The Lie by C. L. Taylor

I know many of you enjoyed my last book review of The Girl On The Train so today I decided to do a short review of The Lie by C. L. Taylor. I had seen this in the top three on the Amazon book chart and the synopsis sounded promising so I decided to give it a go... 

I absolutely love psychological thrillers, it is probably my favourite genre in books, that being said, I rarely get time to read these days or indeed finish a book. This novel tells the story of Jane Hughes and is told by switching between the present and five years ago. Many people don't like books that do this but I actually love them and find that it makes a novel more interesting. 

The story is told from Jane's perspective as she describes how she and three other friends take a once in a lifetime holiday to Nepal in order to strengthen their friendship and to detox. Each woman has a past and a tragic story to tell and as their journey in Nepal progresses their friendship begins to unravel. They arrive at a sanctuary which is designed to cleanse and detox and which sounds like luxury on the website but once they arrive, they realise that it is ran by a group of control freaks who will stop at nothing to prevent people from leaving. 

The group of friends become divided as some trust the sanctuary is really helping them to move on from their pasts and some (such as Jane) can see through the facade. The once close group of friends soon become enemies and the story switches between the present where Jane is trying to move on from the events in Nepal but who has constant daily reminders as someone cruelly sends her cryptic messages saying Daisy is still alive and five years ago, where we see Jane trying to plan her escape and make the others see sense. This novel is very interesting as it explores female friendship and the many different emotions these friendships can go through such as love, hate, envy and fear. 

To say anymore would be spoiling the story but I really enjoyed this novel and I am keen to read more written by the author. At times I found it difficult to read as towards the end it turned in to more of a horror story than a thriller and I couldn't help but feel really sorry for the main character as her friends bullied her,  but if you enjoyed Gone Girl and The Girl On The Train then you will love this. 

Jen

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