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Lies Like Poison

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Lies Like Poison

By: Chelsea Pitcher
Narrated by: Amanda Dolan, Emily Ellet, Kevin R. Free, Em Grosland
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About this listen

 From the author of bestselling THIS LIE WILL KILL YOU comes another unputdownable thriller about a group of friends who will do anything to protect each other – even murder . . .

Perfect for fans of RIVERDALE, ONE OF US IS LYING and A GOOD GIRL'S GUIDE TO MURDER.

The recipe for the perfect murder...

Poppy, Lily, and Belladonna would do anything to protect their best friend, Raven. So when they discovered he was suffering abuse at the hands of his stepmother, they came up with a lethal plan to stop her from ever hurting Raven again. But someone got cold feet, the plot faded to a secret of the past, and the group fell apart.

Three years later, on the eve of Raven’s seventeenth birthday, his stepmother turns up dead and Belladonna is carted off to jail.

Desperate to prove her innocence, Belle reaches out to her estranged friends, but who can she trust?

Praise for This Lie Will Kill You:
'The story . . . was dark and full of conflict and passion and so many twists. No one is who they seem and everything was captivating' NetGalley user
'Definitely keeps you on your toes' NetGalley user
'This book kept me hooked from the start' NetGalley user Fiction Mystery Crime Murder
All stars
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So, when I was first getting into audiobooks, I was browsing YA thrillers on audible and I came across this one--instantly, I was hooked. I downloaded it immediately--along with a few others--and then I had technology problems and couldn't access my audiobooks! Oh no! Eventually, I sorted it out, but I'd forgotten which book this one was. All I remembered was the main characters shared names with flowers and there was murder, and I was desperately trying to work out which book it was.

So, a few months later, when I'd finished my most recent listen and clicked randomly onto this title (my audible app doesn't show book descriptions), I was delighted to realise IT WAS THIS BOOK! And this book is incredible.

Complex female characters? Yes. Complex male characters? Yes. Complex transitioning characters? Yes. LGBT relationships? Strong character voices and narrative writing? Yes. Beautiful imagery? Yes. And a plot that just grabs you right away? Yes.

THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING! It's haunting and breathtaking and I could not stop listening to it. Chelsea Pitcher is now one of my favourite YA writers ever. And I must give a shoutout to the narrators too: Emmett Grosland, Emily Ellet, Amanda Dolan, and Kevin Free.

The book is told via multiple narrators and across multiple timelines. When the characters were little, Poppy, Belladonna, and Lily planned to poison Raven's evil step-mother--shortly after the murder of Raven's mother. They didn't do it. Now, the characters are 17, and Raven's just returned from the boarding school is father sent him to, to find out his step mother actually has been murdered and Belladonna's been arrested. The 'recipe' for murder that they came up with as children as apparently now been followed. Jack (previously named Poppy--and the book follows his transition) is desperate to clear Belladonna's name and ropes in Lily and Raven to help.

And this book is just so delicious. All the characters are so 3D. Lily's dark and sinister, suffering an eating disorder due to her mother's abuse. Belladonna is obsessed with fairytales--dark tales--having been adopted by a man who locked her up at night after his biological daughter was abducted. Jack has secrets of his own--from the clothes he burned on the night of Raven's step-mother's murder to his preference to be called 'Jack' and using him/his pronouns. And Raven--well, Raven is the character that haunted me the most. There's something eerie about him, namely stemming from the scene we're shown early on where as children all the characters were playing at fairy tales and he was lying 'dead' in a coffin.

So who did the murder?

Well, I must confess that I did realise who the murderer of the step-mother was quite early on. Not because all clues pointed to that person, but through process of deduction I realised it couldn't be anyone else. What I didn't expect was to find out the identity of the murderer of Raven's real mother too. That was edge-of-your-seat-stuff.

The only thing that bugged me a bit about this book was how when we're halfway through, we suddenly are introduced to narration by Raven as well. Up until that point, the narration had been told by Jack, Lily, and Belladonna only--so I did find it a little jarring.

But this is an amazing YA thriller! It's just so atmospheric and haunting and I loved it so much.

Content warnings for: abuse, eating disorders, suicidal talk.

Haunting and atmospheric

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I liked this book and was keen to read it through to the end. However, I wouldn’t compare it to One of Us Is Lying, where the characters feel so human, funny, and tangible. While I appreciated the characters in Lies Like Poison, I didn’t find anything particularly lovable about them.
What I did enjoy was that this wasn’t a typical “I know what you did, and I’m waiting for someone to confess” kind of mystery. Instead, all the characters were uncertain about what had happened, which made them just as intrigued to uncover the truth as the reader. That said, there were moments where the characters seemed more focused on their romantic entanglements sometimes in a slightly cringey way rather than on the mystery itself. Overall, I didn’t feel a strong sense of urgency or danger driving the story.

I would not compare this book to one of us is lying

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Lies Like Poison delivers a tangled web of secrets, strained friendships, and long buried guilt. While I figured out who was responsible for the murder fairly early on, the story still managed to hook me with its atmosphere and its emotionally charged character dynamics. The mystery is layered with plenty of suspects and misdirection, and even if the final twist didn't shock me, the build up kept me turning the pages.

What truly elevates the book is how character driven it is. I expected a heavily plot focused story, but instead found myself pulled in by the fractured relationships between Raven, Jack (Poppy), Lily, and Belladonna. Each narrator is unreliable in their own way, adding tension and intrigue as their past and present begin to collide. Their shared history, messy, painful, and loyal in all the wrong ways, makes every reveal more impactful.

At its core, this is a story about four kids shaped by trauma and terrible parental figures, trying desperately to protect each other even as their secrets pull them apart. The bond between Jack and Raven is especially heartfelt, and the softer moments between the group balance the darker themes beautifully. Lies Like Poison may not have shocked me with its final reveal, but it absolutely kept me invested, and emotionally tangled until the end.

A dark, twisty YA mystery with gripping character

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