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A review by pagesplotsandpints
All the Little Liars by Victoria Selman
2.5
<b>Read Completed 8/17/24 |</b> 2.5 stars
I enjoyed this author's previous book, TRULY DARKLY DEEPLY, so I was anxious to start ALL THE LITTLE LIARS when it popped up, and while I feel like the writing style was similar in both books, I didn't really think it worked in this one for me.
The book is told from Finn's POV in first person. She's the younger sister to Izzy, who is really more of the main character of this story. It felt kind of like an odd writing style choice because Finn basically has little to no personality and isn't really important to the story at all. She feels an incredible guilt as an adult for what happened with her sister and like she could have helped in a way, but we barely see her adult perspective since most of the book is explaining what happened when she was a kid. I think she's three years younger than Izzy? And Izzy was 13, so while the voice wasn't extremely juvenile, I just kept waiting for something more interesting to happen to adult Finn, which barely happened in the end of the book. The rest of it is all about them being young.
There are a couple twists in here, one being a reveal and others a clever turn of being misdirected, which I do enjoy! It was a little odd because I felt like I was more lied to than just assuming on clues that the author was leaving for me, so that was kind of a stab in the back instead of being a clever twist, but I get what the author was doing there.
There were some darker topics, aside from murder, including child grooming complete with drugs, rape, and more. This is something I always hate reading in books just due to how vile these people are, so if it is included, I need to feel like it really served a purpose. Here, I felt like it didn't. The plot could have been carried out without it and it didn't need to be a motivation to push these girls into what they did. I could have easily imagined the book without it and it didn't really tie in well to the end.
Mostly, I just didn't love the writing choices and the book felt choppy and a little sloppy. There is definitely and audience for this, but I just couldn't help but pick apart some of the plot holes.
Things that have nothing to do with my rating: This is a British author writing an American perspective, and most of the time, I don't know a difference, but there were a lot of British sayings or terms that popped up here and I'm not sure why an American proof reader or editor didn't change those things? Like early on in the book, the main character calls Tylenol "paracetamol", which Americans would NEVER say. A few others pop up along the way as well, but that one was very glaring to me. I'm obviously not rating the book lower for that, but it is notable in my reading experience.
I enjoyed this author's previous book, TRULY DARKLY DEEPLY, so I was anxious to start ALL THE LITTLE LIARS when it popped up, and while I feel like the writing style was similar in both books, I didn't really think it worked in this one for me.
The book is told from Finn's POV in first person. She's the younger sister to Izzy, who is really more of the main character of this story. It felt kind of like an odd writing style choice because Finn basically has little to no personality and isn't really important to the story at all. She feels an incredible guilt as an adult for what happened with her sister and like she could have helped in a way, but we barely see her adult perspective since most of the book is explaining what happened when she was a kid. I think she's three years younger than Izzy? And Izzy was 13, so while the voice wasn't extremely juvenile, I just kept waiting for something more interesting to happen to adult Finn, which barely happened in the end of the book. The rest of it is all about them being young.
There are a couple twists in here, one being a reveal and others a clever turn of being misdirected, which I do enjoy! It was a little odd because I felt like I was more lied to than just assuming on clues that the author was leaving for me, so that was kind of a stab in the back instead of being a clever twist, but I get what the author was doing there.
There were some darker topics, aside from murder, including child grooming complete with drugs, rape, and more. This is something I always hate reading in books just due to how vile these people are, so if it is included, I need to feel like it really served a purpose. Here, I felt like it didn't. The plot could have been carried out without it and it didn't need to be a motivation to push these girls into what they did. I could have easily imagined the book without it and it didn't really tie in well to the end.
Mostly, I just didn't love the writing choices and the book felt choppy and a little sloppy. There is definitely and audience for this, but I just couldn't help but pick apart some of the plot holes.
Things that have nothing to do with my rating: This is a British author writing an American perspective, and most of the time, I don't know a difference, but there were a lot of British sayings or terms that popped up here and I'm not sure why an American proof reader or editor didn't change those things? Like early on in the book, the main character calls Tylenol "paracetamol", which Americans would NEVER say. A few others pop up along the way as well, but that one was very glaring to me. I'm obviously not rating the book lower for that, but it is notable in my reading experience.