I was casually into reading it at first, and didn’t have particularly strong feelings about it either way. Things picked up up and before I realized it I was already around the halfway mark. This is the kind of book you don’t realize how deeply immersed in it you are until you clue into how much of it you’ve actually flown through in no time at all. It hooks you into the plot before you even notice and then you’re a goner because you need to find the answers the characters are seeking, while trying to put things together for yourself.
One of the things that really sucked me into this book was the podcast aspect to it. Not only does it center around a podcaster trying to solve this real life crime by coming to the town where it happened and interviewing the people that were there the night of the incident, but it also features snippets of the episodes of said podcast at the end of a number of chapters. Having this different style of the story being told, which presented a number of revelations in a different format was really immersive and one of the many reasons I found myself flying through chapter after chapter. It also served to throw me right into the plot because I feel like this was the aspect of the story that had me trying to put things together to figure out what happened the night of the murder, and who the murderer was, the most. It kind of threw me into the podcast and brought out that solving a true crime drive as a result.
Savvy, loved by all and lauded as a sweet, giving person, was murdered one night after a wedding and no one knows why or who did it. Although the entire town thinks it was her best friend Lucy, who stumbled out around the same place Savvy’s body was found with no memory of the events that took place that night. Without enough evidence Lucy is let go without charge, but the entire town believes her to be the killer regardless. Now, years later Lucy returns to her hometown for her grandmother’s birthday, when a podcaster by the name of Ben just happens to be to uncover the events of that night and find out who really killed Savvy and why.
Listen for the Lie is definitely a thriller to pick up, because when I say you get completely sucked into the mystery of what happened and uncovering clues and startling revelations due to the podcast, boy do I mean. I completely blasted through this book because I could not put it down as every little thing left me needing more, from the chaos, to the new information revealed that had me needing to read the next chapter, just to have more information exposed and resulting in a cycle of me not being able to stop at the end of any chapters.
The characters were exquisite in their realness and imperfections. The kind of imperfections you would expect from people either accused of murder (Lucy), or potentially brought up as suspects due to the podcast. Not to mention just people willing to believe the worst of someone just because they’re essentially told to. Lucy was a fantastic character to have the story told by as well, because she was unreliable in her inability to remember, as well as in her own shaky uncertainty in her own innocence and the effect this trauma has had on her mentality over the years. It all came together to form a book that had all the best parts of a thriller, with characters you actually were rooting for not being the culprit and so much tension with the uncertainty of it. Even Savvy. The townsfolk present this perfect image of who she was at her death, saintly and kind, when in reality her identity is so much more complicated and one only certain people choose to remember.
Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera gets a highly recommend from me for all of the thriller lovers out there. Don’t miss this one because it is such an immersive, impossible to stop until you finish kind of book.
