#allthebookreviews: The Truth Beneath The Lies by Amanda Searcy @delacortepress @aesearcy
The Truth Beneath The Liesby Amanda Searcy
Delacorte Press
🐠 AVAILABLE NOW 🐠
Thanks so much to Delacorte Press for these copies in return for our honest opinions. A debut YA thriller - come see what Jessica and I thought!
Fight or Flight.
All Kayla Asher wants to do is run. Run from the government housing complex she calls home. Run from her unstable mother. Run from a desperate job at No Limit Foods. Run to a better, cleaner, safer life. Every day is one day closer to leaving.
All Betsy Hopewell wants to do is survive. Survive the burner phone hidden under her bed. Survive her new rules. Survive a new school with new classmates. Survive being watched. Every minute grants her another moment of life.
But when fate brings Kayla and Betsy together, only one girl will live.
All Kayla Asher wants to do is run. Run from the government housing complex she calls home. Run from her unstable mother. Run from a desperate job at No Limit Foods. Run to a better, cleaner, safer life. Every day is one day closer to leaving.
All Betsy Hopewell wants to do is survive. Survive the burner phone hidden under her bed. Survive her new rules. Survive a new school with new classmates. Survive being watched. Every minute grants her another moment of life.
But when fate brings Kayla and Betsy together, only one girl will live.
My Thoughts:
YA thriller novels are always a nice surprise. Especially when they're debut novels like these that don't go straight into the stereotypes of teenagers. The author takes us through Kayla and Betsy's lives. The both appear to be outsiders in school and long for a "normal" life and to be accepted.
The beginning of the book drew me in - who is on the phone? Why is Betsy tied down to answering this phone because her life depends on it? Then enter Kayla.. randomly meeting a guy who ends up disrupting her seemingly boring life. As the chapters alternate between them, I wonder how they are going to come together... and this is what kept me turning the pages.
I had a few things figured out towards the last quarter of the book, but the overall reveal was definitely an unexpected twist that I did not see coming. I did struggle through the first parts of the book but it held my interest enough to want to figure out Kayla and Betsy's connection. The first parts were just slightly confusing and a little bit choppy to me. There were some irregularities strewn throughout the book and sometimes I wasn't sure which part was which as there were many similarities in both POVs. However, once the ending came it all fell together pretty nicely. I think you definitely need to have some patience with this book and appreciate the uniqueness in the way it is told.
A solid debut in a genre that's starting to really take off - which brings two genres I love together. YA and Thrillers. YES!
★★★
Jessica's Thoughts:
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect going into THE TRUTH BENEATH THE LIES by Amanda Searcy. Talk about a debut! With this being more categorized as a YA thriller I was expecting it to have those typical elements, but this doesn't read like a YA novel. So those that shy away from YA, this one will surprise you!
We follow the lives of two girls, Kayla and Betsy. While they lead different lives they have one common goal - to survive. Kayla is adjusting to her life now that her mother is sober. She only has one thing on her mind, and that's to save up and leave her life behind. Meanwhile, Betsy has a burner phone that haunts her. There was a lot of mystery that surrounded her portion of the story and who this mysterious person was on the other end of the burner phone.
How are these two connected? How do their lives intertwine? Their separate stories each had elements of suspense to them which kept me flipping the pages. Searcy does a fantastic job pulling the readers into the minds of these two girls. You feel the paranoia and deteriorating mental state of Betsy. I definitely enjoyed the mystery surrounding her story the best!
The book wasn't too predictable, which is great for a thriller (and anything that was slowly figured out wasn't until the very end). I don't want to give away too much more about the story and all the pieces that need to be put together. It makes for a fast read and you'll find yourself wanting to know what's truth and what's a lie. I feel that Searcy tied all the loose ends together well, without it being too well (if that makes sense).
Overall, if you want a well-paced thriller about two girls trying to survive, then this will be one to add to the TBR. Searcy lays out all the pieces for the reader to put together to try and figure out their connection and it kept pushing through!
We follow the lives of two girls, Kayla and Betsy. While they lead different lives they have one common goal - to survive. Kayla is adjusting to her life now that her mother is sober. She only has one thing on her mind, and that's to save up and leave her life behind. Meanwhile, Betsy has a burner phone that haunts her. There was a lot of mystery that surrounded her portion of the story and who this mysterious person was on the other end of the burner phone.
How are these two connected? How do their lives intertwine? Their separate stories each had elements of suspense to them which kept me flipping the pages. Searcy does a fantastic job pulling the readers into the minds of these two girls. You feel the paranoia and deteriorating mental state of Betsy. I definitely enjoyed the mystery surrounding her story the best!
The book wasn't too predictable, which is great for a thriller (and anything that was slowly figured out wasn't until the very end). I don't want to give away too much more about the story and all the pieces that need to be put together. It makes for a fast read and you'll find yourself wanting to know what's truth and what's a lie. I feel that Searcy tied all the loose ends together well, without it being too well (if that makes sense).
Overall, if you want a well-paced thriller about two girls trying to survive, then this will be one to add to the TBR. Searcy lays out all the pieces for the reader to put together to try and figure out their connection and it kept pushing through!
I give this 4.5/5 stars!
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