Review: The Day The Lies Began

The Day The Lies Began by Kylie Kaden
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

No gonna lie, this was a bit of a drainer.

I feel like the story was maybe there but it just went wrong in so many places.

Things that frustrated me:

-Pacing
-Characters
-Lies and secrets
-Explanations
-Lack of action
-Random vulgarity

The story took a long time to gain momentum and then when the big plot point came to light it was handled really badly. Instead of a nice reasonably structured amble towards the conclusion it was just a mess of characters lying and moaning about their lies and then allusions to more lies that were top secret ... I get that it's all about lying but this was really too much, and not nearly clever enough to make all the lying and secrets actually shocking or even interesting.

Also, THESE CHARACTERS ARE SO MESSED UP.
Abbi: The feisty mum who would do anything to protect her family, including manipulate her adopted brother
Blake: The cop with no spine who has an unhealthy affection towards his adopted sister despite being madly in love with his ex, Hannah, who has always treated him like trash
Hannah: The ex of Blake and ex-best-friend of Abbi who constantly sticks her nose and stuck up opinions into everyone else's business. I FKN HATED HANNAH
Will: Abbi's perfect husband who is morally above everyone else and is so perfect and also did I happen to mention that he's perfect? Like, the perfect husband, and father, and friend and, oh yeah, he's just perfect basically.
Molly: Hannah's younger sister who is actually pretty cool but why would we bother learning any of her story when everyone else is doing that exciting lying thing and Molly's arc is seemingly completely unrelated?

So it's like ... Abbi and Blake have secret conversations about 'the forbidden thing' that they did together which basically has you wondering how well you're gonna cope if that turns out to be incest (coz that's definitely what it's trying to hint at). Then the *plot reveal* and everyone is all, 'ooooh who did this thing?' and of course then Abbi and Blake's conversations have more context and there's a slow release of what we're actually trying to solve here and then ... lies. This person was lying about this to this person while that person lied to this person about that ... it becomes less about the actual plot point and more about how everyone has a secret. And, for the most part, these are terrible secrets. It's basically a soap opera. But without the fun drama element and zero tension or build up. There's no atmosphere, no setting the scene, no emotions built. I just did not give a crap. All in all, these are pretty trash secrets and some seemed really pointless?

Also the resolutions were weak and terrible. (view spoiler)[I mean this is basically a book about a bunch of people who have told a lot of lies to a lot of people and then the lies are all out and the entire town's inhabitants are like, 'ok cool.' ??? (hide spoiler)]

NO WORRIES MATE.

I liked the Aussie-relevant references and slang but also felt like it was trying too hard. Also some parts were really crass and vulgar which just felt awkward instead of believable. (view spoiler)[The term 'rock spider' was used so much it was like the author googled it, liked the nickname and decided to use it as often as possible. My conclusion: way too often. (hide spoiler)] I just feel like there was so much in this story that didn't need to be there.

It rambled on about secrets and lies far too much and overall felt incredibly messy. I felt nothing for the characters (aside from a strong loathing for Hannah) and the story was so all over the place it made keeping track of things a little difficult. It took me a long time to read it because I honestly just didn't care about what was happening at all.

Also FKN EADIE'S KIDDIE ACCENT WAS THE WORST. She's supposed to have a lisp but she talks like the worst stereotype of a kid EVER. Lots of 'pwease' and 'winbisible' and 'outgrowded' and SWEET CHEESES who taught this kid English? Coz she is absolutely TERRIBLE. Also how the EFF do you turn 'invisible' into 'winbisible' with a friggin LISP? GET OUT.

So yeah I guess the writing kind of annoyed me. It was really terrible.

All in all, a pretty disappointing read. Felt very amateur, so even though I think the idea was there it absolutely tanked on delivery. Hopefully others will appreciate it a little more than me.

With thanks to Netgalley for an uncorrected proof e-copy to read and review.

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