What do you think?
Rate this book
Everything You Told Me
You went to bed at home, just like every other night.
You woke up in the back of a taxi, over 250 miles away.
You have no idea how you got there and no memory of the last ten hours.
You have no phone, no money; just a suicide note in your coat pocket, in your own writing.
You know you weren’t planning to kill yourself.
Your family and friends think you are lying.
Someone knows exactly what happened to you.
But they’re not telling…
Impossible to put down psychological suspense, perfect for fans of Mark Edwards, Louise Jensen and Lisa Hall.
You woke up in the back of a taxi, over 250 miles away.
You have no idea how you got there and no memory of the last ten hours.
You have no phone, no money; just a suicide note in your coat pocket, in your own writing.
You know you weren’t planning to kill yourself.
Your family and friends think you are lying.
Someone knows exactly what happened to you.
But they’re not telling…
Impossible to put down psychological suspense, perfect for fans of Mark Edwards, Louise Jensen and Lisa Hall.
324 pages, Paperback
First published January 5, 2017
About the author
Lucy Dawson
19 books633 followersLucy studied Psychology at Warwick University before becoming a children’s magazine editor. Her first bestselling book – His Other Lover – was published in 2008. Since then she has published four other novels and her work has been translated into numerous other languages. She lives in Exeter with her husband and children. Lucy finds writing in the third person uncomfortable.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 376 reviews
February 10, 2018
An enjoyable, clever psychological mystery with clever plotting and believable characters. Recommended!
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
September 17, 2020
Twitter |
Goodreads |
Blog |
Instagram |
I seem to be having a binge on Lucy Dawson books at the moment.
I’ve one left to read.
I liked this one well enough, it started off with a whooper of a plot that kept my interest. However, the aura of how this woman is isn’t any means unique.
The saga of “can’t remember anything”. It seems to be used over and over again to make a story. Each story different and some better weaved than others.
This one was a better woven story I’m glad to say.
It lost its peak for me in the middle but soon recovered its moments so, all in all I liked it.
Another troop was a “mother exhausted looking after her child” then she sort of gets muddled.
So we need to learn what’s what, whose doing what and why.
Just not unique enough for me to cheer it on.
Liked it, didn’t love it.
Goodreads |
Blog |
Instagram |
I seem to be having a binge on Lucy Dawson books at the moment.
I’ve one left to read.
I liked this one well enough, it started off with a whooper of a plot that kept my interest. However, the aura of how this woman is isn’t any means unique.
The saga of “can’t remember anything”. It seems to be used over and over again to make a story. Each story different and some better weaved than others.
This one was a better woven story I’m glad to say.
It lost its peak for me in the middle but soon recovered its moments so, all in all I liked it.
Another troop was a “mother exhausted looking after her child” then she sort of gets muddled.
So we need to learn what’s what, whose doing what and why.
Just not unique enough for me to cheer it on.
Liked it, didn’t love it.
October 17, 2022
A frazzled mother wakes up in the back of a taxi, over 250 miles away from home with no phone and a suicide note in her coat pocket.
She's ready to jump off a cliff but is saved by a stranger.
Was the mother really suicidal or was she being set up and gaslighted?
I am a huge Lucy Dawson fan but this book fell flat for me.
Too many eye-rolling moments and too much repetitive text.
The book dragged. The book's twists were predictable and I guessed them all.
I listened to the 10-hour audiobook that easily could have been a 7-hour book.
2.5 stars
She's ready to jump off a cliff but is saved by a stranger.
Was the mother really suicidal or was she being set up and gaslighted?
I am a huge Lucy Dawson fan but this book fell flat for me.
Too many eye-rolling moments and too much repetitive text.
The book dragged. The book's twists were predictable and I guessed them all.
I listened to the 10-hour audiobook that easily could have been a 7-hour book.
2.5 stars
January 30, 2020
I actually really enjoyed this. The plot was quite derivative - someone seems to be out to ‘get’ harassed young mother Sally as she struggles to cope with 6 month old baby Theo who never seems to settle or sleep for any length of time. Her husband seems awfully selfish and self-absorbed. Thank goodness for her mother-in-law who arrives to lend a hand.
Then the weirdness starts. Her brother Will arrives with his girlfriend, Kelly who is a soapie actress. They announce their engagement. Sally doesn’t like Kelly and finds that the feeling is mutual. Kelly seems to threaten her. That night she goes to bed in her pyjamas and wakes up at dawn on the Cornish coast, in a taxi with exactly £400 in her pocket for the fare. The driver is keen for her to get out. She is disoriented and stumbles towards the cliff edge. A local walking (his dog?) thinks she is about to jump and rushes to save her. Her family is naturally aghast and she is smothered with concern while not being allowed a minutes privacy. They don’t believe she would never leave her children by committing suicide. But Lauren is appalled by that lapse of memory, 10 missing hours and wonders if she is losing it through sheer exhaustion.
More weirdness and more concern until Lauren is totally stifled and doesn’t know whom to trust. I must say that the constant querying - “are you okay?”, “is everything alright?”, “are you sure?”, “should you...?” Would have almost driven me to suicide! I hate people fussing over me and “are you sure” is particularly grating. Of course I’m sure, I said it didn’t I? Lauren dealt with that intrusion much better than I would have. The ending though - what can I say, it was a bit WTF. I did think that the eventual culprit may have been the culprit but still, I didn’t quite expect that ending and I’m not sure that it worked for me. Talk about pushing a stereotype to the limits!
In summary, there were a few aspects that were less than perfect but the usual Lucy Dawson flair for drama helped propel this one across the line. I may not have loved it but I did enjoy it and it did suck me right in and gripped me until the end. The end.
Then the weirdness starts. Her brother Will arrives with his girlfriend, Kelly who is a soapie actress. They announce their engagement. Sally doesn’t like Kelly and finds that the feeling is mutual. Kelly seems to threaten her. That night she goes to bed in her pyjamas and wakes up at dawn on the Cornish coast, in a taxi with exactly £400 in her pocket for the fare. The driver is keen for her to get out. She is disoriented and stumbles towards the cliff edge. A local walking (his dog?) thinks she is about to jump and rushes to save her. Her family is naturally aghast and she is smothered with concern while not being allowed a minutes privacy. They don’t believe she would never leave her children by committing suicide. But Lauren is appalled by that lapse of memory, 10 missing hours and wonders if she is losing it through sheer exhaustion.
More weirdness and more concern until Lauren is totally stifled and doesn’t know whom to trust. I must say that the constant querying - “are you okay?”, “is everything alright?”, “are you sure?”, “should you...?” Would have almost driven me to suicide! I hate people fussing over me and “are you sure” is particularly grating. Of course I’m sure, I said it didn’t I? Lauren dealt with that intrusion much better than I would have. The ending though - what can I say, it was a bit WTF. I did think that the eventual culprit may have been the culprit but still, I didn’t quite expect that ending and I’m not sure that it worked for me. Talk about pushing a stereotype to the limits!
In summary, there were a few aspects that were less than perfect but the usual Lucy Dawson flair for drama helped propel this one across the line. I may not have loved it but I did enjoy it and it did suck me right in and gripped me until the end. The end.
February 7, 2017
This is my first book by Lucy Dawson and on paper it seemed to have everything I wanted in a suspense novel, an unreliable narrator who suffers from a "fugue" and so is unable to remember what has happened to her one night. Her quest for the truth is then a twisty turny journey full of unlikable characters ,red herrings and dead ends galore. So did I love it? It was okay!
This actually started really well, with a great opener where Sally wakes up in a taxi hundreds of miles from her home. The last memory she has is of going to bed and she is shocked to discover that she has £400 to pay off the taxi, but she is in her pyjamas still with no phone. After being taken home by police who seem to think she was suicidal due to a note found in her pocket, she struggles to get people, including her own family, to believe that she has no memory of that night.
But after such an intriguing start, the plot never quite came together for me. Sally was supposed to have been a character we felt empathy with due to her exhaustion as she struggled with a baby who didn't sleep. I just found her utterly self obsessed and incredibly annoying! In fact, I didn't like any of the characters here-they were all so self absorbed and condescending that I could not have cared less who did what or why! This doesn't necessarily mean I don't enjoy books like this as sometimes I become so involved in the complex plotting that the book becomes unputdownable, it just didn't happen for me here.
I will probably be in the minority here as I've seen some cracking 4 and 5 star reviews for this. But I think that, unfortunately, I have read similar plot developments recently which rather put this one in the shade for me personally. It probably didnt help that I guessed most of the plot twists earlier in the book than I expected to and wasn't grabbed by an uncontrollable urge to finish it to see if I right. So if you are tempted the blurb and it's your sort of psychological suspense then you will probably enjoy this, it just didnt light my fire as much as I would have liked. Saying that I would happily try this author again as she definitely has it in her writing to bring out lots of emotions in me!
This actually started really well, with a great opener where Sally wakes up in a taxi hundreds of miles from her home. The last memory she has is of going to bed and she is shocked to discover that she has £400 to pay off the taxi, but she is in her pyjamas still with no phone. After being taken home by police who seem to think she was suicidal due to a note found in her pocket, she struggles to get people, including her own family, to believe that she has no memory of that night.
But after such an intriguing start, the plot never quite came together for me. Sally was supposed to have been a character we felt empathy with due to her exhaustion as she struggled with a baby who didn't sleep. I just found her utterly self obsessed and incredibly annoying! In fact, I didn't like any of the characters here-they were all so self absorbed and condescending that I could not have cared less who did what or why! This doesn't necessarily mean I don't enjoy books like this as sometimes I become so involved in the complex plotting that the book becomes unputdownable, it just didn't happen for me here.
I will probably be in the minority here as I've seen some cracking 4 and 5 star reviews for this. But I think that, unfortunately, I have read similar plot developments recently which rather put this one in the shade for me personally. It probably didnt help that I guessed most of the plot twists earlier in the book than I expected to and wasn't grabbed by an uncontrollable urge to finish it to see if I right. So if you are tempted the blurb and it's your sort of psychological suspense then you will probably enjoy this, it just didnt light my fire as much as I would have liked. Saying that I would happily try this author again as she definitely has it in her writing to bring out lots of emotions in me!
July 20, 2019
Every time I really enjoy a book I always make it A MUST BUY-MUST READ!
This happens to be my favourite book by one of my favourite authors. I was gripped from the page until the very last word. There are twists in Everything You Told Me that I certainly didn't see coming and I enjoyed reading about all the little twist.
Sally in her pyjamas and a wax jacket woke up 300 miles away from her Kent home in a taxi but had the correct money of £400 to pay the taxi driver. She woke up in the back of the taxi with a hangover and completely disoriented and later was found at an edge of a cliff. How did sally get into the taxi in the first place? And how did she get the money of £400 to pay the taxi driver? Someone knows exactly how this happened to sally and why.
This happens to be my favourite book by one of my favourite authors. I was gripped from the page until the very last word. There are twists in Everything You Told Me that I certainly didn't see coming and I enjoyed reading about all the little twist.
Sally in her pyjamas and a wax jacket woke up 300 miles away from her Kent home in a taxi but had the correct money of £400 to pay the taxi driver. She woke up in the back of the taxi with a hangover and completely disoriented and later was found at an edge of a cliff. How did sally get into the taxi in the first place? And how did she get the money of £400 to pay the taxi driver? Someone knows exactly how this happened to sally and why.
October 11, 2017
I wish she'd jumped.
I have never come across such an insane, dangerous and irritating narrator.
Okay, the premise of this book sounds pretty good. There's this frazzled house wife with two kids who's just about reached the end of her tether. Her marriage is under strain, her sanity is a breaking point, and her youngest just refuses to sleep. She's understandably struggling. Then she goes to bed one night, and wakes up in the back of a taxi hundreds of miles away. She's confused and the driver boots her out before driving away at top speed. She's on top of a cliff and nearly falls before she's 'rescued' by a passerby who phones the police. She's put on suicide watch, and nobody believes she wasn't trying to jump.
Doesn't sound so bad, does it? There were a few things I'm not happy with just in that little synopsis though. For a start, what taxi driver would accept a woman in that condition into his cab, never mind drive them such a distance. Either they would refuse, or they would go to a hospital. The author may have no faith in cabbie's, but honestly, there are rules to follow in this sort of circumstance. Also, the person who tackled her to the floor and 'rescued' her from jumping - the book makes out this person to be an interfering busybody, but frankly this person did a stunning job and deserves more credit than the narrator gives him. He probably saved this ungrateful woman's life.
After that, we get into the story proper. Firstly, her husband doesn't believe her. He thinks she tried to kill herself. Also, her brother, his girlfriend, her mother-in-law, and her mother and father all think she tried to kill herself. Literally nobody believes her. That is unbelievable. I actually have a history of self harm (long story, but I'm better now), but if I claimed this had happened to me I would be believed. I know I would. Especially by those who love me. Why didn't she involve police?
The fact that the Crisis Team delivered a half-hearted phone call was unbelievable too. They would have assessed, visited, and spoken to her repeatedly before finally giving her over into the care of a doctor to received antidepressants. None of this happens. It's like the author didn't even bother to research what happened in these sort of cases.
Then our main character starts focusing on her brothers girlfriend, who she assumes (with no evidence other than that she doesn't like her) perpetrated the whole affair. She threatens her, is physically violent, and even breaks into her home and rummages through her belongings. All the time, we're supposed to side with the narrator, and consider all these actions normal bordering on necessary. I didn't. Not even close. This woman is crazy.
She declares she is not depressed, but exhibits perfects signs. She's weepy, irritable, tired, and even goes so far as to couple alcohol with pills of her own volition. Wow.
She is a bad wife, constantly putting her stress and strain above that of her husband, who works and helps with the children. She never asks him how he is, instead griping that he won't take a bin out, and then yelling at him about noise when he does. She snaps at him when he interacts with the children, and refuses his help in looking after them, only to be mad that he doesn't help.
She is a bad mother too. While I don't contest the fact that she loves her children, she spoils them far to much. She hand feeds her daughter who is old enough to do it herself, instantly obeys whatever she is asked of, bribes her with candy, contradicts her husband, and never shouts when things get out of hand. There are no rules for the kids, nothing can be discussed in front of them, and she won't let anyone else close to them without complaining for hours.
There are a few other things too. She accuses her soon to be sister-in-law of stealing money to buy a wedding ring, based on the evidence that the ring she has seen cannot have 'only been £7,000'. What? Are we supposed to believe you can now instantly tell the value difference of a 7k or 70k ring just by looking at it briefly? Woah, that's a talent.
Her mother-in-law is a counselor who breaks patient confidentiality to tell the narrator something bad about her sister-in-law. That is a stretch too far. Nobody would break such a strict oath, ever. Already, that should set alarm bells ringing, but no. Whatever, that is totally normal.
She has a suicide note on her when she is found on the clifftop. It reads like a suicide note, but we are privy to the knowledge that it was just a apology to her husband for a fight they'd have. Only it reads as the most awkward apology ever, and why wouldn't you just, you know, say you're sorry? The note really didn't work. It was a horrendous piece of writing.
Then we discover the creme de la creme, it turns out the narrator has tried to kill herself before! Gasp! She took an overdose in college when she was dumped by her boyfriend. She insists she was drunk, and we're supposed to think that it was perfectly understandable under the circumstances. Stupid, but understandable. We've all tried to kill ourselves in college, right? No?
I have to say the climax was expected. There were no surprises, no great twist. It was exactly who I suspected, the husband and mother-in-law, and the evidence came to light thanks to a neighbour who just so happened to film the entire thing. But then, wow! In the final face off the husband gets killed by running in front of a random car, a random car that was going so fast in a supermarket car park that it managed to kill him. What? That was sudden, and pointless. And unbelievable, again.
There is no justice for the mother-in-law. The narrator decides not to tell anyone about it at all, instead preferring to move straight on to her childhood boyfriend (the one she nearly OD'd over in college). This woman is toxic. She shouldn't be allowed out in society, never mind in charge of children. And if the author thinks this behaviour is normal, I would suggest she seeks help as soon as possible.
All in all, I don't recommend this. It could have been something, but sadly it wasn't.
I have never come across such an insane, dangerous and irritating narrator.
Okay, the premise of this book sounds pretty good. There's this frazzled house wife with two kids who's just about reached the end of her tether. Her marriage is under strain, her sanity is a breaking point, and her youngest just refuses to sleep. She's understandably struggling. Then she goes to bed one night, and wakes up in the back of a taxi hundreds of miles away. She's confused and the driver boots her out before driving away at top speed. She's on top of a cliff and nearly falls before she's 'rescued' by a passerby who phones the police. She's put on suicide watch, and nobody believes she wasn't trying to jump.
Doesn't sound so bad, does it? There were a few things I'm not happy with just in that little synopsis though. For a start, what taxi driver would accept a woman in that condition into his cab, never mind drive them such a distance. Either they would refuse, or they would go to a hospital. The author may have no faith in cabbie's, but honestly, there are rules to follow in this sort of circumstance. Also, the person who tackled her to the floor and 'rescued' her from jumping - the book makes out this person to be an interfering busybody, but frankly this person did a stunning job and deserves more credit than the narrator gives him. He probably saved this ungrateful woman's life.
After that, we get into the story proper. Firstly, her husband doesn't believe her. He thinks she tried to kill herself. Also, her brother, his girlfriend, her mother-in-law, and her mother and father all think she tried to kill herself. Literally nobody believes her. That is unbelievable. I actually have a history of self harm (long story, but I'm better now), but if I claimed this had happened to me I would be believed. I know I would. Especially by those who love me. Why didn't she involve police?
The fact that the Crisis Team delivered a half-hearted phone call was unbelievable too. They would have assessed, visited, and spoken to her repeatedly before finally giving her over into the care of a doctor to received antidepressants. None of this happens. It's like the author didn't even bother to research what happened in these sort of cases.
Then our main character starts focusing on her brothers girlfriend, who she assumes (with no evidence other than that she doesn't like her) perpetrated the whole affair. She threatens her, is physically violent, and even breaks into her home and rummages through her belongings. All the time, we're supposed to side with the narrator, and consider all these actions normal bordering on necessary. I didn't. Not even close. This woman is crazy.
She declares she is not depressed, but exhibits perfects signs. She's weepy, irritable, tired, and even goes so far as to couple alcohol with pills of her own volition. Wow.
She is a bad wife, constantly putting her stress and strain above that of her husband, who works and helps with the children. She never asks him how he is, instead griping that he won't take a bin out, and then yelling at him about noise when he does. She snaps at him when he interacts with the children, and refuses his help in looking after them, only to be mad that he doesn't help.
She is a bad mother too. While I don't contest the fact that she loves her children, she spoils them far to much. She hand feeds her daughter who is old enough to do it herself, instantly obeys whatever she is asked of, bribes her with candy, contradicts her husband, and never shouts when things get out of hand. There are no rules for the kids, nothing can be discussed in front of them, and she won't let anyone else close to them without complaining for hours.
There are a few other things too. She accuses her soon to be sister-in-law of stealing money to buy a wedding ring, based on the evidence that the ring she has seen cannot have 'only been £7,000'. What? Are we supposed to believe you can now instantly tell the value difference of a 7k or 70k ring just by looking at it briefly? Woah, that's a talent.
Her mother-in-law is a counselor who breaks patient confidentiality to tell the narrator something bad about her sister-in-law. That is a stretch too far. Nobody would break such a strict oath, ever. Already, that should set alarm bells ringing, but no. Whatever, that is totally normal.
She has a suicide note on her when she is found on the clifftop. It reads like a suicide note, but we are privy to the knowledge that it was just a apology to her husband for a fight they'd have. Only it reads as the most awkward apology ever, and why wouldn't you just, you know, say you're sorry? The note really didn't work. It was a horrendous piece of writing.
Then we discover the creme de la creme, it turns out the narrator has tried to kill herself before! Gasp! She took an overdose in college when she was dumped by her boyfriend. She insists she was drunk, and we're supposed to think that it was perfectly understandable under the circumstances. Stupid, but understandable. We've all tried to kill ourselves in college, right? No?
I have to say the climax was expected. There were no surprises, no great twist. It was exactly who I suspected, the husband and mother-in-law, and the evidence came to light thanks to a neighbour who just so happened to film the entire thing. But then, wow! In the final face off the husband gets killed by running in front of a random car, a random car that was going so fast in a supermarket car park that it managed to kill him. What? That was sudden, and pointless. And unbelievable, again.
There is no justice for the mother-in-law. The narrator decides not to tell anyone about it at all, instead preferring to move straight on to her childhood boyfriend (the one she nearly OD'd over in college). This woman is toxic. She shouldn't be allowed out in society, never mind in charge of children. And if the author thinks this behaviour is normal, I would suggest she seeks help as soon as possible.
All in all, I don't recommend this. It could have been something, but sadly it wasn't.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2017
SYNOPSIS
You went to bed at home, just like every other night.
You woke up in the back of a taxi, over 250 miles away.
You have no idea how you got there and no memory of the last ten hours.
You have no phone, no money; just a suicide note in your coat pocket, in your own writing.
You know you weren’t planning to kill yourself.
Your family and friends think you are lying.
Someone knows exactly what happened to you.
But they’re not telling…
REVIEW
Well. My first book finished of 2017 and my first outing of a Lucy Dawson book. If this little gem is anything to go by, it's going to be another cracking year in books.
This is really one of the books that has you completely interested from the first chapter. The plot is beautifully plotted and executed fantastically. The close knit family characters are a very believable bunch, and when they all rally around Sally on arriving home, they all start to play their part in discovering what has happened. And let the fun begin...
There are twists in twists, lies in lies, and keeps you intensely gripped. It won't leave you alone. Every time you put it down, you're immediately picking it back up again, trying to unravel what is going on. Everything you crave in a psychological thriller is here.
I did unfortunately have a genuine idea who the perpetrator or perpetrators were, but all is still not to be believed as the story keeps throwing more and more bombshells at you in a shocking finale.
The ending is mind boggling!
A big, fat and solid 4* from me!!
You went to bed at home, just like every other night.
You woke up in the back of a taxi, over 250 miles away.
You have no idea how you got there and no memory of the last ten hours.
You have no phone, no money; just a suicide note in your coat pocket, in your own writing.
You know you weren’t planning to kill yourself.
Your family and friends think you are lying.
Someone knows exactly what happened to you.
But they’re not telling…
REVIEW
Well. My first book finished of 2017 and my first outing of a Lucy Dawson book. If this little gem is anything to go by, it's going to be another cracking year in books.
This is really one of the books that has you completely interested from the first chapter. The plot is beautifully plotted and executed fantastically. The close knit family characters are a very believable bunch, and when they all rally around Sally on arriving home, they all start to play their part in discovering what has happened. And let the fun begin...
There are twists in twists, lies in lies, and keeps you intensely gripped. It won't leave you alone. Every time you put it down, you're immediately picking it back up again, trying to unravel what is going on. Everything you crave in a psychological thriller is here.
I did unfortunately have a genuine idea who the perpetrator or perpetrators were, but all is still not to be believed as the story keeps throwing more and more bombshells at you in a shocking finale.
The ending is mind boggling!
A big, fat and solid 4* from me!!
November 15, 2018
Sally wakes up hundreds of miles from home in a taxi. She has no idea how she got there, where the money to pay the driver came from or why she is deposited on a cliff top in her pyjamas, with a hand-written suicide note in her pocket. The last thing she remembers was going to sleep in her own bed, she wasn’t planning to commit suicide...was she?
The story has such an intriguing premise, and I really appreciate how the author writes about having a toddler and a newborn, especially with the accompanying sleep deprivation. However I found all of the characters unlikeable, including the ridiculously naive Sally, and so it was hard to care about her plight.
Although some of the story is unbelievable, it is a fun ride, but the ending was unsatisfactory and trite. I did enjoy the book, I just wish that it had lived up to its original premise. 3.5*
The story has such an intriguing premise, and I really appreciate how the author writes about having a toddler and a newborn, especially with the accompanying sleep deprivation. However I found all of the characters unlikeable, including the ridiculously naive Sally, and so it was hard to care about her plight.
Although some of the story is unbelievable, it is a fun ride, but the ending was unsatisfactory and trite. I did enjoy the book, I just wish that it had lived up to its original premise. 3.5*
April 29, 2023
A 2017 publication.
The blurb: You went to bed at home, just like every other night.
You woke up in the back of a taxi, over 250 miles away.
You have no idea how you got there and no memory of the last ten hours.
You have no phone, no money; just a suicide note in your coat pocket, in your own writing.
You know you weren’t planning to kill yourself.
Your family and friends think you are lying.
Someone knows exactly what happened to you.
But they’re not telling…
Books can be our best friends and our biggest enemies. Most of the time we find soulmates in characters we totally relate to and like. Other times we, unwillingly as well as unknowingly, relate to characters that we absolutely don't like. In fact, they annoy the living daylights out of us because they are us.
This is what's happening to our poor protagonist, Sally Hilman. Someone very nasty in her life told her: You have no idea how bloody lucky you are!’ .... ‘Two healthy children, a husband that loves you, a roof over your head. You don’t deserve any of it. That’s what I really loathe about women like you, Sally: your sense of entitlement. You have the world, but you want more, more, more. And everything is someone else’s fault. ...
... It’s so tragically easy to manipulate women of your generation because you’re all primed and ready to destroy each other at the earliest opportunity, underneath those fake smiles. All I did was exploit your natural jealousies and insecurities."
Now ain't that the truth? That's why dear Sally becomes the antihero in her own tale.
If Sally's exhaustive state, due to the non-sleeping crying baby, was supposed to garner empathy from the reader, it did not happen. It seems as though many readers felt this way. I experienced her as perhaps too self-obsessed, entitled, and whining from the lack of sleep. The chalk on the blackboard, sort of. Sally appeared to wear the badge of victimhood with honor. Not that any other characters were impressive, or even adorable, by any means. Sally had difficulty maintaining good relationships with the people around her. None of them really carried the flag for love and compassion so to speak.
The constant crying of the baby became annoying, like in really creepy. There was no obvious reason for the little boy to be unhappy all the time. Theo was healthy with no visible signs of any underlying ailments. Could it be the parenting, I wondered? He was not yet settled into a comfortable routine either. Cleo, her three-year-old daughter demanded her own attention and mommy-time. It was no surprise that Sally was sleep-deprived all the time. That was difficult enough, but to then not being believed by the people she loved was the most difficult issue to deal with.
TV exec Will Tanner, Sally's brother, arrived with his girlfriend Kim Harrington. An instant animosity ignited between Sally and this supposed soapie star, prospective sister-in-law. Two lionesses had their nails out for each other. Sally would do anything to protect her children from 'potentially harmful people', as her mother-in-law warned.
She had a tendency to constantly criticize Matthew, her husband, and seldom appreciates his hard work and dedication to his little family. She neverendingly complains to anybody who wants to listen, despite the fact that she is maybe a too overly good mother, spoiling her children, because she wanted to be needed, and raising them to be as insecure as herself. It perhaps leads to some of the surprises waiting for the reader ... hmmm... and her.
The only gripe I had was with the, perhaps, unnecessary melodramatic ending. It's kind of a happy-sad ending. At least, in the aftermath, little Theo stopped crying and started sleeping, or so it seemed! ... Phew! :-)
The plot was great. It was a good guessing game with, as I said, a few surprises in store. A sleaze-free, relaxing, entertaining read, for those readers who prefer these kind of cozy dramas.
Bottom line: if you're looking for a good family mystery, in which emotions are running high and backstabbing and betrayal are in vogue, this is for you! Trust me, you won't know where to point the gun... The author did an excellent job. The suspense is what might do the reader in. There are no guns, yes, no violence, in this tale, only a few well-crafted, intentional psychological hit jobs on the reader! :-)
I wanted to do a brain scrub, a chicken-soup-for-the-soul-read, to balance out the blood and gore of my most recent beloved suspense thriller reads. Come up for air, sort of. This was a perfect choice as an introduction to the next few reads lined up. The novel had enough oomph and intrigue to carry the tale through to its denouement.
I so enjoyed the cozy, yet twisted, domestic suspense. Immensely so! I will certainly read this author again.
RECOMMENDED
The blurb: You went to bed at home, just like every other night.
You woke up in the back of a taxi, over 250 miles away.
You have no idea how you got there and no memory of the last ten hours.
You have no phone, no money; just a suicide note in your coat pocket, in your own writing.
You know you weren’t planning to kill yourself.
Your family and friends think you are lying.
Someone knows exactly what happened to you.
But they’re not telling…
Here's the thing ─ if you create enough of a sense of chaos, your adversary won't know who the enemy is, and they certainly won't be able to aim the gun...
Books can be our best friends and our biggest enemies. Most of the time we find soulmates in characters we totally relate to and like. Other times we, unwillingly as well as unknowingly, relate to characters that we absolutely don't like. In fact, they annoy the living daylights out of us because they are us.
This is what's happening to our poor protagonist, Sally Hilman. Someone very nasty in her life told her: You have no idea how bloody lucky you are!’ .... ‘Two healthy children, a husband that loves you, a roof over your head. You don’t deserve any of it. That’s what I really loathe about women like you, Sally: your sense of entitlement. You have the world, but you want more, more, more. And everything is someone else’s fault. ...
... It’s so tragically easy to manipulate women of your generation because you’re all primed and ready to destroy each other at the earliest opportunity, underneath those fake smiles. All I did was exploit your natural jealousies and insecurities."
Now ain't that the truth? That's why dear Sally becomes the antihero in her own tale.
If Sally's exhaustive state, due to the non-sleeping crying baby, was supposed to garner empathy from the reader, it did not happen. It seems as though many readers felt this way. I experienced her as perhaps too self-obsessed, entitled, and whining from the lack of sleep. The chalk on the blackboard, sort of. Sally appeared to wear the badge of victimhood with honor. Not that any other characters were impressive, or even adorable, by any means. Sally had difficulty maintaining good relationships with the people around her. None of them really carried the flag for love and compassion so to speak.
The constant crying of the baby became annoying, like in really creepy. There was no obvious reason for the little boy to be unhappy all the time. Theo was healthy with no visible signs of any underlying ailments. Could it be the parenting, I wondered? He was not yet settled into a comfortable routine either. Cleo, her three-year-old daughter demanded her own attention and mommy-time. It was no surprise that Sally was sleep-deprived all the time. That was difficult enough, but to then not being believed by the people she loved was the most difficult issue to deal with.
TV exec Will Tanner, Sally's brother, arrived with his girlfriend Kim Harrington. An instant animosity ignited between Sally and this supposed soapie star, prospective sister-in-law. Two lionesses had their nails out for each other. Sally would do anything to protect her children from 'potentially harmful people', as her mother-in-law warned.
She had a tendency to constantly criticize Matthew, her husband, and seldom appreciates his hard work and dedication to his little family. She neverendingly complains to anybody who wants to listen, despite the fact that she is maybe a too overly good mother, spoiling her children, because she wanted to be needed, and raising them to be as insecure as herself. It perhaps leads to some of the surprises waiting for the reader ... hmmm... and her.
The only gripe I had was with the, perhaps, unnecessary melodramatic ending. It's kind of a happy-sad ending. At least, in the aftermath, little Theo stopped crying and started sleeping, or so it seemed! ... Phew! :-)
The plot was great. It was a good guessing game with, as I said, a few surprises in store. A sleaze-free, relaxing, entertaining read, for those readers who prefer these kind of cozy dramas.
Bottom line: if you're looking for a good family mystery, in which emotions are running high and backstabbing and betrayal are in vogue, this is for you! Trust me, you won't know where to point the gun... The author did an excellent job. The suspense is what might do the reader in. There are no guns, yes, no violence, in this tale, only a few well-crafted, intentional psychological hit jobs on the reader! :-)
I wanted to do a brain scrub, a chicken-soup-for-the-soul-read, to balance out the blood and gore of my most recent beloved suspense thriller reads. Come up for air, sort of. This was a perfect choice as an introduction to the next few reads lined up. The novel had enough oomph and intrigue to carry the tale through to its denouement.
I so enjoyed the cozy, yet twisted, domestic suspense. Immensely so! I will certainly read this author again.
RECOMMENDED
February 8, 2018
"An opening chapter you won't stop talking about???" Hardly. "...you won't be able to pause???" Um. No. I liked this book, but I definitely wouldn't call it a "gripping psychological thriller".
Lucy wakes up in Cornwall, in the back seat of a cab, in her pajamas, about 300 miles from her home. The last thing she remembers is going to bed. The cab driver insists he knows nothing other than she owes him £400. She has no idea why, but she has exactly £400 in her pocket. He takes the money and leaves her near the edge of a cliff. She has no cell phone, no more money, nothing. She's dazed and confused. She is found by a man who thinks she's attempting to commit suicide by jumping off the cliff. He calls the police and they take her home. That's the "opening chapter you won't stop talking about".
The majority of the book has Sally trying to figure out what happened to her, while her family insists on treating her like a mentally ill teenager who needs to be watched every second of the day. You see, prior to her cab ride, Sally had been having a rough go of it. She and her husband, Matthew, have a 4-year-old daughter and a (maybe) 6-month-old son who never sleeps and cries incessantly. She's totally exhausted and Matthew isn't much help around the house or with the kids. Because she had been telling her family how tough her life was lately, they were more than willing to believe that she had really tried to kill herself.
REALLY??? Who wouldn't be a little crazy after being sleep deprived for months??? And you've known this 30-something-year-old woman for years and years and you don't believe her when she tells you that she would never try to kill herself because she loves her family too much to ever hurt them that way? You don't even want to consider that she's telling the truth??? I don't buy it.
There are some hilariously funny spots that any 30+ woman with young children could relate to. My favorite was when, after being chided by Matthew for not being more frugal with her grocery shopping, she ordered a decadent croissant with her latest grocery delivery. Just as she finally had a moment to sit down and savor it, the baby started crying. She put it away. Later that evening, after the kids had been put to bed, she goes to retrieve the croissant—that she had probably been dreaming about all day long—only to find the empty bag at the top of the rubbish container. She lost it. 😱 And I dare one woman to tell me they wouldn't have felt the same way! 🤣
I liked this book, but not because it was a "psychological thriller" (not by any stretch of the imagination). The character of Sally was very well developed, self-deprecating, and entirely relatable. She made assumptions that, imo, any reasonable person would make. And when no one would believe her or help her, she tried to help herself. I did not anticipate the twist toward the end, nor the ending itself, and neither were very believable.
Lucy wakes up in Cornwall, in the back seat of a cab, in her pajamas, about 300 miles from her home. The last thing she remembers is going to bed. The cab driver insists he knows nothing other than she owes him £400. She has no idea why, but she has exactly £400 in her pocket. He takes the money and leaves her near the edge of a cliff. She has no cell phone, no more money, nothing. She's dazed and confused. She is found by a man who thinks she's attempting to commit suicide by jumping off the cliff. He calls the police and they take her home. That's the "opening chapter you won't stop talking about".
The majority of the book has Sally trying to figure out what happened to her, while her family insists on treating her like a mentally ill teenager who needs to be watched every second of the day. You see, prior to her cab ride, Sally had been having a rough go of it. She and her husband, Matthew, have a 4-year-old daughter and a (maybe) 6-month-old son who never sleeps and cries incessantly. She's totally exhausted and Matthew isn't much help around the house or with the kids. Because she had been telling her family how tough her life was lately, they were more than willing to believe that she had really tried to kill herself.
REALLY??? Who wouldn't be a little crazy after being sleep deprived for months??? And you've known this 30-something-year-old woman for years and years and you don't believe her when she tells you that she would never try to kill herself because she loves her family too much to ever hurt them that way? You don't even want to consider that she's telling the truth??? I don't buy it.
There are some hilariously funny spots that any 30+ woman with young children could relate to. My favorite was when, after being chided by Matthew for not being more frugal with her grocery shopping, she ordered a decadent croissant with her latest grocery delivery. Just as she finally had a moment to sit down and savor it, the baby started crying. She put it away. Later that evening, after the kids had been put to bed, she goes to retrieve the croissant—that she had probably been dreaming about all day long—only to find the empty bag at the top of the rubbish container. She lost it. 😱 And I dare one woman to tell me they wouldn't have felt the same way! 🤣
I liked this book, but not because it was a "psychological thriller" (not by any stretch of the imagination). The character of Sally was very well developed, self-deprecating, and entirely relatable. She made assumptions that, imo, any reasonable person would make. And when no one would believe her or help her, she tried to help herself. I did not anticipate the twist toward the end, nor the ending itself, and neither were very believable.
February 13, 2017
Sally is struggling to take care of her two children, Chloe and Theo. Theo is a baby and he cries a lot. Sally's husband Matthew doesn't help out much, so she struggles on her own. After going to bed one night Sally wakes up on a cliff 300 miles away from home with a suicide note in her pocket. She has no idea how she got there and doesn't remember anything about the night, she fell asleep just like she usually does and after that everything becomes a blur. What happened in the hours after she put her head on her pillow and where was she before she was dropped off by a taxi driver and found near a cliff?
Sally's mother-in-law is a child psychiatrist and she assesses the situation. She doesn't think Sally is a danger to herself and others. Her family should just keep an eye on her, so she doesn't have to be admitted. Sally is happy to be home with her two children again and doesn't feel depressed or suicidal, but nobody believes anything she says. What happened to her that night, can Sally discover the truth without any help?
Everything You Told Me is a gripping story. Because of Theo's constant crying Sally doesn't get much sleep. Her husband has to work a lot and he doesn't make much time for his family. When Sally almost dies his behavior changes, but he doesn't believe what she tells him about the night she can't remember and he treats her like she's made of glass. Nobody wants Sally to be alone with her children. Her mother-in-law is there to supervise, her parents come over to help out and her brother regularly calls her for updates. Sally thinks someone wants to do something to her, but who could it be? She has her suspicions, but are they correct or are the people around her right and does she have a problem? Finding out the truth kept me on the edge of my seat. Of course I had my suspicions and I couldn't wait to see if I was right. I always love it when a story makes me so curious.
Lucy Dawson's writing flows easily and she knows how to build tension. Everything You Told Me evolves around Sally and the people who are close to her. There are many things that don't add up and my heart ached for Sally. She is so isolated from everyone else in her world and she desperately needs someone who's on her side, but nobody really listens to her. I admired how she remains strong and doesn't give up. The atmosphere is oppressive and tense and I loved how the story sometimes took my breath away. I couldn't put the book down because of it. Lucy Dawson has written a great mysterious story with a fabulous ending.
Sally's mother-in-law is a child psychiatrist and she assesses the situation. She doesn't think Sally is a danger to herself and others. Her family should just keep an eye on her, so she doesn't have to be admitted. Sally is happy to be home with her two children again and doesn't feel depressed or suicidal, but nobody believes anything she says. What happened to her that night, can Sally discover the truth without any help?
Everything You Told Me is a gripping story. Because of Theo's constant crying Sally doesn't get much sleep. Her husband has to work a lot and he doesn't make much time for his family. When Sally almost dies his behavior changes, but he doesn't believe what she tells him about the night she can't remember and he treats her like she's made of glass. Nobody wants Sally to be alone with her children. Her mother-in-law is there to supervise, her parents come over to help out and her brother regularly calls her for updates. Sally thinks someone wants to do something to her, but who could it be? She has her suspicions, but are they correct or are the people around her right and does she have a problem? Finding out the truth kept me on the edge of my seat. Of course I had my suspicions and I couldn't wait to see if I was right. I always love it when a story makes me so curious.
Lucy Dawson's writing flows easily and she knows how to build tension. Everything You Told Me evolves around Sally and the people who are close to her. There are many things that don't add up and my heart ached for Sally. She is so isolated from everyone else in her world and she desperately needs someone who's on her side, but nobody really listens to her. I admired how she remains strong and doesn't give up. The atmosphere is oppressive and tense and I loved how the story sometimes took my breath away. I couldn't put the book down because of it. Lucy Dawson has written a great mysterious story with a fabulous ending.
January 10, 2020
2.5*
Pretty average 'thriller' which seemed a little more of a family drama. It was quite easy to quest the big twist ending but I enjoyed the riduculness of some of the situations the main character found herself in.
Pretty average 'thriller' which seemed a little more of a family drama. It was quite easy to quest the big twist ending but I enjoyed the riduculness of some of the situations the main character found herself in.
March 28, 2020
Sally in her pyjamas and a wax jacket woke up 250 miles away from her Kent home in a taxi but had the correct money of £400 to pay the taxi driver. She woke up in the back of the taxi with a hangover and completely disoriented and later was found at an edge of a cliff. with no knowledge of how she got there or the events leading up to her journey. We are lead to believe that she was intending to commit suicide, but she is adamant that this was definitely not her intention and the book follows the reasoning as she tries to discover exactly what happened on that fateful evening. Sally has struggled since the birth of her baby several months ago from sleep deprivation but she is coping just about. She appears to have a very supportive family around but are they all who they seem to be?
February 6, 2020
I've been having quite the binge on mystery fiction. This one has really impressed me. I'd figured out the villain right from the start, but couldn't quite figure out how our heroine was going to figure it out for herself.
I loved that Sally woke up in the back of a taxi hundreds of miles from her home, money in her wallet, a taxi driver who just wanted shot of her and a cliff edge right there. Great start and I was totally invested in finding out the why right from the start. I liked that Sally seemed so deranged, to the point where I started to doubt her myself. It is a clever construct and a really quick read. The perfect follow up to my Fiona Barton festival, if you like one, you'll like the other. I see there are a bunch of other books by this author, I'll have to get stuck in.
I loved that Sally woke up in the back of a taxi hundreds of miles from her home, money in her wallet, a taxi driver who just wanted shot of her and a cliff edge right there. Great start and I was totally invested in finding out the why right from the start. I liked that Sally seemed so deranged, to the point where I started to doubt her myself. It is a clever construct and a really quick read. The perfect follow up to my Fiona Barton festival, if you like one, you'll like the other. I see there are a bunch of other books by this author, I'll have to get stuck in.
Read
December 7, 2021Psychological Thrillers / Domestic Thriller / Woman's Fiction
Publication Date: January 5, 2017
Synopsis sounded intriguing and the beginning kept me wondering. When everyday life of a stressed out mother kicked in, it was no longer a page turner. Being told how stressful it is to take care of your children and household, isn't nothing new and after a while it became boring.
I felt like I should feel symphatetic towards our heroine but instead she sounded often irritating, idiotic and annoying. The way she quickly jumped to conclusions and blamed everyone, sounded offputting and neurotic.
When I reached the end and it was explained how/why she ended up on the cliff...I really couldn't get the motivations behind it all. It just didn't make sense. So sadly no characters to root for and no gripping mystery in this story for me.
Publication Date: January 5, 2017
Synopsis sounded intriguing and the beginning kept me wondering. When everyday life of a stressed out mother kicked in, it was no longer a page turner. Being told how stressful it is to take care of your children and household, isn't nothing new and after a while it became boring.
I felt like I should feel symphatetic towards our heroine but instead she sounded often irritating, idiotic and annoying. The way she quickly jumped to conclusions and blamed everyone, sounded offputting and neurotic.
When I reached the end and it was explained how/why she ended up on the cliff...I really couldn't get the motivations behind it all. It just didn't make sense. So sadly no characters to root for and no gripping mystery in this story for me.
March 28, 2019
Narrated by Jessica Ball, released by Bolinda Publishing in January-2017, just about ten hours of listening in unabridged audiobook format.
Everything You Told Me is the story of a young mother who ‘comes to’ hundreds of miles from home. She’s in her pajamas, and seemingly ready to step off a cliff. But, she doesn’t - saved by a stranger. There’s a suicide note. But — none of this can possibly be ‘real’. She’s not suicidal and has no idea what has happened. The last thing she remembers is getting into bed. Thus is the thrust.
Liked: The book is sort of like driving by a bad car wreck - ya feel guilty for looking.
Didn’t like: None of the characters are likable - nobody. The premise is interesting, but the delivery is wanting. There are way too many eye-rolling instances. You’ll hover over fast-forward to get to the point, many times. Very repetitive and would have been a good short story - but is a tedious novel.
No gratuitous sex scenes, no objectionable language - a clean read. Narration is fine, no issues.
Difficult to get through this book without sighing. Not a page-turner. Not recommended.
Everything You Told Me is the story of a young mother who ‘comes to’ hundreds of miles from home. She’s in her pajamas, and seemingly ready to step off a cliff. But, she doesn’t - saved by a stranger. There’s a suicide note. But — none of this can possibly be ‘real’. She’s not suicidal and has no idea what has happened. The last thing she remembers is getting into bed. Thus is the thrust.
Liked: The book is sort of like driving by a bad car wreck - ya feel guilty for looking.
Didn’t like: None of the characters are likable - nobody. The premise is interesting, but the delivery is wanting. There are way too many eye-rolling instances. You’ll hover over fast-forward to get to the point, many times. Very repetitive and would have been a good short story - but is a tedious novel.
No gratuitous sex scenes, no objectionable language - a clean read. Narration is fine, no issues.
Difficult to get through this book without sighing. Not a page-turner. Not recommended.
March 8, 2017
With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an open and honest review.
I have been lucky enough to read two excellent books this week and this is one of them.
My GR friends know I love psychological thrillers. Everything You Told Me is everything I hope for in a good book, interesting characters, lies and intrigue.
The story begins with Londoner Sally waking up in the back of a taxi in Cornwall. The last thing Sally remembers is going to bed the night before. Sally has two children, Chloe and baby Theo. Sally had postnatal depression with Chloe, Theo is a poor sleeper and she is finding it hard to cope. When the police find a note implying suicidal thoughts, they think she was intending to jump off a cliff.
Sally knows that it was a sorry letter to her husband Matthew. Matthew, her mother in law, and parents do not believe her. I could tell you so much more but it would ruin the story.
The twist at the end of the book left me reeling, I could not stop thinking about. I will read more from Lucy Dawson.
I have been lucky enough to read two excellent books this week and this is one of them.
My GR friends know I love psychological thrillers. Everything You Told Me is everything I hope for in a good book, interesting characters, lies and intrigue.
The story begins with Londoner Sally waking up in the back of a taxi in Cornwall. The last thing Sally remembers is going to bed the night before. Sally has two children, Chloe and baby Theo. Sally had postnatal depression with Chloe, Theo is a poor sleeper and she is finding it hard to cope. When the police find a note implying suicidal thoughts, they think she was intending to jump off a cliff.
Sally knows that it was a sorry letter to her husband Matthew. Matthew, her mother in law, and parents do not believe her. I could tell you so much more but it would ruin the story.
The twist at the end of the book left me reeling, I could not stop thinking about. I will read more from Lucy Dawson.
June 23, 2020
There were so many things wrong about this book. A woman wakes, clearly drugged, 100s of miles from home, in a taxi, on a clifftop and the taxi driver simply demands the £400 she somehow has in her pocket then drives off. She doesn't force him to explain how she came to be in the taxi, ask what his name is, for a receipt - and then she gets out of the taxi and doesn't note the colour/registration number/name of the taxi for later identification. What taxi driver would drive a comatose woman 100s of miles to a clifftop and then tell her to get out so that he can leave? It's ridiculous. And ridiculous to think that he would have let her into the taxi in the first place. This is just the beginning of the unbelievable occurrences in this book. Later, the woman is being filmed by someone for evidence and doesn't get her mobile out and film back for her own evidence. Added to all the incredible plot points is the annoying way the protagonist is raising her children who seem to control the parents' lives. I'd never disliked a fictional baby and 4 year old before reading this book but the woman treats them as if they are made of fragile china whose every whim needs to be addressed. I also guessed really early who the baddie was which made the very weak and unsatisfying ending an anti-climax on all counts. Not my cup of tea at all.
August 7, 2017
I found this book very difficult to complete. It's about a woman that wakes up 300 miles away from home dazed and confused and the entirety of the book is how no one can believe her. Everyone is against her including her own husband.
It dragged on with "I can't remember how I got here" so may times that I wanted to pull my hair out. Save yourself the time and buy the cliff notes version instead!
It dragged on with "I can't remember how I got here" so may times that I wanted to pull my hair out. Save yourself the time and buy the cliff notes version instead!
December 12, 2017
This woman is so dense.
April 21, 2018
WTF did I just read?
The writing is atrocious. The author uses the word literally to often and in the wrong context all the bloody time and that itself almost made me toss the book.
The book is largely boring. The husband and wife's petty bickering. The endless crapping on about the babies sleep patterns. OMG, that near on put me to sleep. The characters are 2 dimensional and incredibly unlikable and the plot holes are so many that it would take me longer to list them all than it did to read the actual book.
In fact the whole book just made me really irritated from beginning to end. Instead of feeling relief that it was finally over, when it did end, I just felt anger at the 10 hours of my life I'm never getting back and sadness for the several IQ points I've lost forever.
Somebody wakes up in a cab, can't remember the last 10 hours, is disoriented, vomiting with slurred speech but nobody seems to think having them checked out medically or that a blood test is warranted? Yeah, sure that's plausible.
A taxi driver collects an unconscious woman and drives her 400 miles away, dropping her off on a clifttop then disappears into the night. Doesn't consider taking her to a hospital or the police? Especially since he knew the £400 was in her pocket. He could have driven her 4 miles to the hospital, pocketed the cash and taken the night off.
They're all so sure she stole £65,000 (that she didn't know was even there) and went off to kill herself. If you're off to kill yourself, what do you need £65,000 for? The author didn't even bother to offer up a reason for this. I'm still baffled.
The crisis team discharge her to her GP after a 5 minute phone call following a significant and uncharacteristic suicide attempt? Don't think so.
Not one person in her life believes her. Presumably she's been perfectly stable her whole life to their knowledge and then one day just decides to end it all... after clearing all the data from her phone? (They mentioned the phone thing a lot, um relevance?)
If I woke up in a cab on the other side of the country and said I had no idea how I got there, I'd put money on the fact that the people in my life would believe me and would have made sure I was medically checked out there and then. So who are these people that just go along with something that is so incongruous. Who are they that they so readily believe the absolute worst of her without question?
But then maybe she is a bit insane because her behaviour throughout the whole book is just not normal. People just don't behave like that, even if they are being seriously gaslighted by everyone they know.
Kelly. What the actual? I... just... far out.
And while we're on the subject of these people in her life. Why is everyone in the book so condescending and intrusive and secretive. They all talk about each other behind their backs and make decisions for each other without a moments thought and nobody ever says anything. Like the whole £65,000 thing. She doesn't call her husband out of lending the money without discussing it with her? Isn't that a pretty big trust violation right there? And keeping THAT MUCH CASH in a bag? In the hallway? Where would you even get that much cash?
And they all tell each other everything but then crack the shits when secrets aren't kept. Kelly orchestrated the photos in the press and then names her and that's ok but the press finding out about her mother's suicide is crossing a line even though the cause of death is a matter of public record? And her mother telling everyone she tried to kill herself in Cornwell is ok, the husband telling everyone about her suicide attempt as a teenager is alright but her saying anything about Kelly swapping a ring is outrageous....
And WTF was this plan? It doesn't even make any bloody sense. I mean if the mother in law really wanted to kill her, fine, that makes sense even if the plan itself is really stupid and has a million holes in it, but the husband? Somebody's probably going to have to explain to me what exactly he was supposed to be thinking because I can't figure it out. "I'll send my wife in a cab to a clifttop, hope nothing happens to her, have her committed and then get on with things eh? That's much easier and logical than just ending the affair and apologising for being an unfaithful dick."
These people are all idiots. Do yourself a favour and read something else.
The writing is atrocious. The author uses the word literally to often and in the wrong context all the bloody time and that itself almost made me toss the book.
The book is largely boring. The husband and wife's petty bickering. The endless crapping on about the babies sleep patterns. OMG, that near on put me to sleep. The characters are 2 dimensional and incredibly unlikable and the plot holes are so many that it would take me longer to list them all than it did to read the actual book.
In fact the whole book just made me really irritated from beginning to end. Instead of feeling relief that it was finally over, when it did end, I just felt anger at the 10 hours of my life I'm never getting back and sadness for the several IQ points I've lost forever.
Somebody wakes up in a cab, can't remember the last 10 hours, is disoriented, vomiting with slurred speech but nobody seems to think having them checked out medically or that a blood test is warranted? Yeah, sure that's plausible.
A taxi driver collects an unconscious woman and drives her 400 miles away, dropping her off on a clifttop then disappears into the night. Doesn't consider taking her to a hospital or the police? Especially since he knew the £400 was in her pocket. He could have driven her 4 miles to the hospital, pocketed the cash and taken the night off.
They're all so sure she stole £65,000 (that she didn't know was even there) and went off to kill herself. If you're off to kill yourself, what do you need £65,000 for? The author didn't even bother to offer up a reason for this. I'm still baffled.
The crisis team discharge her to her GP after a 5 minute phone call following a significant and uncharacteristic suicide attempt? Don't think so.
Not one person in her life believes her. Presumably she's been perfectly stable her whole life to their knowledge and then one day just decides to end it all... after clearing all the data from her phone? (They mentioned the phone thing a lot, um relevance?)
If I woke up in a cab on the other side of the country and said I had no idea how I got there, I'd put money on the fact that the people in my life would believe me and would have made sure I was medically checked out there and then. So who are these people that just go along with something that is so incongruous. Who are they that they so readily believe the absolute worst of her without question?
But then maybe she is a bit insane because her behaviour throughout the whole book is just not normal. People just don't behave like that, even if they are being seriously gaslighted by everyone they know.
Kelly. What the actual? I... just... far out.
And while we're on the subject of these people in her life. Why is everyone in the book so condescending and intrusive and secretive. They all talk about each other behind their backs and make decisions for each other without a moments thought and nobody ever says anything. Like the whole £65,000 thing. She doesn't call her husband out of lending the money without discussing it with her? Isn't that a pretty big trust violation right there? And keeping THAT MUCH CASH in a bag? In the hallway? Where would you even get that much cash?
And they all tell each other everything but then crack the shits when secrets aren't kept. Kelly orchestrated the photos in the press and then names her and that's ok but the press finding out about her mother's suicide is crossing a line even though the cause of death is a matter of public record? And her mother telling everyone she tried to kill herself in Cornwell is ok, the husband telling everyone about her suicide attempt as a teenager is alright but her saying anything about Kelly swapping a ring is outrageous....
And WTF was this plan? It doesn't even make any bloody sense. I mean if the mother in law really wanted to kill her, fine, that makes sense even if the plan itself is really stupid and has a million holes in it, but the husband? Somebody's probably going to have to explain to me what exactly he was supposed to be thinking because I can't figure it out. "I'll send my wife in a cab to a clifttop, hope nothing happens to her, have her committed and then get on with things eh? That's much easier and logical than just ending the affair and apologising for being an unfaithful dick."
These people are all idiots. Do yourself a favour and read something else.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 1, 2019
I didn't enjoy this one because of protagonist. Sally is a self centered individual focused solely on her own needs and desires. She becomes so consumed with her role as a mother and wallowing in her own self pity about the responsibilities of motherhood that she allows her relationship with her husband to deteriorate. She doesn't take his feelings, thoughts and actions into consideration at all. She doesn't want to spent time with him anymore, go on vacation together, sleep in the same bed, have sex and is constantly picking fights with him because 'he doesn't understand how hard it is to take care of the kids' and yet downplays the fact that he works hard, spends time with his children and wants to spend time with her. I felt myself greatly empathizing with Matt throughout the book, which I'm pretty sure wasn't the author's intent.
It's not just her relationship with her husband that is negative. She also goes out of way to not get along with her brother's girlfriend. If she cared about her brother, she could show support and make an effort, but she doesn't. Just an overall horrible person and in no way deserved a happy ending.
It's not just her relationship with her husband that is negative. She also goes out of way to not get along with her brother's girlfriend. If she cared about her brother, she could show support and make an effort, but she doesn't. Just an overall horrible person and in no way deserved a happy ending.
June 29, 2019
Ugh!
I tried to like this book.
Let me start by saying I listened to this. Maybe I would have felt differently if I read it? I don’t know.
The one positive- I was curious enough to force myself to finish it to see how it ended.
The negative- getting from A-Z was torture. There was not one likable character in this book. Even the young daughter came off as a spoiled little shit (definitely could have been the person narrating). I felt like punching the main character in the face.
This audiobook was a little over 9 hours- where it felt like 6 hours were pure redundancy. “Oh, this happened to me, and waah no one believes me”. STFU!
I’d like to say I enjoyed the reveal at the end but I fucking hated it.
I pushed through to finish and wish I hadn’t.
I tried to like this book.
Let me start by saying I listened to this. Maybe I would have felt differently if I read it? I don’t know.
The one positive- I was curious enough to force myself to finish it to see how it ended.
The negative- getting from A-Z was torture. There was not one likable character in this book. Even the young daughter came off as a spoiled little shit (definitely could have been the person narrating). I felt like punching the main character in the face.
This audiobook was a little over 9 hours- where it felt like 6 hours were pure redundancy. “Oh, this happened to me, and waah no one believes me”. STFU!
I’d like to say I enjoyed the reveal at the end but I fucking hated it.
I pushed through to finish and wish I hadn’t.
May 5, 2017
Fairer to give this one 2 and a half stars but Goodreads won't let me. Clever enough to keep me reading till the end but really quite soapy and far fetched. The author describes the frazzled life of a mother dealing with 2 young kids really well - this is what got me in. However, the twist was not really credible or particularly gripping as the front cover claims.
December 21, 2017
Good psychological thriller. Suspenseful but some parts dragged on. The ending was a bit predictable. However I didn’t really get the point of it all. Maybe I’d lost interest by then and missed the reasoning because I had guessed the ending so much earlier. The why of it all just didn’t make sense to me.
February 26, 2017
Very predictable.
February 10, 2017
"Everything you Told Me" is my first book by Lucy Dawson, even though I have her previous novel "You Sent Me a Letter" on my never ending TBR pile, but as I've heard many good things about this author and her writing, I made sure to read the newest release in time for its publication. This book turned out to be a great slow burner, with brilliantly developed characters and complex plot. It was an ambitious, clever and twisty read that stays in your mind even if you're not reading it. I was already hooked when this crumpled £400 taxi receipt, just like the one Sally finds in her pocket, arrived ahead of my review copy, and as soon as the book hit my doorstep I started reading it.
Sally is a stay - at - home mother, Chloe is 4 years old and Theo is 6 months, and it is Theo that's causing so many problems, as he's a very bad sleeper. Sally and her husband Matthew are trying to cope but they are both on their tenterhooks - mostly Sally, as she's the one looking after children while her husband can work, and as much as she was tired and at the end of her tether, she loved her children above all - it was crystal clear for me, so I was also sure she would never put them in danger voluntarily. One day Sally wakes up in a taxi, 250 miles away from home, with the right amount of money to pay the taxi - driver and a piece of paper that turns out to be her suicide note. She doesn't have any recollection of what happened and how she got there. Back at home, she's surrounded by her friends and family, all of them trying to help her - or is someone trying to make her feel uncertain, unsure and paranoid? Or does Sally really need professional help?
As I have already mentioned above, the characters in this novel are brilliantly developed and described, and truly, they all made wonderful suspects for me. Some more, some less, but when you read the book for yourself you'll see what I mean. There was not a single character that left me feeling unsuspicious, and everyone was under my suspicion at one point, maybe except for Sally's father. They all had motives and the author took her time to mess with our heads with the web of lies, secrets and manipulations. This is this kind of story that make you suspect every single character. Even though I must admit I relatively quickly set my heart on one person, I didn't rule out any other person - there could happen anything, really. As it turned out, I was right, but only 50% right. Ha, you can say, how can you be only half right, either you are right or not - but THIS is THE TWIST. The surprise that blew me totally. Intrigued? I hope so - please go and get a copy of this book! It is also this kind of read that'll make you think and wonder, and I think there are two ways your mind can go - either you'll be on Sally's side or against her. Everything was possible, in my opinion, and even though I belonged to those who believed Sally, there WERE moments that I was doubting her. The story is told from her point of view, she's the narrator, so it made the book even more intriguing, because you were never sure if she's a trustful narrator or not.
They were also those kinds of characters that I rather do not take close to my heart. I don't mean that they're unlikeable or something, it's just that I didn't trust them and didn't want to feel disappointed at the end. I fell for Sally, of course, I could partly relate to her and understood her problems, and I hated to see how the others don't believe her, how they try to make her paranoid, how they play her and in the end she didn't have a single person who she could turn to and ask for help.
The only thing that spoiled the book for me a little was that there were moments that really felt too far - fetched, too exaggerated and impossible to happen, some situations too clichéd and some of the characters were self - obsessed, and I think I can't change someone's life only because I feel it's the right thing to do. But these are only small things and altogether, I really enjoyed this book. Lucy Dawson is a very talented writer who skilfully and cleverly delivers a tale full of tension and suspicion. It was really this kind of book that made me want to look at the last page to see if my suspicions are right and it took almost my all willpower not to do this - because I didn't, which I'm proudly reporting here - I didn't skip a single word, to be honest, I was so absorbed in this story that I didn't want to miss a thing. It got under my skin, guys, it intrigued me and also annoyed me - but I can't say why, I'm scared I'll let slip too much and spoil the read for you.
"Everything You Told Me" is a brilliant read about manipulation. I wouldn't call it thriller, to be honest, maybe psychological suspense? Because it kept me gripped and it was full of tension and suspense. A slow burner, but in such books you don't need incredible pace, you rather need it to be slower, with the right number of questions and misunderstandings, and you get it all here. I really liked how cleverly the author made the lines between lies and truth blur - the way she wrote it made me want to know the truth immediately! She skilfully put the wool over our eyes and made the journey to the truth very twisty and curvy, but without making it too overwhelming or tiring or keeping it on too long and hence losing our attention - by giving very subtle clues she made me feel desperate to know the truth and to read further. A great read, guys, highly recommended!
Copy provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.
February 5, 2019
3.5 Stars. A gripping and enjoyable read. Suspenseful yet at the same time I think I worked out the mystery ( but not the details) numerous times throughout the book. It really was a story and situation that could play out full of relatable characters. I couldn't put it down as I wanted to know what happened and whilst I did guess the culprit, there was more twists and turns than I expected. The reason I took it down half a star was that I did find the characters a bit self obsessed and self centred - which funnily enough is part of the twist. One of the better psychological mystery books I have read - probably written for the masses - but worth a dabble!
Displaying 1 - 29 of 376 reviews