I'm so glad that I picked this one up (that COVER just grabbed me) because it was so fantastic! It is such an engrossing read that I read it in a day. I could not put this book down. If I had to say it was like another book, I'd say there are some similarities to Night Film. It had a similar vibe - creepy, seeking to understand a creative dynamo, a mystery to be solved, etc.

What really stood out with this one was how beautifully written it was as well as how well developed the characters were. The sense of place in this book was absolutely stunning to the point that the island location in the book absolutely feel like a real place ... almost like another character in the book. The characters that grab you and don't let go are one of the things that made this book so unputdownable. They were complex and rich, making them really come alive for me. Nothing felt in any way artificial or unreal.

The plotting of this novel was so well done. It all came together so beautifully. It felt effortless to me yet when I think about the pieces and parts, I realize how complicated the plotting really was for the author. All in all, this is an excellent psychological thriller. One of the best I've read in quite awhile. Maybe since Night Film. I highly recommend this, particularly if you like dark family stories that you cannot put down!

This was a roller-coaster type of read that tackles the mother-daughter relationship and intertwines it with a forty year old book that was based on a true story. I selected this book on NetGalley purely because of the cover and ended up getting sucked in by the characters, the island setting, and the constant lies that spilled out from the pages. Read it today, you won't be disappointed.

An absolutely fantastic, complex, multilayered story.

Meg Ashley has lived in the shadow of her mother, and her mother's book, for her whole life. When first we meet her, she's the quintessential trust fund party girl; or at least she plays the part of one to mask the pain of waiting for her mother to be the mother she's always wanted. Then she's presented with an opportunity to explore this shadow that has hung over her life - and discovers a new side to not just herself, but to everything.

Emily Carpenter has managed to build an amazing story. Each chapter is preceded with an excerpt from Frances Ashley's book, Kitten, and while the book and the main story ratchet the suspense in harmony, the two voices are absolutely distinct and authentic. I've read a lot of that 70's-80's horror style and she nails it - and Meg's voice in the present day was also spot on.

I really don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I'll leave the plot out of it. But the way Emily Carpenter writes dialogue and people is just marvellous. When someone speaks, it sounds like an actual person talking - and hallelujah, a mystery that doesn't involve super handy but medically extremely unlikely memory lapses that hide the mystery from the reader. Building a mystery just by hiding important parts of the story is NOT a mystery people, just a jigsaw without all the bits. And this story builds a very satisfying and well-planned mystery without any of those terrible tricks.

An absolute stand-out, from an author I'll be sure to follow in the future.

<i>I was provided with a free copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review</i>

Betrayal, Secrets, and Lies... The perfect summer read!

The Weight of Lies by Emily Carpenter is a solid psychological thriller that is gripping, suspenseful and loaded with twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the end. The cast of characters are complex, disturbing, and questionable - and some are just downright creepy. This novel is part southern gothic and part "whodunit" murder mystery that begins on the road to revenge but ends in a way so unexpected, your jaw will drop! This is the most unique, well-written, book-within-a-book, thriller I have read in a long time, add in that stunning cover and you have the perfect novel!

I want to thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC of this novel.

The book grabbed me from the beginning. I really enjoyed it. Meg Ashley is the daughter of a famous novelist. Her relationship with her Mother is anything but happy. After several years of not communicating she decides to go back to NY to attend her Mother's birthday party. When she arrives there is no party and her Mother's longtime assistant has had a stroke and in the hospital. While in her Mother's apartment she meets her Mother's so called new assistant. The story has some interesting characters and the author does a great job with developing them. Meg decides to write a tell all book about her life growing up. You'll find suspense, mystery, danger, secrets and maybe a little love tucked in. I highly recommend this book. I did not want to put it down. I often try to figure out the villain but this book will have you back and forth. Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of the book for an honest review.

First of all, I need to say that I read and enjoyed Burying The Honeysuckle Girls last year. It was one of my firsts approvals ever on Netgalley and for that I'll always be grateful. However, as much as I enjoyed that first book, I think The Weight Of Lies is much better and it just proves that Emily Carpenter is a fantastic storyteller. I can't wait to read what she writes next! Although both books are southern-gothic tales, they couldn't be more different. The first was more of a slow-burning mystery, this one is all suspense and action. It's addictive, compelling and the last few chapters were completely crazy. I loved all of it.

The Weight Of Lies tells the story of a young socialite called Megan Ashley, daughter of famous best-selling author Frances Ashley. The relationship between the two of them has never been easy, so no one is surprised when Megan decides to write a memoir about her childhood and goes on to investigate the real crime that inspired her mother's most famous book: Kitten.

This is a book within a book, so we get to read one chapter from the actual story and then an excerpt Kitten. It works really well and this way, you know what the characters are talking about when they describe the Kitten phenomenon. And Kitten was surely gripping (at least, that's how I feel about the parts we got to read), but the present story was the real gem here.

The setting was my favorite part: Bonny Island, Georgia. I could feel like I was there with the characters, and the hotel made for a really good book location. Emily Carpenter has written a complex and fascinating mystery with plenty of red-herrings and moments where characters say things like: "You have no idea of what's going on here" (I honestly felt my heart racing at that moment) and scenes where there is so much tension that you need to breathe in and out to relax.

I was never sure about my suspicions and I kept changing my theories with every new chapter. So, even though the last chapter felt a bit rushed, I finished the book with a big smile on my face. I knew this would be one of the best books of the month. And not that it needed it, but there was a nice twist that I never even considered (although once you start thinking about it, it makes total sense).

Started off well enough, but I just could not get into it. Skipped to the end and was unimpressed. I'll read what she writes next, I think she has potential.

Here is a book to add to your summer reading list STAT!

This story follows a gal named Megan who has a strained relationship with her mother Frances. Frances is a world-renowned author who has written the murder mystery "Kitten" and has little time for Meg. Meg is raised by the help, and away at boarding school. Lots of scandal surrounds her upbringing and she decides to write a tell-all about growing up with her mom and that is when crap hits the fan, without spilling the beans and giving away all the plot twists, I'll leave it at that.
I had two working theories and one ended up being right. I would definitely recommend this book to lovers of a good mystery and a quick read.

"Ambletern was a different sort of place, a house brimming with history and secrets and promise. A house where things happened."

This book has some excellent elements mixed with some really terrible ones, it adds up to a mystery that is only OK, but is worth a read if you want something fairly frivolous and not too in-depth.

The Weight of Lies takes a while to get going, the first part is mainly about Meg's relationship with her mother, and is very Mummy Dearest but without a compelling enough relationship to make you want to read on. I didn't really connect with Meg at all, there's no depth to her, she's supposed to be spoilt but there's nothing much underlying to connect to.

However, once she gets onto the island and stops whinging so much about her mother the book gets going. It becomes a bit more classic thriller, with a small set of characters in an isolated location. You don't know who to trust and there are a lot of secrets slowly revealed which I liked.

There are twists, some of which I didn't see coming, and the tension definitely ramps up towards the end.

I like the way Carpenter inserts segments from the novel Meg's mother wrote, Kitten. Frankly, I'd rather read that book than The Weight of Lies; a creepy child, ancient legend, mysterious death in a secluded hotel, it's right up my street, very Stephen King.

There are some excellent elements in The Weight of Lies but the writing lets it down, and there are unnecessary chick-lit additions and a rather lack-lustre love affair which just did not have any passion or tension whatsoever. There are also some spectacularly cringey lines.

"He had a jaw like a scythe and eyes that I couldn't look away from."

Good grief.

But, if you clear all the cheese, overly dramatic cliffhangers and poor little rich girl story, there is a good, strong thriller underneath.

Rating: 2.5/5 (rounded up to 3 stars for Goodreads and NetGalley)

I received a copy of The Weight of Lies by Emily Carpenter via NetGalley in return for an honest review. My thanks to the author and publisher.

A HUGE round of an applause to Emily on this beautiful masterpiece! It was a slightly slow start but once I got into it, I couldn't put it down! Full review to come!

You must plan on picking up a copy of The Weight of Lies for your summer reading must haves! You will not be able to put it down! (just remember to flip if you are out reading in the sun!)
This book is about murder, family drama, love and so much more!
It all began when Meg's mother Frances was 19 years old and she stayed on Bonny Island for a summer. She left at the end a literary star for writing Kitten which turned into a cult classic! The 40th anniversary of the book is around the corner and Asa (a literary agent) sought our Meg to write a tell all and basically let out all of her mothers secrets.
Meg decides that she needs to visit the scene of the crime for the summer and she will never forget it (and not in a good way!). She's threatened, stalked, almost bitten by a snake, kidnapped and that's not even the half of it!
I really though I knew what happened and then my theories were blown out of the water all the way till the very last page!

As often happens, I merely skimmed the description of this book and basically picked it up because of another blogger's raving review. I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I was pleasantly surprised as this is one heck of a ride.

Meg is living a life of privilege, thanks to a bestselling horror novel her mother wrote decades ago. But the relationship between mother and daughter has always been rocky and when Meg gets the opportunity to write a tell-all memoir, she sees it as a chance to break free from her mother once and for all.

At the heart of The Weight of Lies is a gripping murder mystery. But after all these years, the why and the who remain a bit of a question mark. Considering events happened on a tiny island, you wouldn't expect a long list of suspects and yet I didn't trust anyone, I suspected everyone and still got it wrong in the end when I was slapped in the face with an incredible twist.

But this novel is more than that. It's about the weight of lies. Yes, apt title. It's about secrets, age-old skeletons in closets and family. It's deliciously spooky and creepy and so very gripping. The author manages to create a multi-layered and complex plot that never gets confusing. I loved the additions of parts of the novel Meg's mother wrote and the whole concept of a book within a book.

This is one brilliantly constructed psychological suspense novel and you, yes you, should definitely give it a go!

The Weight of Lies is a slow-paced thriller that tells the story of Meg Ashley, the daughter of the best-selling thriller author of the book "Kitten", Frances, and their strained relationship. While Meg has grown up enjoying the benefits of being the daughter of a millionaire, her life is far from the perfect one that pictures seem to show. Meg has always had a bad relationship with her mother, and has never been able to cope with being labeled and thought of as "the daughter of" throughout her teenage years. Now an adult, she has distanced herself from Frances, but when the news of a birthday bash for Frances arrives at the hotel she's staying in for her holidays, she decides to come back home, only to find her life flipped upside down when Asa, the apparently new agent of Frances, makes her an offer very hard to refuse: to finally expose the horrible childhood Meg had and how horrible of a mother Frances has always been in the form of a book.

My need for Meg to uncover the truth about what had happened to the kid who had been found murdered is what kept me hooked till the end, and as much as I tried to guess at who had been responsible for the murder, I was gladly surprised by that revelation.

Never has a book title been so relevant as to the actual plot of the book. It is indeed a book about someone trying to uncover the truth fom a web of lies that seem to only grow bigger and bigger with every page turned.
This book was gripping and intriguing, even though it took a while for things to get going, and I think Emily Carpenter could be one of the names to look out for in the future when speaking about the suspense/thriller genre.

“You tell me a story, you weave me a tale” You had me at Kitten!

After a devastating fight between an overwhelmingly narcissistic mother and a trust fund daughter, Megan has not seen her mother Frances in over three years. Brought back to her mother’s home in New York under a false pretense, Megan is encouraged to look into her mother’s successes and into a potential coverup regarding her mother’s famous cult classic Kitten. In the story Kitten, there is a murder and a devestating web of lies. Are they true? Megan travels to find out the truth and expose her mother for the fraudulent icon she plays in real life.

The Weight of Lies is one of the most uniquely written thrillers I have read in a long time. Each chapter is cleverly juxtaposed with snipits of the mother’s book Kitten giving you a small glimpse into the book question as the main story unfolds. The characters are authentically developed and very relatable with makes this book easy to read. The story has such a spell-binding plot that I am sharing only the skeleton of the novel. You can fill in the gaps when you read this book!.


Thank you Netgalley and Lake Union Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

My Review of "The Weight of Lies" by Emily Carpenter

First I would like to thank Lake Union Publishing, NetGalley and Emily Carpenter for an ARC (Advanced Reading Edition) of "The Weight of Lies" by Emily Carpenter for my honest review.
The genres of this novel are General Fiction,(Adult) Women's Fiction, Mystery and Thriller. The timeline of this story is told in the present with references to the past. Most of this story takes place on Bonny Island, Georgia.
I like the way that Emily Carpenter fits all these genres in the novel. I also appreciate the unique and intriguing way that she tells the story.
The characters are complex, complicated, quirky, peculiar, and at most times not likeable. There is betrayal, secrets and lies. I would consider most of the characters capable of doing something disturbing, and self serving. The motivations of some of the characters are questionable.
Meg is the daughter of an author who has a book that has a cult following. This book will be 40 years old. The book reads like a mystery and thriller, and is supposed to be fiction. Meg goes to Bonny Island to write her own book of her life and her mother.
Meg discovers secrets and lies and starts to belief that this might be a true crime novel,based on real murders on this island.
There are twists, turns and surprises in this story. The ending is something that I didn't expect. I look forward to reading more books from Emily Carpenter.

Prepare for a gem of a book. Astonishing in its character portrayal and story line, I was truly amazed at the author's ability to juggle the complexity of the book's structure, but also a number of different narratives without making it obtuse or overwhelming. Meg Ashley has a very turbulent and fraught relationship with her famous author mother, Frances Ashley. When Frances was in her late teens she wrote a best selling novel, Kitten, which turned into a cult classic about the murder of a young girl. The murder took place on Bonny Island, Georgia where Meg returns to unearth secrets that the followers of Kitten had unearthed. Here she plans to write a scathing novel about her mother as she tries to unearth secrets of the past. The book is separated by chapters of the mother's book which correspond to Meg's discovery of new secrets and lies. However, this review does not even do it justice. I was swept away trying to figure out the tangled web Carpenter wove. Just when I thought I had things figured out, another layer was uncovered bringing the complexity of the story to new heights. There is so much more to this mystery than a simple tale; this could be the winner of the summer.

Wow! This is a psychological thriller that had me guessing until the very end!

Megan's the daughter of Frances, a very famous writer who wrote a classic horror novel. Megan has been living off her trust fund and avoiding said mother, who is at turns neglectful and overwrought. When Megan is given the opportunity to go to the remote island where Frances got her inspiration for the book, she jumps at the chance. She wants to take revenge and untangle herself from the shadows of Frances' fame.

Ambletern is at first idllyic, and Doro (the once little girl Frances modeled her villainess after) seems friendly and accommodating. But Megan soon realizes that she's being lied to. Who can she trust? And who committed the real life murder?

Interspersed between Megan's journey to Ambletern are snippets from Frances' horror novel, which gives us clues about what Frances experienced/saw while there.

Even with these clues, however, I kept changing my mind about who Megan should trust. At one point or another, almost everyone at Ambletern seemed suspicious!

Both Megan's angst toward her mother, and her attempts to do something worthwhile with her life, endeared her to me. I know, angst usually isn't an endearing quality. But the weary tension between Megan and Frances felt very real to me. I understood where Megan was coming from.

Tangled up in the mystery (both real and in Frances' book) is Ambletern and its relationship to the Native American community living there. We get a good, toxic taste of both cultural appropriation and obsession. This could have been problematic, but I feel it was handled very well.

And can I say again how much I loved the book within a book? I almost wish I could read Frances' novel in its entirety!

Wow! This book keeps you coming back for more then entire way through! There is a never ending list of questions to ask along the way and some pretty heavy secrets to be revealed. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves a good family secret!

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. This book kept me up late reading. Highly recommend!