If You Tell a Lie by Lucinda Berry – Book review

By Kimberly Foreman  

Genre: Thriller  

 This week’s book recommendation is perfect for fans of Freida McFadden and Mary Kubica. If You Tell a Lie is a dark and riveting story about how one bad decision can change your life forever… 

Four friends, endless summers at camp, and a cruel, unthinkable prank that turns everything upside down in an instant. 

Blakely, Grace, Meg and Thera are the outcasts at their respective schools. But at Camp Pendleton, they can be whoever they want to be. When their senior year finally comes around, the girls start planning the jokes and tricks they can play on the camp counsellors — after all, it’s tradition, right? A rite of passage for all seniors. But when the campers take things a step too far, things spiral out of control… 

This novel was a crazy ride, full of twists I didn’t always see coming. It was easy to get into from the very beginning and a real page-turner. It had been a long time since I’d read a book set at an American summer camp, so I really enjoyed the setting. The characters felt real and flawed, which gave them depth.

This is a story about peer pressure, but more than that, Blakely’s friends feel more like followers. It gave the novel an almost cult-like atmosphere, with the characters acting blindly without fully considering the consequences.

The author also touches upon important topics such as eating disorders and sexual abuse, to name just a couple. 

This was so addictive, it kept me up reading past my bedtime! I’d highly recommend it if you’re a fan of sinister and twisty thrillers.   

“I think there's a part of us that never changes, no matter how old we get. The essence of who we are — our soul — never changes.” — p.152  

 “Do you know how much work it takes to pretend like you're fine every day? To be the sunshine when you're really the darkness?” — p.193 

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