Lies Like Poison

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The man pulled up to the station, then climbed out of the car. Belle counted heartbeats as he strode to her door. Five. Ten. Fifteen. She managed to get to seventeen, the exact number of years she’d been on this earth, when the door swung open and the man reached for her. Why would there be other flowers? he asked, guiding her out of the darkness. Belladonna killed her. Unreliable narrators still need to be reliable in how or why they are unreliable. Are they delusional and have a penchant for exaggeration? Are they extremely naive and have a limited way of understanding events that unfold around them? Are they psychologically impaired in some way--psychopaths who are detached from reality? Are they simply just liars by character?

How did Mrs. Holloway die?” she asked softly. Every word that came out of her mouth, she analyzed. Did she sound innocent just then? Did she sound guilty? She wasn’t guilty, she swore to herself over and over again, but it was hard to believe that with cuffs around her wrists. It was harder to believe when the police station came into view.

Table of Contents

After years in foster care, Belladonna was adopted by a rich man, Edwin, whose obsession in keeping her safe and away from the dangers of the world resulted in bolting her windows closes and keeping her away from everything, transforming her castle into a gilded cage

The narrators in this book were the most unreliable annoying people ever. Now I love a good unreliable narrator but man these characters were lying to not only the reader or each other but to themselves! They were just causing drama where drama wasn’t even there, like if they didn’t lie to themselves bam problem done away. Who you gonna call? the man asked, in this jovial tone that made her think he was going to start humming the Ghostbusters theme song. Everything about this was absurd. Belle wanted to tell herself it was a dream, because none of this could be happening, except… the rest of the night had been incredibly vivid. Those lips, trailing across her skin. Those hands, warm and familiar. Bright eyes. Mischievous smile. They’d hardly touched over the past few years, and yet everything was exactly the way it had been the first time they’d held hands. The story follows 4 childhood friends: Poppy, Lily, Belladonna and Raven. But while they all felt like they were the best of friends, it turns out there were secrets upon secrets that only carried over into their present day lives. And when Raven's stepmother ends up dead, a long ago murder pact shines an unfortunate light on the group. This was lying on the table in Evelyn’s kitchen, the detective said, his voice quiet now. Tentative. He was trying to coax a confession out of her, but the confession wasn’t about her. There are two names on it: Poppy and Belladonna. But I don’t think you’re responsi—A gripping thriller from WATERSTONES CHILDREN'S BOOK PRIZE-SHORTLISTED Tracy Darnton, author of THE TRUTH ABOUT LIES. This book took the absent parent trope to a new level. If any of the parents in this book were just the tiniest bit responsible or even, I dunno, mature, so many things would never have taken place. Taking a shaky breath, she hurried to the first floor. Opened the front door. Blinked up at the officer and said, Hello? Is everything okay?

Lexile ® HL720L The Lexile reading levels have been certified by the Lexile developer, MetaMetrics®

The pacing was a little slower than I was anticipating and the plot was confusing for the first half of the book. I think this is what I struggled with the most and why I rated it a 3.5 star. I’m not sure if it had to do with the multiple POV’s or the writing style. This is one of those books where all the characters are in love with each other, some platonically, some romantically, some were platonic and now they’re romantic, some were romantic and now they’re platonic... which ya know, I’m sure that’s representative of plenty of friend groups, but it doesn’t always connect with me. Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day. I did not like this book very much. The book wasn’t interesting enough and I didn’t like the plot or the characters. I just didn’t care after a few chapters in, suddenly I wasn’t as curious to find out who killed her.. There wasn’t a lot of depth to the characters and it felt messy. There was just a lot missing for me to enjoy this book.