHAIR. Help me understand this. At one point in the book a character (not naming names), is held captive and tied to a chair. Said character escapes, but is still tied to the chair. They run away, while tied to a chair. Is that even possible? Because I had to stop reading for like ten minutes trying to picture it.)
Characters! I like Gavin, even though he didn’t get as much story time dedicated to him as the others. Parker I didn’t like, (I don’t think you’re really supposed to), but you can sort of understand his perspective? Juniper annoyed me no end. She’s overly obsessed with Ruby (which she acknowledges) but there’s not much else to her as a character. Same with Parker. They both have a singular interest in having Ruby back in their lives which drives their motivation in the book and shapes their character, but this just makes them come across a little one dimensional. I wish there was a bit more to them, but at least Bret and Ruby have more complex backstories. And even with weaker characters, books can still be a good read provided a strong storyline makes up for it. Unfortunately, I’m not sure This Lie Will Kill You managed that.
Like I said, not a lot happens beyond the backstory, and the plot itself is fairly basic (the action takes place during one evening.) It starts off well, but misses the mark on what could have been an interesting thriller if Pitcher had taken more advantage of the murder mystery setup. Instead, it felt as though the character’s actions were based on what would hurry the plot forward. Except for the writing choices that took me out of the story, This Lie Will Kill You didn’t particularly stand out to me. Easily forgettable, and a pale comparison of One Of Us Is Lying.

2.5/5

:SPOILERS::
Basic run down of the plot for anyone who hasn’t read it:
At a time when Ruby and Parker weren’t dating, a new boy (Shane) and his twin sister start at their school. She takes an instant liking to him. Parker is super jealous and wants to drive a wedge between them. Ruby and Shane grow closer, and Parker secretly films them in her room. He shares the video to everyone at their school, feeding the rumour that Shane had forced himself on Ruby.
Ruby plans to run away with Shane after a party. At the party, Parker gets Bret to beat Shane up, and have a drunken Gavin write slurs on Shane’s skin n red pen. They put Shane in Parker’s car so no one sees him covered in blood. When he comes too, Parker threatens him with a rock. Shane (who has also been heavily drinking), starts the car and drives away. A few minutes later a crash is heard and the car is on fire, killing Shane.
Fast forward a year, and Ruby has organised the fake murder mystery dinner along with Shane’s twin, inviting along those who had some involvement in Shane’s death, in order to find out who was responsible. They torment them, uncovering what really happened that night, and the truth of Parker’s involvement in Shane’s death is finally revealed.
*Gasp* You mean Ruby was behind it this whole time?? I had no idea! (sad no one). About halfway through the book it’s easy to see she had at least something to do with them all being at the house together, so I imagined everyone else who has read it would think the same. To be honest I thought maybe it was a little too obvious, and a twist would expose someone else as being the guilty party (but that didn’t happen).
Speaking of Gavin writing on Shane when he was drunk…how did Ruby know that he’d been written on in the first place? And how did she know exactly what was written, and where? And that it was with a red pen? Because this seems like a weirdly specific detail to miss, especially as it’s essentially Gavin’s only reason for being invited to the mystery dinner. (I’m also curious as to how she knew Bret wanted to take his own life after what he’d done to Shane. Even Parker was oblivious.)
I mentioned Parker came across as one dimensional in the book, but Pitcher could have turned it around by the end. It would have been a good opportunity to show him with some redeeming qualities, but you know what happens to him? He’s stuck in the house while it goes up in flames. There’s no final perspective from him, no opportunity to show his grief/desperation/remorse…nothing to remind the reader that there’s a helpless boy trapped in a building, fully conscious and about to die in a fire. His death is supposed to mirror Shane’s, and perhaps that’s why Pitcher silenced him at the end and made him so unlikable throughout the book, because if the reader starts to think of him as a ‘real boy,’ then Ruby becomes just as bad as he is, and she’s supposed to be the sympathetic character.