Book Review #64: The Lie by C. L. Taylor

Hey Guys x

I've owned this book for ages, but when it came to forming my reading list, I pushed it down because I wanted to get some of the tougher, less exciting reads out of the way. Essentially, I assumed that this would be a book that I'd love, and didn't want to read it too quickly.

It's the second C. L. Taylor book I've read, the first of which (The Accident) was amazing, and you can read my review of it HERE.

Jane Hughes is a woman who, on the outside, has the perfect life. She has a great boyfriend with a daughter who adores her, a wonderful job, and she's happier than she's ever been. But Jane's life, and her name, are a lie that trace back to the worst moments of her life. When someone makes it clear that they know her secret, how far will she go to protect it? And what exactly happened that made Jane give up her past life?

I have problems with this book, and it's really frustrating.

In terms of plot, this book was amazing, there's no doubt about that. But in terms of the way it was written, I really didn't like it.

Let's start with the good - plot. Even writing the description above excited me because this is such an exciting, intriguing story. As soon as you know that she's living a lie, you want to find out everything about her as quickly as possible.

Taylor has a way of drip feeding the reader information that works really well in a novel like this. She gives you a tiny piece of information, and then changes the perspective and rips you out of that mindset. It might feel a bit jarring to some people, but I really enjoyed that aspect of it, because the two perspectives that the story was told from were both interesting.

But what's also great about the plot is that you really don't know anything until you read that last page and close the book. There are twists at every turn, and the things that you think you know, you really don't. Looking at the entire plot, it kind of seems like it shouldn't work, but it really does.

However, as mentioned, I also had some problems with it.

My main problem, is a practical problem. I have no idea why, but the book read like it hadn't been edited. There were so many grammatical errors that some of my enjoyment was taken when I had to jolt myself out of the plot to make some of the sentences make sense. A mistake here or there is completely fine, but there were so many that it really did make me wonder if I received a proof copy by mistake, or if something went wrong in the editing process.

In addition to this, the story felt unfinished. Not that the loose ends weren't tied up (because they were), but when I finished reading it, it felt like there should have been more to go, or that I was missing something. I actually felt like I hadn't finished reading it, even though I had. It prevented me from starting a new book because I couldn't let go of the possibility that I wasn't finished with this one yet.

There was also a lot of description. This doesn't necessarily sound like a bad thing, but the thing is, there is one story-line that is the whole point of the book, and the part that the readers actually want to know about. So it's really jarring to be pulled out of a really intense conversation in one chapter, for the next chapter to have a two page long description of the exact tasks that the main character gets up to at work.

What was good?
As I already said, the plot was amazing. I can imagine Taylor having a 'eureka' moment when she finalised the plot details, because there were some parts of the story that were so intense that I literally could not put it down.

What was bad?
I hated all of the characters. Okay, that's an exaggeration. I hated 80% of the characters, tolerated 15% and only really liked one or two. It's hard to root for anyone because you don't really care about how they end up.

Overall
The amazing plot was almost worth the bad grammar and other problems that I had with the book. If grammar and some of the other things I mentioned are a problem for you, you might not want to read this one. But if you're here for a great plot despite everything else, then I recommend it!

2/5 Stars!

Lou