Title: Listen for the Lie

Author: Amy Tintera

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Publication Date: March 5, 2024

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)

Listen for the Lie is author Amy Tintera’s first book for adults (she has written several YA novels previously). The plot is intriguing. Lucy is found wandering around covered in blood with no memory of what happened to her or her best friend, Savvy, who is found dead. Just about everyone she has ever known decides she is the killer, and most don’t believe her amnesia is real. She flees her small town in Texas for Los Angeles with no plans to go back, but gives in 5 years later to her grandmother’s request to come to her birthday party.

At the same time that Lucy is begrudgingly headed back to Plumpton, a true crime podcaster is focusing on Savvy’s case for the second season of his podcast. He is also in town, interviewing friends and family of both Savvy and Lucy, trying to solve the mystery of whether or not Lucy, or someone else, was the one to end Savvy’s life. 

Lucy is the ultimate unreliable narrator, as it becomes apparent she truly does not know what happened the night her best friend died. Her relationships with her parents and ex-husband are somewhat maddening, because she just lets them walk all over her and say what they will about her, without standing up for herself throughout the story. She is clearly still suffering from the traumas in her past, but I found her hard to root for. The internal dialogue throughout the book is distracting, and until the flashbacks start midway through the book, I also found it more irritating (in a “rolling the eyes, this is weird and not helping the story along” kind of way).

I didn’t see the final twist coming, which was a nice surprise, but other than that, I had a hard time caring how it would all end for Lucy and everyone else involved in the rehashing of that night’s events. One bright spot for me was Lucy’s grandmother. I enjoyed her character a lot, and found her to be the most interesting part of the story by far.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.