Bonnie Shores's Reviews > Everything You Told Me

"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.