Mary Kubica

Let me explain first that I have never written a review about a book I didn't like because I normally think it's just my personal opinion and not that the book itself is bad. Not this time. This book was infuriatingly bad.
Just in case you read the book because you are expecting some sort of twist or anything unexpected happening at the end, don't bother. What is going to happen already becomes apparent around the second chapter, and then it just takes a looong, uneventful time devoid of plot show more or character development to get there.
The characters were dreadfully flat placeholders with absolutely no personality or anything that made me even remotely care about any of them. The staccato language that failed to convey any proper emotion (even though the characters tried hard to show how very emotional they were by incoherent screaming or repetitive shouting, saying or whispering of names at different times), was exactly the same for all three narrators. You would never have guessed they supposedly came from such different backgrounds and were such different people. The bad father type was a laughably simplistic depiction of cliches (as was the worrying mother, the titular good girl, the empathic detective and the not really bad criminal).
Nothing in this book felt real (not the characters, not their dialogue and certainly not the way they behaved).
I am actually shocked that this even got published, nevermind the comparisons to "Gone Girl" (with which it really has nothing in common apart from the title and the narrative being told from different perspectives). In fact, this book feels as if someone gave a sixth grader a description of "Gone Girl" and told them to write "something like that". show less

I have come to this very late, and the polarity of the reviews has intrigued me. As soon as I turned on the book I felt myself smiling. Quinn's casual snoop around Esther's room and personal belongings was entertaining and drew me right into the character. Next I was swept (blown) away by Alex's opening soliloquy. Alex/reader's lilting narration was hypnotic; by the time I heard him say “people come and go” I was already like a patient etherized upon a table….Am I the only person show more thinking that Kubika’s character of Alex was influenced by Prufrock?

Both the characters Quinn and Alex are held back emotionally by their self-deprecating characters; neither really knows what they are capable of until they are actually put to the test at the end of the novel. So what does a disappearing roommate in Chicago have to do with an agoraphobic woman in a small resort town on lake Michigan? You will have to read the book if you want to find the connection. Kubika’s writing is beautiful and two very different stories are woven together with a deft hand, although I thought the twist and thrill lacked a tension.

I thank Google every day for facilitating immediate gratification – even at the cost of usurping my privacy. In this case I thank Google for a nostalgic rereading of T. S. Eliot’s classic poem. show less

Well, you can't love them all. I heard a lot of hype about this author and decided to check her out. The book was well written, suspenseful, and kept me reading. That said, something about it really pissed me off, crawling under my skin and itching like a rash I couldn't get to.

All the women in the story struck me as exceptionally weak, and not because of circumstances or illness. It felt like they were written by a sexist man. (Not trying to offend anyone, plenty of men write superb women show more characters, but these women seemed liked stereotypes created by a member of the He-man woman haters club.)

I'm not ruling out Kubica's other books, there's more good than bad, but this book just wasn't for me. 4 stars. show less

3.75 Stars → I do love Mary Kubica’s writing, and in EVERY LAST LIE she presents an engrossing tale of a young mother named Clara facing her husband Nick’s secrets and deceit just days after he dies in a car accident.

There was one witness to the crash, the couple’s 4-year old daughter Maisie, who was strapped in her car seat and luckily unhurt. Clara begins to doubt the wreck was simply an accident when Maisie starts having nightmares about a “bad man” being after them. As she show more digs for clues, Clara finds that Nick was hiding some unsettling secrets, but were they enough to get him killed?

The story is told in alternating perspectives – Nick, in the weeks leading up to the crash, and Clara, in the weeks after Nick’s death. I liked that readers got to hear both POVs, which added to the suspense of what Nick might reveal and what Clara might discover. Not only is Clara dealing with her husband’s suspicious death, she’s also now the sole caregiver of Maisie and newborn Felix. So many anxiety-inducing elements in this story! Clara made some very questionable choices throughout, and I’m sure teetering on the edge of sanity didn’t help.

I guess I have two niggling complaints with the book. First, there were some loose ends and questions that I wanted answers to, and secondly, I wasn’t thrilled with the ending. I read another mystery that had a similar ending, and while it worked there, it didn’t so much with EVERY LITTLE LIE. Nevertheless, I still think this was an intriguing and well-written book, as much a character study in grief as a novel of suspense.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less