Book Review: The Truth Beneath the Lies by Amanda Searcy

Title: The Truth Beneath the Lies
Author: Amanda Searcy
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: December 12, 2017
Genre:  Mystery, Thriller, Young Adult

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Purchase Links:

Barnes & Noble // Kobo // Amazon
Indiebound // Book Depository

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The Truth Beneath the Lies
Amanda Searcy
Delacorte Press, December 2017
ISBN 978-1-524-70089-8
Hardcover

From the publisher—

Flight.
All Kayla Asher wants to do is run. Run from the government housing complex she calls home. Run from her unstable mother. Run from a desperate job at No Limits Food. Run to a better, cleaner, safer life. Every day is one day closer to leaving.
 
Fight.
All Betsy Hopewell wants to do is survive. Survive the burner phone hidden under her bed. Survive her new rules. Survive a new school with new classmates. Survive being watched. Every minute grants her another moment of life.
 
When fate brings Kayla and Betsy together, only one girl will survive.

I have to say the publisher made a brilliant move in coming up with this synopsis. It’s vague enough that I really didn’t know what to expect yet enough of a teaser that I just had to find out who these two girls are and why one is doomed. Once I got into the story, I found it had a lot of facets including drugs, a serial killer, sex trafficking and, above all, massive deception.

The story is told from the points of view of both Kayla and Betsy and each girl has her own part to play in a complex and compelling thriller, in the best sense of the genre. At first glance, you’d think they have little in common and that’s true but fate is going to take them down a road neither would choose on her own. At the end of that road lies…what? Life, death, redemption, freedom, perhaps a future? I wish I could say more but nearly everything would be a big, fat spoiler.

The tension climbs inexorably from one page to the next until, nearing the end, my nerves were just about shot and then…a fairly mindblowing reveal that made it all worthwhile. As dark as it is, there is still a sense of hope; the thing that stands out to me is the author’s ability to craft a truly puzzling tale with twists and turns in every direction and no easy answers. I can’t wait for Ms. Searcy’s next book if it’s going to be as good as this one.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, December 2017.

About the Author

Amanda Searcy has a BA from New Mexico State University and an MA in human rights from the University of Essex in England. She works in collection development for a public library system and loves chocolate, cats, and curling up with a good book. She lives in New Mexico.

Visit her online at amandasearcybooks.com and follow her on Twitter at @aesearcy.

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Giveaway

(1) copy of THE TRUTH BENEATH THE LIES
by Amanda Searcy (US Only)

Starts: December 4th      Ends: December 22nd 

Enter here.

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