Emily Carpenter

In this gripping, atmospheric family drama, a young woman investigates the forty�-year�-old murder that inspired her mother's bestselling novel, and uncovers devastating truths-and dangerous lies. Reformed party girl Meg Ashley leads a life of privilege, thanks to a bestselling horror novel her mother wrote decades ago. But Meg knows that the glow of their very public life hides a darker reality of lies, manipulation, and the heartbreak of her own solitary childhood. Desperate to break free of her mother, Meg accepts a proposal to write a scandalous, tell-all memoir. Digging into the past-and her mother's cult classic-draws Meg to Bonny Island, Georgia, and an unusual woman said to be the inspiration for the book. At first island life seems idyllic, but as Meg starts to ask tough questions, disturbing revelations come to light...including some about her mother. Soon Meg's search leads her to question the facts of a decades-old murder. She's warned to leave it alone, but as the lies pile up, Meg knows she's getting close to finding a murderer. When her own life is threatened, Meg realizes the darkness found in her mother's book is nothing compared to the chilling truth that lurks off the page.

The Weight of Lies

Cindy

Review:

I seem to be picking up a lot of books about complicated Mothers lately and this book is no exception. Meg Ashley and her mother Frances seem to have quite a complicated relationship, one that in the first chapter I found a bit difficult to grasp. I will admit that this was a tough book for me to get into, it actually took me about three chapters before it became a very difficult book to put down. As soon as Meg went to Bonny Island, Georgia to research her Mothers cult classic Kitten , a horror novel and to write a tell all book about her mother, I was all in. Threaded into this story are snippets of the book Kitten which I though clever of the author, this way I got a taste of Frances's book. There is a touch of romance that was good, not too much to take over the feel of the story. There is an odd cast of characters in this book actually most of them with the exception of Meg seemed dark to me with an agenda of their own. There is a real life murder mystery that is decades old, that was the basis for Kitten, I had no idea who would turn out to be the killer. Along with the revelation of the real life killer ( or who Meg thinks is the killer) a family secret came out about Meg  that was extremely disturbing. When all was finally revealed in this tense, action packed book it was both touching and equal parts disturbing. The disturbing part for me was the scene in the end of the book. Sorry id I am being too vague but I do not want to give anything away.

Final Thoughts:

Even though I found this book, for me, a bit difficult to get into at first, I though that it was a first rate suspense that I could not put down.This review was originally posted on Cindy's Book Binge

celeste

*I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Weight of Lies is a slow-paced thriller that tells the story of Meg Ashley, the daughter of the best-selling thriller author of the book "Kitten", Frances, and their strained relationship. While Meg has grown up enjoying the benefits of being the daughter of a millionaire, her life is far from the perfect one that pictures seem to show. Meg has always had a bad relationship with her mother, and has never been able to cope with being labeled and thought of as "the daughter of" throughout her teenage years. Now an adult, she has distanced herself from Frances, but when the news of a birthday bash for Frances arrives at the hotel she's staying in for her holidays, she decides to come back home, only to find her life flipped upside down when Asa, the apparently new agent of Frances, makes her an offer very hard to refuse: to finally expose the horrible childhood Meg had and how horrible of a mother Frances has always been in the form of a book.

While I ended up enjoying the book mainly for the many twists and turns the story had near the end, it was hard for me to be kept intrigued for the majority of the book. I felt that at least half of the book, at the beginnig, was extremely slow since nothing seemed to happen. Meg decides to accept the offer of writing an autobiography to expose Frances, and in order to do that she travels to the island where her mother took the inspiration for her book, which was coincidently based on an actual murder that had happened there a while back. During Meg's first couple of days in the island, there was no action that moved the story forward, and I felt that a lot of scenes were unnecesary since they didn't add anything to the actual plot of the book. Only after getting past half way through the book did things start to pick up. 

I'm not gonna lie, my need for Meg to uncover the truth about what had happened to the kid who had been found murdered is what kept me hooked till the end, and as much as I tried to guess at who had been responsible for the murder, I was gladly surprised by that revelation. 

Never has a book title been so relevant as to the actual plot of the book. It is indeed a book about someone trying to uncover the truth fom a web of lies that seem to only grow bigger and bigger with every page turned. I can't rate this more than three stars because, while entertaining and intriguing, it took a while for things to get going, yet I think Emily Carpenter could be one of the names to look out for in the future when speaking about the suspense/thriller genre.

The Weight of Lies

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