Title: The Lies About Truth
Author: Courtney C. Stevens
Series: No Series – Stand Alone
Publisher: HarperTeen
Published: November 3rd, 2015
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5)

The summary of The Lies About Truth from Goodreads:

Sadie Kingston, is a girl living in the aftermath. A year after surviving a car accident that killed her friend Trent and left her body and face scarred, she can’t move forward. The only person who seems to understand her is Trent’s brother, Max.

As Sadie begins to fall for Max, she’s unsure if she is truly healed enough to be with him — even if Max is able to look at her scars and not shy away. But when the truth about the accident and subsequent events comes to light, Sadie has to decide if she can embrace the future or if she’ll always be trapped in the past.

This book was about acceptance, truth, and moving forward. Sadie and her friends are stuck in the past. They each carry secrets, little truths, that they hold on to instead of sharing. They each are trying to accept what happened and find a way to move on while honoring the past.

The Good:

My heart broke for every one of the characters. They’ve been dealt an awful tragedy and don’t know how to be friends and be together anymore when a large piece of their group is missing.

Sadie has the worst physical scars from the accident. She flew through the car window and has scars all over her body. She’s self-conscious and insecure at times. When she looks at herself, all she sees are the scars. She’s trying to move forward, but she’s afraid to. She doesn’t know how to accept her new flaws.

Max lost his brother and his vocal cords were damaged. After the accident, his family moved to El Salvador to try to get away and find a way to keep living with a missing family member. Almost a year after the accident, they are ready to move home again.

Gray and Gina hold their own secrets about the accident and the aftermath. They both feel trapped by the weight of their secrets and how the friendship dynamic changed.

What I loved about this book is the focus on relationships. Friendships, romantic relationships, parent-child relationships, even the relationship between Sadie and her therapist. Every single relationship shown in this book is important. All of them are grieving in a way. They try to do it on their own, and while some grieving can only be done introspectively, they forget to rely on each other. Sadie turns away from Gray and Gina. She finds comfort and acceptance with Max. Her parents push her enough to move her forward. Her therapist makes Sadie push herself. Even if I didn’t always feel connected to the characters, I felt connected to their relationships.

It was only after Sadie, Max, Gina, and Gray started to come back together that they were able to let go of the weight of secrets and find a way to move beyond the accident. Those secret truths were everyone’s tether to the night Trent died, and sharing those truths released them from the past.

The Bad:

I wouldn’t necessarily call it “bad,” but sometimes the pace of the novel felt a bit slow. Pages would go by without a lot happening. This isn’t the kind of novel where there has to be action every other page, but there didn’t seem to be development of any kind at times.

The Recommendation:

If romance doesn’t have to be the main point, but a focus on the relationships between friends and family appeals to you, this is a good book to read. Character growth and development is the driving force.

Purchasing Links:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

Thank you to Edelweiss and HarperTeen for an advanced copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.