Welcome to my monthly book recommendation for July! On the first day of each month, I’ll recommend a book, new or old, fiction or nonfiction, pulled from my own reading experience. In my recommendation, I’ll introduce the book, discuss why I found reading it worthwhile, and what major themes the book touches upon. I won’t include any major spoilers, but I may discuss some of the characters and specific details or locations from within the book. My recommendation for July, 2024 is Never Lie by Freida McFadden.
Never Lie - Freida McFadden
Available on Amazon
Author: Freida McFadden
Genres: Fiction, Murder Thrillers
Description:
Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams. They think they’ve found it when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace years ago. But when a violent winter storm traps them at the estate, the house begins to lose its appeal.
Stuck inside and growing restless, Tricia stumbles on a collection of audio transcripts from Dr. Hale’s sessions with patients. As Tricia listens to the cassette tapes, she learns about the terrifying chain of events leading up to the doctor’s mysterious disappearance.
With each tape, another shocking piece of the puzzle falls into place, and a web of lies slowly unravels. But by the time Tricia reaches the final cassette, the one that reveals the entire horrifying story, it will be too late…
My Thoughts on This Book
I’m working on diversifying my reading material. Normally, I would never have come across this book, as book recommendation algorithms tend to recommend books very similar to those you’ve already read, but in an attempt to break out of that echo chamber and broaden my horizons, I poured over books in totally different genres by authors I’ve never read before, and eventually, I came across Never Lie.
I’m glad I did. The style of writing, storytelling, pacing, and narrative were all different than what I’m used to, and what I’m used to encompasses a pretty wide range. When I first began reading the book, I wasn’t sure what to think of it. When I was halfway through the book, I still wasn’t sure what to think of it. When I reached the last few chapters, where things took a sharp turn, I was beginning to understand my feelings toward the book, but I still was not certain. The only thing I did know is that I was enjoying the ride, so much so, that I finished the entire book the day after I picked it up.
Without spoiling the plot, I’ll say that the narrative shifts between two separate timelines and two separate individuals. As the book progresses, details are revealed that have major implications for plotlines that have already taken place and are currently taking place. By the end of the book, you’ll find that everything, the contextual nature of each character’s involvement in the story, the true motivating factors for their actions, and even the reasons for the events that set the stage for the first page of the story, have changed radically, despite the fact that the characters themselves progressed in a linear fashion. Multiple times throughout the story, I thought I had it all figured out, but I most definitely did not see this ending coming.
Overall, I’m still chewing on this one. At first, I thought the story was a bit bland and the writing was a bit lackluster, but I found myself continuously doubting those impressions. Nonetheless, I couldn’t put it down, and by the end of the story, I found that I was like a frog sitting in a pot of water that slowly came to a boil. When that realization hit, I understood why I had those impressions: the author was masking the true atmosphere of the story, and at that point, I only had access to the surface of that mask. I’m not sure how I would compare this book to those that are more typical to my reading diet, but I found it fun and disruptive enough to make it this month’s book recommendation.
