I decided recently to do a challenge over on my YouTube where I wanted to read books that authors recommended to me. Lisa Jewell recommended Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant as the best thriller she’s ever read so this is the most recent book I’ve read and I’ll be giving you my thoughts on it.
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Lie With Me is honestly quite a confusing story and a book that is difficult to describe to people without it sounding underwhelming. We read from the point of view of Paul, our main character as he struggles with life and then finds himself going on a family holiday with some old friends who all met in the same town many years before. Years ago, a girl went missing and Alice, who Paul is interested in is forever keen to try and find her again one day.
It’s a book that took a long time to get into and at points I thought was going absolutely nowhere, but then all of a sudden things picked up and got really quite good!
Lie With Me plot – 4.25/5
Lie With Me tells the story of Paul’s holiday with an old friend and his group of friends. It races through the idea of them all accepting Paul on this trip as it speeds us through his and Alice’s relationship to a state where it only seems natural for him to accompany them all.
Then once on the holiday, it feels like the book is forever building to something much greater. I did a couple of videos on this and discussed how as I was reading the book I had absolutely no idea why it was Lisa Jewell’s favourite as nothing was yet happening.
However, the finale of the book rounds everything up so perfectly and makes you think that Durrant has spent the entire book purposefully building up to this crescendo and that you haven’t wasted your time waiting for something to happen.
I don’t want to spoil too much of the story but I must say that if you’re reading and considering putting it down, I’d suggest just keeping on going as you start to realise how it was all really well done in the end.
Lie With Me characters – 4.25/5
Another element of Lie With Me which had me scratching my head throughout was Paul as our main character. Paul is quite actively chauvinistic, opinionated and a little creepy throughout the whole book. He describes almost everyone by how they book with the women being described by how their clothes fit their bodies, he has some very questionable opinions on women and he also regularly expresses internal dialogue that makes you question his motivations.
However, once again, I think Durrant has done this purposefully. I don’t want to presume, but I don’t think a female author would write a male character like this if she didn’t intend the reader to constantly question Paul. An element to the story means that if you’re not sure if you like Paul, it may make you question certain elements of the story and whether he “did or didn’t do it”. I won’t spoil any more but you’ll know what I mean if you read it.
The characters that accompany Paul on holiday are also very well defined and all have a purpose too.
Lie With Me final rating – 4.25/5
The more and more I think about it, the more and more I’m convinced that Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant is actually a really well-thought-out thriller. It’s purposefully slow at the start. Paul, our main character, is purposefully unlikeable. It’s all leading up to a finale that makes the previous 200 or so pages make complete sense and seem like a well-crafted run-up to a well throughout resolution to the book. I had my doubts about Lie With Me right up until the finale convinced me this is a great thriller you should definitely stick with.
