Never Lie by Freida McFadden review: Check your bias when reading
You’ll want to check your bias as you read Never Lie by Freida McFadden. Here are my thoughts on this twisty psychological thriller.
After reading so many thrillers, I tend to spot the twists a mile away. Sometimes, it’s hard for me to choose who the murderer is when there are a couple of suspects, but I can usually tell that there’s going to be a twist that involves the husband.
In fact, we’ve seen that with Freida McFadden’s books before. So, going into this, I thought I’d worked things out pretty quickly. Well, I was very wrong, and the book taught me that I need to check my bias.
What is Never Lie by Freida McFadden about?
Ethan and Trisha are looking for the perfect house. They drive to a house for sale in the middle of a blizzard. This house is well out of the way of anywhere, and it turns out that it belonged to a missing author, Adrienne Hall.
The book gives us two perspectives: Adrienne’s in the past and Trisha’s in the present. In the past, we find out about some of Adrienne’s patients. She’s a psychiatrist and sees many different types of people, and she has all their sessions recorded. Apart from Luke, her boyfriend who was presumed the murderer, all other tapes are labeled with initials only.
We also know from the past that Adrienne had a book coming out. It was based on the life of one of her patients, known to us as P.L. Then there’s another patient, E.J., who suffers from narcissistic personality disorder and blackmails Adrienne.
In the present day, Trisha describes the house, which still has all the furniture left behind. However, it’s clear that someone has been living in the house. There is fresh food in the fridge and a portrait of Adrienne keeps moving. What is going on and is Trisha in danger?
Never Lie takes us on a twisty journey
Of course, my immediate thought was the husband. He was up to something. Why was he so certain that this house was the one he wanted? Why did he insist that they drove to see the house in a snowstorm? Why did he seem to gaslight Trisha all the time?
The book was okay up to the point of the twist. It was certainly the twist that really saved it for me. I didn’t see it coming, and I loved the way that everything in the story connected. And yes, everything connects in some sort of way. This was a well-thought-out novel and the ending makes me want to read more of McFadden’s books.
The ending also left me feeling a little icky about some of the empathy I felt for various characters along the way. Now that is a great twist and some great writing. I was reminded of my bias when it comes to these books, and I love being reminded of my bias.
Stars: 5 out of 5.
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