Name: Emir Andrés Ibañez's review of The Better Liar by Tanen Jones
Item: The Better Liar
Rating: 2
Author: Emir Andrés Ibañez

Tanen Jones

"Smart, sinister, and utterly engrossing--this debut delivers."--Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Never Have I Ever When a woman conceals her sister's death to claim their joint inheritance, her deception exposes a web of dangerous secrets in this addictive new thriller for fans of Megan Abbott, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins. "Like most of the dead, I want to be remembered." Robin Voigt is dead. If Leslie had arrived at her sister's cramped Las Vegas apartment just hours earlier, this would have been their first reunion in a decade. In the years since Robin ran away from home as a teenager, Leslie has stayed in New Mexico, taking care of their dying father even as she began building a family of her own. But when their father passed away, Leslie received a rude awakening: She and Robin would receive the inheritance he left them together--or not at all. Now her half of the money may be beyond her grasp. And unbeknownst to anyone, even her husband, Leslie needs it desperately. When she meets a charismatic young woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Robin--and has every reason to leave her past behind--the two make a reckless bargain: Mary will impersonate Robin for a week in exchange for Robin's half of the cash. But neither realizes how high the stakes will become when Mary takes a dead woman's name. Even as Mary begins to suspect Leslie is hiding something, and Leslie realizes the stranger living in her house, babysitting her newborn son, and charming her husband has secrets of her own, Robin's wild, troubled legacy threatens to eclipse them both. An electric, twisted portrait of sisterhood and the ties that bind, The Better Liar is a stunning debut with a heart-stopping, twist-after-twist finale that will beg the question: How far would you go to get what's yours? Advance praise for The Better Liar "Jones's debut novel is clever, absorbing, and full of red herrings. . . . A stunning twist ending will leave readers waiting to see what Jones will give them next."--Booklist (starred review) "The Better Liar just kept getting better and better and better."--Chandler Baker, New York Times bestselling author of Whisper Network "A fast-paced read that will leave you thinking long after turning the final page."--Christina Dalcher, bestselling author of Vox

The Better Liar

Harmony-Rose

"Smart, sinister, and utterly engrossing--this debut delivers."--Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Never Have I EverWhen a woman conceals her sister's death to claim their joint inheritance, her deception exposes a web of dangerous secrets in this addictive new thriller for fans of Megan Abbott, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins. NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2020 BY Entertainment Weekly - New York Post - Lit Hub - Crime Reads - E! News - BookRiot - PopSugar - Hello GIggles "Like most of the dead, I want to be remembered." Robin Voigt is dead. If Leslie had arrived at her sister's cramped Las Vegas apartment just hours earlier, this would have been their first reunion in a decade. In the years since Robin ran away from home as a teenager, Leslie has stayed in New Mexico, taking care of their dying father even as she began building a family of her own. But when their father passed away, Leslie received a rude awakening: She and Robin would receive the inheritance he left them together--or not at all. Now her half of the money may be beyond her grasp. And unbeknownst to anyone, even her husband, Leslie needs it desperately. When she meets a charismatic young woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Robin--and has every reason to leave her past behind--the two make a reckless bargain: Mary will impersonate Robin for a week in exchange for Robin's half of the cash. But neither realizes how high the stakes will become when Mary takes a dead woman's name. Even as Mary begins to suspect Leslie is hiding something, and Leslie realizes the stranger living in her house, babysitting her newborn son, and charming her husband has secrets of her own, Robin's wild, troubled legacy threatens to eclipse them both. An electric, twisted portrait of sisterhood and the ties that bind, The Better Liar is a stunning debut with a heart-stopping, twist-after-twist finale that will beg the question: How far would you go to get what's yours? Praise for The Better Liar "Jones' sensational debut has the bones of a thriller but reads like literary fiction: lean, shrewd, and gratifyingly real."--Entertainment Weekly "Jones's debut novel is clever, absorbing, and full of red herrings. . . . A stunning twist ending will leave readers waiting to see what Jones will give them next."--Booklist (starred review)

A Novel

Emir Andrés Ibañez

Good plot, I guess. But also boring as hell.

“Jones’s sensational debut has the bones of a thriller but reads like literary fiction: lean, shrewd, and gratifyingly real.”—Entertainment Weekly When a woman conceals her sister’s death to claim their joint inheritance, her deception exposes a web of dangerous secrets in this addictive new thriller for fans of Megan Abbott, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins. An ID Book Club Selection Leslie Flores has the perfect life—a loving husband, a happy newborn, and a New Mexico home straight out of a magazine. She’s been the perfect daughter, too, taking care of her ailing father in his final days. But Leslie has a dark secret—and it’s an expensive secret to keep. When she discovers she won’t receive a penny of her inheritance unless she finds her estranged sister, Robin, she sets out to track her down. Instead, upon arriving at Robin’s apartment, Leslie discovers her body. Just as Leslie begins to panic, she meets a charismatic aspiring actress named Mary who bears a striking resemblance to Robin—and has every reason to leave her past behind. The two women make a bargain: Mary will impersonate Robin for a week in exchange for Robin’s half of the cash. Neither realizes how high the stakes will become when Mary takes a dead woman’s name. Even as Mary begins to suspect Leslie is hiding something, and Leslie realizes the stranger living in her house has secrets of her own, Robin’s wild, troubled legacy threatens to eclipse them both. Fans of Megan Abbott, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins will relish this darkly addictive portrait of the ties that bind and the secrets we all keep from one another.

shalee olsen

This book was something I haven't ever read before, but I am new to the thriller/mystery genre. I loved the twists in the end but I was slightly confused by the actual ending. The characters did get muddled in my mind and I found that I really had to concentrate to keep them correct in my mind, but again that is a me thing, I struggle with that in books. The middle was a bit dry but the last 25% really made it for me. I would highly recommend.

Deborah Kerr

I want to start this review off by stating the Jones is a very talented writer who clearly knows what she's doing when crafting a story and I (a queer woman) am always here for queer authors writing queer characters who are multi-layered, complicated messes.

That being said... this book was not for me. And I couldn't put my finger on why I was feeling, quite frankly, used, after finishing The Better Liar. The writing was well done. The characters aren't just paper doll cut-outs, they have depth and nuance and multi-faceted relationships with each other. The pacing is exceptionally slow at first but then you're doing 100mph in a 45 so it balances out. The story's premise was original and the author was delivering until, abruptly, she wasn't.

And then I realized why I felt used. It was because this book, which started out very promising, devolved into the lowest form of itself and used cheap tactics to make it feel more interesting than it actually was.

I had a lot of problems with this book:

- An unreliable narrator from all three POVs? It's a cheap story-telling tactic. Listen, as someone who TORE through this book, it's a tactic that obviously works as it forces tension on the reader, because goddamn it, I just want to know. But when EVERY POV IS UNRELIABLE it creates an incredibly shaky foundation for your reader; suddenly we don't know if we know anything--that's not fun, it's irritating and ultimately backfires because part of the fun of thrillers is trying to figure it before the characters do. Guess what? That fun was lost as we spent over 100 pages slogging through trying to figure out what Leslie's true motivations were, when we should've spent that time dissecting Mary and delving into that character. BUT because of the "twist" (I called it on page 3--page 3, guys) all we get is surface level tension lies, lies, lies, lies. 

- All of our POV characters purposely lose time, don't go into detail about important things, or too much detail about unimportant things (peanut crumbs in the hotel room, I'm looking at you). The ploy of it all would have been forgivable if the story had been better.

-Because of the author's need to keep all three of our narrator's unreliable there were times that their voices weren't distinct and I forgot whose perspective I was reading from. MULTIPLE TIMES I had to go back and check the chapter header to see who I was reading about. That's more problematic than I have time to discuss.

- The big twist would have been a lot more fun if it wouldn't have been handed to us immediately. I'm fine with big twists being obvious if the rest of the plot is good/interesting--the rest of the plot was not good/interesting, in fact it's precision immaculate and that's not good. There should have been more mess from Mary and Leslie for us to sort through, a little more meat to this plot for us to chew on. Instead it's a straight line from A to Z.

- A story presented as an insidious and twisty thriller about women trying to game a family inheritance for shady reasons? Hell yes, sign me up. What this book actually was, was super boring. Jones attempted to give us a family drama as a thriller because we're trying to figure out which character is actually the sociopath--Jones does a good job of drawing it out and making you go, "Hmm, maybe?" but then the plot/story/characters do exactly as expected and it's all very lackluster.

- I take issue with Leslie's motivations. And Jones addresses Leslie's 'motivation' at the end of the book, which I appreciate, but it doesn't make me any less pissed off about the use of it. I think Jones wrote it well enough, but it was another cheap tactic that lessened the shine of what could've been an interesting character and motivation. Like why couldn't she have this issue, but be handling it (it's 2020 for the love of God, mental health care is not an unknown entity to a well-educated, white woman), and have her need the 50,000 to start a fight club or something? 

- Spoiler. (view spoiler)[ How the fuck do you not recognize your own sister? Listen: I have a sister, who due to our geographic distance, I have not gotten to see more than once every two years since I was eighteen (I'm almost thirty). We have both changed a great deal physically and every time we see the other, we both go, "holy shit, I barely recognized you," and it's bullshit. We are sisters, we--along with our brother--would know each other in a crowd of a fucking thousand no matter the changes. And we are not distinctive looking people either. And that's because you recognize the people you grew up with not because of the way they look, but because your parents fucked you all up in the same ways and that's what you recognize in each other. Jones attempts to explain Mary and Robin's physical similarities with the line that all pretty people look like each other. And like, maybe? And like, Leslie believing the lie because she wanted Robin to be dead? COME ON. If I was regularly looking my sister in the face--no matter her hair color, no matter how terrible we were to each other, no matter how much time passed--I would know her. I do not buy it.  (hide spoiler)]

- Can we please stop writing sociopaths born of sad families (maybe she's a psychopath, we're never given a clear answer) whose parents didn't love them enough? Please? Give me a sociopath with loving parents and siblings, that'd be interesting as hell.

There are going to be a lot of people who really love this book--but if anything I mentioned above rubs you the wrong way as it does me, I would suggest skipping this one.

Harmony-Rose &
The Better Liar by Tanen Jones

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