It’s been fun to be in a regular book club with friends. My friends started it towards the beginning of the year, but I joined a few months ago due to prior commitments. Being in a book club has helped expose me to new authors or genres I don’t normally read. This month’s book choice was Never Lie by Freida McFadden. I haven’t read anything by Freida McFadden before reading this book. It seems like the book she’s known for was The Housemaid. Never Lie kept my interest which is exactly what I wanted from this book.

Tricia and Ethan are newlyweds who are looking to buy a house. They trek to a showing for a home that used to belong to infamous psychiatrist, Dr. Adrienne Hale. Adrienne disappeared several years ago and hasn’t been seen since. Tricia and Ethan are trapped in the house due to the snow outside. As they go through Adrienne’s belongings, Tricia finds a hidden room with interview tapes from Adrienne’s patients. Tricia becomes obsessed with listening to the tapes and uncovering what happened to Adrienne.

Never Lie was a page-turner. I had a friend over at my house and with only thirty pages left in the book, I told her I needed to finish this book. She understood as she’s a reader as well. If I’m reading a thriller and I don’t feel compelled to keep reading, there’s no way I would give it above a two-star rating. There’s enough intrigue with Never Lie and I like how the story is told. There are chapters jumping back and forth in perspective from Adrienne before her disappearance and Tricia as she’s exploring Adrienne’s house. There are sections with the transcript of Adrienne’s interviews as Tricia plays the tapes. I liked the concept of this and while this isn’t new, I found it interesting to read.

Another thing I liked about Never Lie was the setting. Never Lie primarily takes place in a historic mansion with the backdrop of the snowstorm trapping Tricia and Ethan in the house. It gives more of a horror vibe since there isn’t anywhere for Tricia and Ethan to go but stay in the house. It adds to the creepiness of the book.

With that said, there were portions of the book I wasn’t a fan of. Tricia as a character was the worst. She came off as obtuse and naive. She would talk about Ethan in a way where she would recognize his red flags and then immediately play it off as not being a big deal. Now that I finished the book and I know the twist, this all makes sense. The twist is predictable and something that has been done in other thrillers I have read. Am I becoming a book hipster now? Most of the characters aren’t good people except for Luke. I have read thrillers where all the characters suck and loved those books, but I can’t say the same for Never Lie.

I hate to harp on this, but the events that unfolded in Never Lie were not logical. Without spoilers, the way that some of the characters acted, I find it so hard to believe. The characters were not smart at times which is weird to me. Adrienne Hale has multiple PhDs and yet, she made some of the silliest decisions in the book. I don’t think this ruined the book for me, but also, I wouldn’t find myself re-reading this book in the future.

In writing this review, it makes it seem like I did not like this book. I did like Never Lie. I finished the book in two days and would have stopped reading it if I didn’t like it. I don’t think there was anything groundbreaking or unique about this book which is fine. I’m waffling on whether I would read another Freida McFadden book because this book didn’t wow me, but maybe I haven’t given her enough credit. I rated Never Lie three stars on Goodreads.