Review : Lie Still by Julia Heaberlin

Posted by on July 10, 2013 3:19 am in 4 stars reads | 4 comments

lie stillLie Still by Julia Heaberlin
Pages : 384
Genre : Mystery, Psychological Thriller
Stand Alone My Rating : 4/5

From Goodreads  :

Carrying both the weight of a tragic past and of a happy pregnancy, Emily was happy to follow her husband to Texas to start a new chapter of her life.

But the anxiety is quick to come back when a woman she had just met disappears, and strange mails from a stalker lands in her mailbox. Between the secretive women’s club that was trying to make her a member and her secrets coming back to haunt her, Emily now has to face the truths of her past before it is too late.

My Thoughts :

Lie Still was such an interesting reading experience for me, and it makes it a bit difficult to categorize the book clearly. Is it a simple whodunit? A dark psychological thriller? A caricatural portrayal of southern women clubs? My answer would be; a little of everything, with a touch of something more.

Now that I think about it a little bit more, it made for a bit of a strange mix. The group of wives and their secret club felt so over-the-top! I had no idea whether I was supposed to take it as a bit of a caricatural side-story to lighten the mood, or the result of a very deranged woman’s work. In the end, I believe the author’s point was more of the latter, but I still felt like some of the characters were a tad too much (as entertaining as they were!)

Aside from that, I felt like the themes and the story were quite heavy, and I thought the author used them wisely rather than for shock value. It’s never easy to deal with a subject like rape, and it’s certainly not made easier here by adding murder, disappearances and a strange stalker! Despite everything going on, Emily’s past wasn’t forgotten or lightly tackled. It definitely had some huge consequences on her life and who she became, and I felt like the author wrote her in a very human, very realistic way.

There’s a lot going on in the novel, without it ever being too convoluted. It kept me guessing, trying to piece things together, figuring which part related to which. There are many characters but it wasn’t too hard to differentiate them, though I did feel at times like I was missing key elements to understand them.

In the end, I really enjoyed Lie Still. It wasn’t as gritty as I had been expecting considering the themes, but it was a good read for an entertaining afternoon. It does require you to suspend your disbelief when it comes to the women’s club, but it builds up nicely to a satisfying conclusion that, I felt, answered all questions.

Lie Still is available for sale today! Thanks to Bantam for generously providing a copy of the book for this review!

4 Comments

  1. I’ve lived in the south a long time and I’ve never heard of a club like that. Of course, I may not be cool enough for one. Still, the book sounds good to me.

    • Ha! That club was like, seriously crazy. I’d be surprised if anyone had ever heard of such a club!
      Or if they have, they are probably hold to secrecy anyway 😉

  2. Sounds like a great book! Thanks for sharing. I like it when a tome isn’t easily categorized – interesting characters too.
    ~TB

    • I like it too when a book mixes genres and topics and create its own thing. It makes stories so much more interesting!

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