This Lie Will Kill You

Product Information

Last One to Die is suspenseful from the very beginning, because Niamh knows that she’s in danger. She just doesn’t know what/who the danger is. Trusting people is hard and so is making new friends again. And as the book goes on, the intensity increases and the stakes get higher. And so it went. Juniper raced to the mailbox on Monday morning, then Tuesday. By Wednesday, her confidence had started to ebb. Why was she so convinced she’d be getting an acceptance letter? Yes, her grades were mostly stellar, but last winter, after that party up in the hills . . . It’s so hard to write a spoiler-free review for this book, because I want to share everything I felt while reading it. Niamh was a character I really liked, and she was very easy to relate to as well. I went in for a YA thriller and I got a supernatural horror that kept me on my toes. Her mother didn’t answer, so Juniper snatched up the invitation. She made no attempt to be sly about it. One second the paper was fluttering in her mother’s fingers, and then it wasn’t. One second the breath was filling Juniper’s lungs, and then it was gone.

The concept of a group of teens being invited to a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater type event was a great idea but the execution was just not there. Everyone keeps comparing this to the infamous I Know What You Did Last Summer movie but this read more like a really bad generic C-list movie rip off of. Stamping a supernatural creepy modern twist on the Point Horrors of old and giving a fresh modern voice to the genre, Last One To Die is a proper suspenseful scare fest that had me hiding under the covers on more than one occasion!

But the ending was still good. We find out why x is doing all this. Why they have done it for so long. And yes, I don’t approve, but I cannot help to feel a bit of the heartstrings being tugged. I also loved that we get a bit after all the scary bits. See how Niamh is doing and what is next for her. I also loved that surprise bit about Geoff and who his partner was. Oh my! Couple goals indeed. XD Like I said, it's a very familiar theme, but if it's done well, then it's done well, and I will always try to give credit where it's due. Chelsea Pitcher deserves that credit. Due to your achievements in ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE, you are cordially invited to a murder mystery dinner! Prepare to be challenged as you, and five of your esteemed classmates, fight to unravel the mystery and apprehend a killer! But here's where the problem is; in some moments, I'm not entirely sure if he's meant to be as terrifying as he is - is this Parker being really dark and obsessive, or is this more melodrama, like with everyone else? That line is blurred, because no-one acts naturally. Don't get me wrong, Parker is absolutely meant to be someone we abhor, someone who should be in jail, but when other people are making ridiculous declarations, as well, I couldn't always tell is Parker was being obsessive or melodramatic, and how we were meant to see the reader in those moments. Did Parker genuinely love Ruby as well as being terrifying (melodrama), or was it all part of him wanting her to belong to him again (obsession)? Blood red? The envelope leapt from her hand. It fluttered slowly, like the snowflakes falling around her, and by the time it hit the ground, she’d registered two things: This was not the letter she’d been waiting for. It was an invitation.

The EFFING characters. Completely unlikable! All of them. I’m sorry but I just found myself disliking each and every one of the characters. Even when it was revealed that some of them were innocent. Juniper, Gavin, and Brett are all easy to swallow and endure but Ruby and Parker were just... UGH. And don’t even get me started on Parker. Gavin…why is he in the book? Also don’t see a point. He’s just the guy that doesn’t fit in so naturally at this type of gathering there has to be someone in the group that isn’t really part of the group. The characters Niamh interacts with, all have warmth and by the end of the book, personally felt like they were my friends. I trusted them, I loved them, I adored them, but should I have trusted all of them? I loved the concept and the idea behind the story but the execution was just awful. Some parts were pretty creepy but I feel like a lot more could’ve been done with the whole story. The constant switching between characters was a complete miss for me because I guessed who the culprit was very early on and that just ruined all the fun.

Review

Except this book is neither of those things. Even if you stripped "Clue" of its brilliant mystery and memorable characters, "This Lie Will Kill You" wouldn't even come close. Now, they realise they’ve been lured together by a person bent on revenge, a person who will stop at nothing to uncover what actually happened on that deadly night, one year ago. There were a few twists in the book, some of them I saw coming and others I didn’t. It was a good mix and I found myself on the edge of my seat, excited to take in the next part of the story. Either of these narrative voices would have been very effective if they had been the only one used. They might also have been very effective if they were each specific to a character, so that, say, the popular girl chapters had a different style from the jealous boyfriend chapters. Alternatively, the differing tones could have been a useful way of differentiating between the narrative past and narrative present, which were frequently switched between. But no, the different narrative voices were instead jumbled together, and in my opinion it wasn't quite as effective as it could have been.