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allthatissim 's review for:
Tell Me No Lies
by Adele Griffin
Full review on: Flipping Through the Pages
Actual rating: 3.5 stars
Trigger warnings: suicide, seizures, mentions of rape and AIDS
[b:Tell Me No Lies|35489153|Tell Me No Lies|Adele Griffin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1519614279s/35489153.jpg|56889526] is an entertaining read. It is set in late 80’s and follows the life of Lizzie, our MC, and the changes she is acquiring to. Lizzie has Epilepsy and she often fights with mild concussions and rare seizures. This is a secret she never wants to talk about with anyone because she was ashamed of it. When a new girl Claire enters her school, Lizzie finds a new friend in her and tried to be free and bold as her. Claire is also hiding a secret about his ex-boyfriend Jay. Matt was a long-time crush of Lizzie and when he finally shows her that he feels the same for her, she was happy but terrified at the same time. But when the friendship between Claire, Matt, and Dave started growing, Lizzie finds herself out of the loop and then finds a hard-hitting truth.
I’m really conflicted in my opinions about this book. While I really enjoyed the plot, somehow I wasn’t able to connect to any of the characters as much as I wanted to.
What I Liked
-----------------------
* The plot of the story was my favorite. The story starts in summer and goes all the way till April next year. Lizzie was in the senior year and she goes through so many changes in that year. She befriends with Claire, Dave, and Matt while handling her seizures. In each part of the story, there was some plot to get you hooked to the story and turn the pages.
* I loved Gage and Mini’s characters. They were Lizzie’s childhood friends and was always there for her. However, when Claire enters Lizzie’s life, she very much parted distance with them because of the things she wanted from her life. Mini and gage were kinds of a nerd, as was Lizzie before meeting Claire. It definitely hurt me when Lizzie was drifting apart from them.
* Though I don’t know much about the era of the 80s in foreign, I loved some of the backdrops. I have no idea about the 80s music for other countries but it definitely sounded like the good ones, as many have definitely praised for the music.
* As the title states, there are so many secrets involved with everyone. Lizzie kept her epilepsy as a secret and doesn’t want to tell about it to her new friends. Claire has this whole kind of secret about her ex. Matt and Dave had their own secrets. All these secrets perfectly align with the title of the book.
* This story perfectly captured the changing lives of teenagers. Each of them had different ambitions but at the same time, they were not sure what they want from their lives. While deciding their future, they go through acceptance and love, along with changing relationships and how they affect them.
* I really liked the writing style of the author. This book was definitely long but because of her writing style, I was able to end it sooner than expected.
* I loved how the author ended the story. There is no definite conclusion but you can sure make it as you like it. That ending left many possibilities but in the end, friendship was the outcome that I gathered.
What I didn’t like
-------------------------------
* I was not able to connect to the main character Lizzy as much as I wanted to. Lizzy was sure a wonderful character but sometimes her decisions felt flat. I hated when she abandoned her childhood friends Gage and Mini for being with Claire.
* This book was definitely slow in the beginning. It took a lot of concentration to continue reading it to 20%. But I am glad after that it was quite easy to go through it.
* I love a book with friendships. Though this book had many aspects of friendships, I am sad that none of them felt real. Gage, Mini, and Lizzie were a friend since childhood and yet Lizzie always finds herself drifting apart from them. Lizzie and Claire’s friendship too took a hard turn.
* While I appreciate the lots of turns and secrets in the story, I somehow felt that these secrets stopped the overall growth of Lizzie’s character. Those secrets turned her from her real ambitions and friends and she found herself in many difficult situations at times.
* It was good to read the 80s references. But being a person who doesn’t know much about that era, it was really difficult to get all those music references.
* I really rooted for Mimi’s brother Theo. I really wished there was more part of him in the story.
Overall, this was a good read and an entertaining one. The plot of the story is really good and the author’s writing will keep you hooked until the end. The story captures so many aspects like friendships, love and more than that, acceptance. It is a perfect read for the people who enjoy stories set in the 80s. It also covers a lot of issues and I loved the way authored has handled epilepsy. It’s definitely something to look out for this summer!
** Thank you Algonquin Young Readers & the author for providing me a copy n exchange for an honest review.
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Actual rating: 3.5 stars
Trigger warnings: suicide, seizures, mentions of rape and AIDS
[b:Tell Me No Lies|35489153|Tell Me No Lies|Adele Griffin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1519614279s/35489153.jpg|56889526] is an entertaining read. It is set in late 80’s and follows the life of Lizzie, our MC, and the changes she is acquiring to. Lizzie has Epilepsy and she often fights with mild concussions and rare seizures. This is a secret she never wants to talk about with anyone because she was ashamed of it. When a new girl Claire enters her school, Lizzie finds a new friend in her and tried to be free and bold as her. Claire is also hiding a secret about his ex-boyfriend Jay. Matt was a long-time crush of Lizzie and when he finally shows her that he feels the same for her, she was happy but terrified at the same time. But when the friendship between Claire, Matt, and Dave started growing, Lizzie finds herself out of the loop and then finds a hard-hitting truth.
I’m really conflicted in my opinions about this book. While I really enjoyed the plot, somehow I wasn’t able to connect to any of the characters as much as I wanted to.
What I Liked
-----------------------
* The plot of the story was my favorite. The story starts in summer and goes all the way till April next year. Lizzie was in the senior year and she goes through so many changes in that year. She befriends with Claire, Dave, and Matt while handling her seizures. In each part of the story, there was some plot to get you hooked to the story and turn the pages.
* I loved Gage and Mini’s characters. They were Lizzie’s childhood friends and was always there for her. However, when Claire enters Lizzie’s life, she very much parted distance with them because of the things she wanted from her life. Mini and gage were kinds of a nerd, as was Lizzie before meeting Claire. It definitely hurt me when Lizzie was drifting apart from them.
* Though I don’t know much about the era of the 80s in foreign, I loved some of the backdrops. I have no idea about the 80s music for other countries but it definitely sounded like the good ones, as many have definitely praised for the music.
* As the title states, there are so many secrets involved with everyone. Lizzie kept her epilepsy as a secret and doesn’t want to tell about it to her new friends. Claire has this whole kind of secret about her ex. Matt and Dave had their own secrets. All these secrets perfectly align with the title of the book.
* This story perfectly captured the changing lives of teenagers. Each of them had different ambitions but at the same time, they were not sure what they want from their lives. While deciding their future, they go through acceptance and love, along with changing relationships and how they affect them.
* I really liked the writing style of the author. This book was definitely long but because of her writing style, I was able to end it sooner than expected.
* I loved how the author ended the story. There is no definite conclusion but you can sure make it as you like it. That ending left many possibilities but in the end, friendship was the outcome that I gathered.
What I didn’t like
-------------------------------
* I was not able to connect to the main character Lizzy as much as I wanted to. Lizzy was sure a wonderful character but sometimes her decisions felt flat. I hated when she abandoned her childhood friends Gage and Mini for being with Claire.
* This book was definitely slow in the beginning. It took a lot of concentration to continue reading it to 20%. But I am glad after that it was quite easy to go through it.
* I love a book with friendships. Though this book had many aspects of friendships, I am sad that none of them felt real. Gage, Mini, and Lizzie were a friend since childhood and yet Lizzie always finds herself drifting apart from them. Lizzie and Claire’s friendship too took a hard turn.
* While I appreciate the lots of turns and secrets in the story, I somehow felt that these secrets stopped the overall growth of Lizzie’s character. Those secrets turned her from her real ambitions and friends and she found herself in many difficult situations at times.
* It was good to read the 80s references. But being a person who doesn’t know much about that era, it was really difficult to get all those music references.
* I really rooted for Mimi’s brother Theo. I really wished there was more part of him in the story.
Overall, this was a good read and an entertaining one. The plot of the story is really good and the author’s writing will keep you hooked until the end. The story captures so many aspects like friendships, love and more than that, acceptance. It is a perfect read for the people who enjoy stories set in the 80s. It also covers a lot of issues and I loved the way authored has handled epilepsy. It’s definitely something to look out for this summer!
** Thank you Algonquin Young Readers & the author for providing me a copy n exchange for an honest review.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Google+ | Amazon