Our Little Lies: An absolutely gripping psychological thriller with a brilliant twist

Please see all of my reviews on my blog at www.robinlovesreading.blogspot.com.

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Marianne is a stay-at-home wife to a brilliant heart surgeon named Simon. They have three children. Inasmuch as Marianne once had a successful career, she relishes her role as a wife and mother. On the surface. Deep down, she is a battered woman who is experiencing problems on many levels. Simon is a controlling husband, and that is putting it mildly. He controls her so much that his thoughts become her thoughts. Almost to the degree that she actually thinks LIKE him, thus doubting and even forgetting her own original thoughts.

Our Little Lies made me think of the movie Gaslight, with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman. In the film, the show more husband systematically tries to drive the wife out of her mind. As a matter of fact, the term “gaslighting” has come to mean to psychologically manipulate someone into believing that they have lost their mind. So intrigued, I stopped reading the book to watch the 1944 classic! Then I stayed up immediately afterward and read the book through.

There are obvious and numerous differences, however. The primary difference is that there is another woman embroiled here. You see, Marianne has spent ten years married to Simon. She has believed herself to be leading the ideal life. Her life is enough. She should be happy in her life. But as the story evolves we see that she is anything but a happy woman. She has spent years devoted to her husband and family. The problem is that he has made her doubt herself time and again. She often wonders whether or not it is illness, herself, medication, or could it be something even worse. What is that worst? There is another woman, Caroline, a fellow surgeon of Simon’s. Marianne just knows that she is not imagining that her husband is having an affair with Caroline.

I want to mention the point in the story where I begin to sense a strong connection to the film. There was the occasion when Simon arrived home from work before Marianne and the children got home from after-school activities. Dinner was not ready and she was quite alarmed that he might be angry. She reminds him that she didn’t expect him that early because he had surgery scheduled for the day. He pretty much says: Really? One word, and he then has her believing that maybe he didn’t tell her that he had surgery. That is just one example of how he has her doubting she heard him correctly, even going so far as to gently driving the doubt home.

Can I stop to say at this point that I really did not like the smug, charming, irresistible Simon? He called her paranoid. He undermined her in front of the children. How did I feel about Marianne? I felt very drawn to her, as she was emotionally broken, living with apparent paranoia that she was unable to control.

At some point Marianne meets Caroline, and when this happens she is absolutely certain that her husband is not being faithful to her. Maybe it is true that her entire life has been a lie. "As Simon often says, ‘I’ve given you everything, but everything isn’t good enough for you, is it Marianne?’"

Well, the tables turn, and I just have to quote from the book again briefly - “Welcome to my world, Simon. #GaslightingForGirls.” She wakes up. But, is it too late? What ensues is a thrilling plan of action that will change the very fabric of Marianne’s life.

I was captivated by this book! Although it was very difficult to witness the awful abuse that Marianne had to endure, I just kept replaying the movie in my mind. I was on the edge of my seat just waiting for the “A Ha” moment. Oh, it had to come? But would come before it was too late?

As riveting as Our Little Lies was, the true shocker was the twist at the end. While this psychological thriller is my first read by Sue Watson, it will certainly not be the last. Very well done.

Trigger warnings: mental health, domestic violence.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC to review in exchange for my honest opinion. show less

Marianne has what others would think of as the perfect life. Beautiful house on the best street in the neighbourhood, three bright children and a handsome and charismatic husband who also happens to be a successful surgeon. Marianne's past has been hard, but Simon makes sure she's looked after with flowers and trips. But he has just said another woman's name in conversation and Marianne knows that something's going on between them. As she starts to learn more about Caroline she doesn't find herself jealous, she finds herself afraid.

I was hooked from page one. The writing was great. The characters were frustrating and drove me up the wall at times but I needed to know what was going on! What are they hiding? What's the truth and what's a show more lie? I enjoyed this book from cover to cover but it really picks up at the halfway point. The suspense! I couldn't wait to finish it, it was so good. It had me guessing the whole time. I was not disappointed with this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for an e-copy. show less

I listened to this audiobook over the course of several training runs. The storyline revolves around a marriage between Simon and Marianne Wilson – and it soon becomes apparent that it is a deeply unhappy marriage and that Simon is a bully and a liar. There are no spoilers here, as this is made clear very early on in the story.

Marianne, who narrates the story, becomes suspicious when her husband mentions a woman who he works with, and immediately suspects that he is having an affair. She has had such suspicions before but this time it’s different. She knows deep inside that something is going on, and that this relationship could be the one that threatens her marriage and could cause her to lose her children. And Marianne is show more determined that that won’t happen.

I’ll be honest – for the first couple of hours of this book, I was tempted to give up on it. Within half an hour I had decided that I didn’t like either Simon or Marianne, and there seemed to be so much repetition in what Marianne was saying that the whole listening experience was somewhat tiresome. This is no fault of the narrator Katie Villa, who did an excellent job, but more the writing itself.

However, about halfway through it suddenly got a lot more exciting and things started moving at a much quicker pace. I actually enjoyed the second half of the book a lot – there were two twists, one of which I guessed quite early on, and the other which I did not guess at all (always a plus in my book).

Overall I would say that this was a book of two halves, and I am glad I stuck around for the second one. If you like psychological dramas and unreliable narrators, I would give this a try. show less

This gets 2 stars instead of 1 simply because I didn’t see the twist at the end coming. Otherwise, this book just made me angry

Controlling husband, poor little wife, seductive mistress. Children are involved. Good book! Where you think you know what's going to happen but then something happens that you didnt fully expect

Ö̤Ṳ̈R̤̈ L̤̈Ï̤T̤̈T̤̈L̤̈Ë̤ L̤̈Ï̤Ë̤S̤̈
By Sue Watson

I don’t know how you do it Sue, but by chapter 2️⃣ you make me want to choke the husband