4 stars - a wonderfully chilling and claustrophobic story. The majority of the story is set in one room, with flashbacks slowly revealing what is going on as our main characters (Suzanna and Adam) remember the events that caused Suzanna to run with her daughter Emily. The plot moves at an alarming rate, gripping you and never letting go from the first page. Needless to say, I loved it.

The range of emotions I felt for each character changed a number of times. There were a number of reveals that I did not see coming, but they were believable. I thought the characters were crafted really well, with Adam being a highlight as he was completely chilling throughout.


My only issue with the book was the amount of violence that was described throughout. This is not a book for the faint of heart, with particularly nasty scene with a cat. Also a warning for rape should be in place. Otherwise a good read that moves at a great pace.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

Quite a short book, I whizzed through this in two days. Intense and fast paced. The two main characters meet in a therapists room and as they dissect their lives we uncover new things, with a dangerous undertone always there.

This is a really good story. Susanna is a counsellor, and it quickly becomes clear that she has reinvented herself after events in her past. When Adam arrives for his counselling session and tells her that he wants to hurt someone, and that someone is Susanna's daughter, she realises that her past has caught up with her. But who is Adam, and why does she feel she knows him when they haven't met before? Gradually, the story of Susanna's past is revealed. This is a real page turner that will keep you guessing til the end. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

This was my second and probably ny last book by Lelic. Unfortunately, like The House, this one failed to grip me.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
I thought it was extremely clever, focusing mainly on two characters in one particular place,whilst intertwining the back story and other characters in an inobstrusive way despite all of them being crutial to the story.
It showed how easy it is for every day life and family relationships to suddenly be turned totally upside down without anyone seeing the trauma/disaster coming.How we often imagine people's lives are going along with no stress or anxiety, when all along they're treading water trying to keep themselves from sinking under enormous pressure and lies.
I will definitely be recommending this book/author to family and friends.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was an unusual story and held my interest throughout. It took a while for the story to fully develop, but the interesting opening sequence was very riveting and I could not wait to gt further into the story. At one or two points one had to suspend disbelief, but it was still a very worthwhile read and I will recommend it to my friends.
Really loved it. Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read it.

A well-written haunting psychological thriller. Plenty of secrets, twists and turns. A page-turner from start to finish one of the best books of the year for me. Recommended.

This is a very tense, gripping book.
Susanna is a therapist. However, 14 years ago she walked out of her other life and re-invented herself and her daughter. Why and for what reason?
She has a new client who seems familiar, who starts to ask probing questions which seem to prove her knows something of her past life. Who is Adam? what does he want and more important - what has he done with her daughter? Every time you have an answer you will be back to square one within minutes.

Loved this book from start to finish and read it in one day I just couldn't put it down. Susanna tries to make a new life for both her and her young daughter but Adam turns up in both of their lives it has things go very bad for them. What has happened in her past that she tried to get away from now comes back to haunt and she has to try and save her daughters life. The ending was great and even though I had already guessed the connection Adam had with her it was a riverting read.

I read this book within a couple of days, and while I was interested to keep reading and find out how the story progressed, I didn’t find myself liking any of the characters. I didn’t totally understand why Suzanna had to create a new identity when she hadn’t done anything wrong, although I get that this is what the whole story is based on. I also struggled a little with working out how Adam knew as much as he did about the whole situation when he hadn’t had anyone who was there to tell him about it. Overall, it was an interesting read and I enjoyed it as a poolside book, but I don’t think it’s quite as gripping as it could have been.

A very clever thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. A plot with lots of twists that makes you want to turn the page to see what happens next

This psychological thriller gradually peels back the layers as the story unfolds. The two main characters, Susannah and Adam, are complex, revealed as neither completely good or evil as the book continues. The tension is maintained throughout. It is a gripping read, and gives good insight into the mother/daughter relationship between Susannah and Emily. The dilemmas of the young teacher are realistically portrayed. I enjoyed this book.

3* Disturbing Stars

From the premise of the book I was hoping for a much more twisty and mysterious read, however this fell short for me and the storyline dragged somewhat. The majority of the story takes place in Susanna’s counseling room with her new patient Adam. Secrets and lies from the past are divulged with destructive consequences.

The characters were very unlikeable and some of them quite cruel and aggressive. This book certainly had all elements of lies, secrets, revenge and forgiveness.

I would have liked the ending to be more realistic and gripping.

Many thanks to Penguin Books and NetGalley for my ARC.

I have found this a difficult book to rate. On the one hand it was very readable but on other, something about it just seemed a little 'off'. The premise is that Susanna, a counsellor with something in her past to hide, is confronted by a young man, Adam, about what she has done. Adam is clearly a very disturbed teenager and he is determined to make his point with Susanna. Her secret lies in what happened to her son Jake, many years ago. Is it her fault? Adam clearly thinks it is and is determined to make her suffer for it. The problem for me is that psychologically none of it rings true. Jake, a normal child until his teens, changes completely without apparently either parent noticing (or teachers, or any other adults). Susanna is a counsellor and as part of training to be one would have had to have undergone extensive counselling herself during the course of which her secret should have come out but it didn't. It takes Adam, a disturbed teenager to make her face up to what she did. And after reading it I'm not sure exactly what she did wrong, it was more that she was misunderstood. And I really didn't understand why she had to change her identity etc. Seemed like a bit of an overreaction to me. But as I say, it's very readable and I'm sure others will love it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The Liar's Room by Simon Lelic is about 2 people in 1 room each with a number of secrets but how will they get out?

This book will probably split opinion with some readers enjoying it whilst others, like myself, finding it dragging & meandering on with a poor ending.

I couldn't engage with either main character and didn't really care what they had or hadn't done or whether they resolved their issues and I think that was my major issue with the book. Also the book jumped around both time wise & setting which didn't help with the flow.

Overall not one for me but I am sure that others will enjoy the style and storyline.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, Simon Lelic kept you guessing throughout and trying to work out the logic of what happened yet I couldn't make sense of it until close to the end....

Definitely one to keep you gripped and stop you sleeping to see what happens next!

I am setting up the stage for the scene as I imagined it.

Susanna as the counselor waiting for her patient and in comes Adam! They get to talking and Adam hints at wanting to hurt a woman and it turns out to her daughter Emily.

The story takes a turn when Adam wants to talk about her son Jake

What happened to Jake? And why did he die?

My first book by Simon Lelic, and I was pleasantly shocked at the way he could draw me into the story. The mid section was absolutely fabulous, the place which kept me glued to the story — what, when, why. There was an atmosphere of curiosity so intense that I had to complete the book even when it was 2am. I needed to know the hidden secrets!! Hats off to the author for creating this aura!!

Susanna as the main character was initially very standoffish, I couldn't connect to it. But as Adam slowly made her drop her veneer, I could see her pain as a mother losing her son. She kept on talking about past secrets of hers, never did come to know what they were.

Adam didn't feel quite as sane, but he had his own crosses to bear, his own interpretations of the past. The mind is funny, it fills in parts with thoughts and memories when the reality is fuzzy. Adam had his own delusions about the past!!

Emily as a fun bubbly teen was okay, didn't really get to know her. She appeared as intermittent chapters. Jake as the troubled teen wanting to fit in, choosing the wrong crowd, ending up doing acts he normally wouldn't, his obsessiveness was the fuel to the plot to make it run smoothly.

I didn't care much for the ending, not that it wasn't apt, but just that it didn't hold the same fervored pitch. On the whole a good way to spend Sunday night, reading through the bewitched hour.

In little over a month ago I got this ARC and I was just so excited to read it. The summary drags you in and I have a friend that got the ARC and dove right in while I couldn't and she said I should read to see if I would like. Since we have normally common taste I was sure I would like the book too.

Unfortunately it didn't work for me and I had such high expectations for this book that it didn't deliver for me. The thriller and mystery parts didn't work for me and I just found myself extremely bored reading it. I have been in a huge loop with thriller books lately where I can't get in the zone with them and I find everything very predictable. Susanna was extremely annoying for me and her reasons at the end just didn't cut it.

You get mystery through out the whole book but it's the kind it didn't need to have been dragged for so long, the bomb could have dropped towards the middle and could have worked around how to rescue her daughter and bargaining some more. Where she was just desperate and not cooperative at all (I wish I could shake or slap some senses into her tbh).

It's supposed to be unsettling and I really wish it worked for me. I never read anything from the author and I was so excited to dive right into The House but now I think I will give myself some time. Maybe it was the writing style that I didn't get really fond of but overall I just blame the story wasn't for me. I do see where people get to like the plot in general it was REALLY good but...

That's a positive thing I'd like to point it out, it was a good plot, the mystery per se and how the author created was very good, I did see it coming but still I liked the idea in general.

Adam could have been better described and played over, he was after all the antagonist of the story. He let Susanna took over many times and I found his personality too inconsistent for someone who wasn't a serial killer (since the book is not about serial killers I do not find it to be a spoiler).

Long story short the book didn't work for me, it did work for a lot of people so my tip is to read and see for yourself if it will be for you or not. The pace could have been faster and more action in it but I did like the plot.

This tense psychological thriller slowly and inexorably draws you in sentence by sentence! I honestly couldn’t put it down. Excellently creepy.

The two main characters in this haunting psychological thriller are Susanna Fenton and Adam Geraghty. They meet for the first time when Adam walks into Susanna’s office. He is a very troubled teenager seeking help. Or so he says. He has researched well and Susanna is the only counsellor that he needs to see. She is the only person who can help him build up a picture in his mind and help him find out the truth about his past. Susanna is not the person she is pretending to be. She reinvented her life after tragedy struck her family and her life changed beyond her wildest imagination. She left her husband and her home with their young daughter Emily; she set up a new home and retrained. It was the only way she could protect her innocent child from danger. All she cares about is Emily, who is now fourteen years old.
But today, all those years later, little does she know it, but danger has infiltrated her life. She does not know Adam, but he knows all about her and her past. She is exactly the person who can answer his questions. He has things he can tell her too, things that she has never known about the night that changed her life forever. She doesn’t know it yet, but this counselling session is going to change her life once more and force her to face her demons. What she feared most of all is actually going to happen, and with bells on, in fact it has already started. She may be able to use her skills and waylay Adam’s carefully laid plans if she can manage to play her cards right. Adam is determined and he is as big a liar as she is. It’s going to be a battle of wits, one that Susanna must win or she will lose everything that matters to her.
I am a huge fan of Simon Lelic. I’ve reviewed three of his novels already and have his entire backlist on my ‘To be Read’ shelves. He has immense talent and, in my opinion 'The Liar's Room' is his best novel so far. His understanding of human pain and angst is remarkable and his narrative gripping and compelling. The two threads that culminate in an astounding and violent climax are both equally absorbing. The dual time frame historic thread is both poignant in the extreme and superbly crafted. I felt huge empathy with Susanna who goes on to bear the guilt of her actions in secrecy with no support or understanding. Her life was truly blighted by every parent’s worst nightmare. The modern thread is terrifyingly chilling and full of tension and suspense. Set mainly in the claustrophobic and sterile counselling room, evil, twisted thoughts and actions, pent up violence, grief, despair and desperation all merge with catastrophic and chilling consequences. I absolutely loved it and found it to be ‘the complete package’ and totally satisfying.
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from publisher Viking through my membership of NetGalley. Thank you for my copy sent in return for an honest and unbiased review. This novel is an excellent read and will keep you turning the pages, anxiously, excited and soon to reach a thrilling conclusion.