I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

I do not understand why Beckett was such a hypocrite. I hate how she was upset all the time that people would think she was Lullaby’s mom and then she went around accusing multiple people of being the parents. I found her to be a really unlikeable character and I don’t think she was supposed to be. And it was pretty obvious the whole time what the truth was.

**Thank you to NetGalley, the author, & the publisher for a chance to read to & review an ARC of this book!**

Please find my extended feedback below...along with some spoilers (beware).
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Things I Liked:
-I felt like the author did a good job being respectful while talking about very sensitive topics (addition, teen pregnancy, relationship issues, family dynamics, bullying, rumors, friendships, etc.).
-I liked how Beckett was a strong female lead who spoke up for herself and set boundaries with others when needed.
-The mystery was good & kept me guessing until about 75% of the way through the book.

Things That Didn't Sit Quite Right With Me:
-I really disliked the rumor mill but I understood why that was part of the story.

Overall, this book was good & I gave it 3 stars.

What an intense and heart breaking novel. I’m not even sure where to begin but I didn’t want to put it down, I didn’t want it to end. I want to follow this family into another story just to see how they’re doing. The trigger warnings are a mile long, it each trigger is handled with elegance and respect.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me a free copy of this advanced copy of the book to read and review.

I know that I'm late, but I'm GAGGED that I haven't heard more about this book.

I loved our main character Beckett, I loved seeing her trying to piece together the puzzle while also dealing with this background noise of all the harassment she was up against. I think that the narrative did a good job of leading the reader down the path that it wanted you to be on in terms of the mystery, while also laying enough clues for the reader to guess the final twist so that when it finally happens and is being explained it feels more like the final piece being laid in the puzzle and not like the rug is getting pulled out from under the reader.

I also have to mention how much I loved Beckett's family and how all of them got to play a role in the story and how the small town vibes really came through over the course of the story. The book was addicting to read, delicately handled some seriously hard subject matter and culminated in a book that was easily one of my best reads of 2022 so far.

Didn't capture my attention and engagement. Interested in trying it again though and hopefully it will take.

The pacing and twists to this story were excellent. Lots of content warnings for this book. Beckett is the perfect narrator because she is likeable through her flaws.

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

By the time I started this book, I had completely forgotten what this book was about, so you could say I went into this book with not many expectations or hopes, but I was bit a wary. However, I was pretty much hooked from the first page; it grabbed my attention and did not let go. Honestly, I did not want to put down this book, so I didn’t, and I finished it in one night.

The mystery and suspense started almost immediately and the reader wanted to know what happened, and the little cliff-hangers at the end of chapters had me reading on. I personally liked the main character which made it more fun to read from her perspective, which doesn’t always happen with books with high school settings.

I enjoyed this book a lot and definitely recommend it to mystery lovers! Overall, I rate this book 5/5 stars.

3.5 stars probably in actuality.

Beckett lives in a small town, 3 miles wide, one high school, two detectives at the local police station, two funeral homes, etc. So when Beckett finds a dead baby in a duffel bag in the girls’ locker room at school, it rocks the town immediately.

One of the two detectives in town is Beckett’s mom, and she gets assigned to the case. Immediately, people assume Beckett is the one who gave birth to the baby. Beckett has an older brother, Penn, and a younger sister, Landry, and their dad recently died a little over 6 months ago. Their family is pretty splintered after it - they still love each other, but they all move pretty independently from each other. The case of Lullaby Doe, as she’s soon named by the media, brings the family members back together pretty quickly.

Beckett wants to clear her name, and obviously even if not, she kinda just wants to know the baby’s true story. She finds out secrets about her loved ones along the way. She suspects a lot of her loved ones along the way. Her (ex?)boyfriend, her best friend who recently came back into her life... none of them are safe from her suspecting them in the case of the baby.

It all sounds so dramatic but it was really done in a pretty emotional and generally stable way. Beckett has genuinely normal reactions to the things she finds out and never flies off the rails or anything like that. She does end up in a few arguments with people in her life, but everyone has pretty decent communication skills.

As far as the actual baby storyline, there’s some conversation about lack of attention, and how there was some person out there who went through a whole pregnancy and births with no one noticing. Everyone starts suspecting everyone just because it’s so hard to believe you’d let yourself miss that kind of thing happening in someone’s life. But, life isn’t always that simple. There’s also discussion about sex ed and prenatal health and basically just the circumstances that lead to a situation like the one in the story.

I think it was well done, I think there were plenty of possibilities presented for the conclusion, and I think it’s dark enough to attract teens who like to read that sort of thing without being gratuitous, unrealistic, or obscene.

Before I begin with my review, let me throw out some trigger warnings: infant death, teen pregnancy, cyberbullying, suicide, death of a parent, addiction. Most of the actual events take place off page, but are discussed throughout the book.

Beckett is going through a lot, and truthfully she handles it a lot better than I could have done at sixteen. She is still reeling from the loss of her father, and the circumstances surrounding his death, she’s trying to deal with a breakup, she’s the constant subject of school gossip, and all of this is going on before she finds the baby. Honestly, I would have just curled up in my room and never left it, but she stands up for herself and keeps going to school, facing things head on. But she doesn’t really trust anyone.

Jake just wants Beckett back and to take care of her. But he’s keeping something from her.

Penn, Beckett’s brother, is focused on getting into West Point and all of his spare time is focused there or on his girlfriend.

Amira is Beckett’s best friend, and suddenly back in her life after being noticeable absent for the last seven months.

Beckett’s mom is focused on the case, trying to find out what happened to the baby and who her parents are. She is focused on work to escape her own grief over the loss of her husband.

The one thing everyone agrees on is keeping Landry, Beckett’s 13-year old sister, protected from the online attacks against Beckett and the circumstances around the baby’s discovery.

In addition to the main characters, there are a whole cast of characters in the mix, from reporters, to the Key Club president, to an anonymous Twitter account that seems to know all the details.

The story is told through Beckett’s point of view, and we know from the beginning that she is not the mother, but the question that runs through the entire story is who is? And every time I thought that I might have gotten a lock on the mother’s identity, evidence eliminates them. Beckett ends up accusing just about everyone at some point or another. When the identity is finally revealed, it certainly wasn’t anyone that I was expecting.

The pace of the story is good, and the questions keep you guessing until most is revealed. I have lots of feelings about the mother, but for the sake of spoilers, I won’t share them here. All in all I enjoyed the story, really connected with Beckett’s anger, frustration, fear, and grief.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book through NetGalley on behalf of the publisher {Bloomsbury} in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"People seem to think that shining a light on something is always a good thing. As if that means things can finally be seen for what they are. But the truth is that sometimes bright light distorts familiar shapes. Sometimes it casts wild shadows that bear no resemblance to an object's true form."

This book follows the story of a girl who finds the body of a baby in her highschool locker room. When students and media get ahold of the story, they start to suspect the MC as the mother and what follows is a string of harassment and death threats. She then tasks herself with finding out the truth in order to not only clear her name, but also bring closure to the whole case.

This book definitely kept me interested, but the writing just wasn't very strong. I also wish there was more of a message about the importance of sexual education by the end. After everything this book talks about, I was just left wondering what the point was if there's no message about that topic. I get that this was perhaps more to focus on the toxicity of social media & rumours, but I was left wanting more from the overall message.

Also, I very much felt like this book put police on a pedestal, and that's just not the kind of story I'm interested in reading right now. ALSO, I don't think there was one queer or BIPOC character in this entire book and that's... not great.

This book had potential, but in the end it kinda fell flat for me. You might enjoy this book if you're looking for a YA mystery/thriller, but this just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley & Bloomsbury Children’s for providing me with this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wanna start by adding some TW to this review because there’s a lot.

TW: Bullying, stillbirth, overdose, drugs, death threats

Every Single Lie is a YA Mystery about a 16 year old girl who finds a dead infant in the girls locker room at school.

I couldn’t put this book down. It grabbed my attention right from the start. It took me less than 24 hours to finish it and that’s only cause I had to go to sleep.
The mystery of the baby and the mother wasn’t that easy to figure out. The author did a good job at throwing us off track.

This book was heartbreaking but it showed the realities that we face everyday. The power of social media, rumors and bullying. This is definitely not a story for the faint of heart, but it’s so important!

This twisty and dramatic story has enough mystery to keep younger teen readers engaged even considering some flaws along the way. For many, it will be difficult to believe that so much can happen to these teens without adults getting involved more than they do. Because of this, the story doesn't ring true in today's media saturated society.

3.5
When Beckett finds a baby in the girls locker room at her school, she's dubbed #babykiller throughout the country. The world wants her to be charged for neglect even if she didn't actively kill the baby. The problem? This isn't Beckett's baby.
Accusations are slung around and everyone is a suspect at some point. I'm not good with mysteries, but I had some ideas about who the real mother of the baby was. There were quite a few red herrings and I fell for most of them. The story line was solid and well written and I was relatively captivated.
It didn't feel like anything ground breaking or unique. Although I liked the characters, I wasn't overly attached. There were some moments where my jaw did drop or I gasped out loud, which is really all that I want from a suspenseful book.

I feel like maybe Vincent telegraphed the eventual reveal of this plot a bit too hard. Several points are repeated several times. While I personally found it a bit frustrating, I have to admit that the book on the whole raises some interesting discussion points. Like how an accusation, regardless of it's truth, can destroy a reputation.

Young adult readers will find this book intriguing and they will hang on every twist to get to the end. Loved the story and high school aged student and lovers of young adult books will love it too. Relevant to the times and very engaging.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA Children's Books for an egalley in exchange for an honest review.

When sixteen-year-old Bette makes a startling discovery in the girl's locker room at the local high school, the entire community is transfixed to find all the details. But sometimes it can be hard to separate fact from fiction.

This YA novel had me hooked from the very first page and although it became quite apparent to me who was the real character with the secrets to hide. Bette was impulsive and quick to jump to conclusions and while sometimes that made it rather frustrating to follow her down the rabbit hole, I am glad that I followed this literary mystery to the end.



Publication Date 12/01/21
Reviewed on Facebook, Instagram and Goodreads 24/01/21

#EverySingleLie #NetGalley

In Rachel Vincent's new page-turner, Every Single Lie, she presents the reader with a scandal in a small town, social media bullying, and rumors. It's a fabulous combination.

Beckett just dumped her boyfriend, Jake, because she thought he was cheating on her. When she sneaks back onto campus to take a French test, Jake's baseball teammates coming down the hall make Beckett decide to hide in the girls' locker room, which is closed for remodeling. However, someone else has been there first, because in an abandoned school duffel bag, Beckett discovers a dead newborn baby.

Beckett's mom is one of the detectives in town, and she and another police officer question Beckett as a witness. But someone has started a Twitter account using the name of the defunct high school newspaper, and before she knows what's happening, Beckett is presumed to be the baby's mother/killer.

As Beckett tries her best to find the truth and do right by the baby - named "Lullaby" Doe by the anonymous Twitter account, she has to deal with death threats and a town that just wants to add more fuel to her family fire, which started with the scandal of her veteran father's overdose and death less than a year before.

I won't spoil the ending, but it was a good one, and Vincent took the plot through a collection of wrong suspicions before we get there. The characters are well-developed and I didn't figure out who the real mother was until just before it was revealed.

A worthy read for sure.

<i>Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

My first five star rating of the year!

When Beckett finds a dead baby in a duffel bag in her school's locker room, her life completely changes. Although Beckett doesn't know anything about what happened to the baby and who the parents are, vicious rumors that Beckett had hidden a pregnancy and then killed her child swarm her small town, eventually blowing up into an internet phenomenon. As if the rumors, gossip, disappointing looks, and death threats aren't enough for one person to deal with, Beckett's boyfriend might be cheating on her, her recently deceased father may have had more problems than she thought, and her mother may have been abusing her position of power. As the investigation becomes increasingly publicized with Beckett being the face of the #babykiller, all the lies she has been surrounded by slowly unfold.

<i>Every Single Lie</i> is a fantastic young adult thriller/mystery. There is not a single dull moment--in fact, I was so hooked that I finished this book in less than 24 hours! Rachel Vincent does an incredible job of making you think you've figured everything out, only to throw another curveball at you when you turn the page. The mystery of the deceased baby and unknown mother was interesting throughout the entirety of the book; it never gets tiring, and even as the plot thickens, each bit of evidence makes sense, rather than feeling forced or unnecessary. I was shocked by the "big reveal" and wasn't disappointed at all. Furthermore, I loved that this was so much more than just a thriller. Vincent incorporated such great conversations about cyberbullying, family, adolescence, and being there for others. This book felt so personal and deep--clearly, dead children are an inherently sad subject, but instead of using this as a crutch to make the book disturbing and emotional, Vincent truly delves into the brains and hearts of her characters so that readers will feel the pain, conflict, and confusion that they are feeling. Everyone is deeply flawed and at some points a bit annoying, judgmental, or selfish, yet I still had a soft spot for all the characters. I think I had a moment with just about every single character where I absolutely hated them but then loved them but then was angry at them but then empathizing with them...and ultimately appreciating them for their complexity.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend <i>Every Single Lie</i>. I know YA thriller isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I thought this one was particularly well done!

Side note: where on earth do I get myself a Jake??

Trigger warnings: death of an infant, death of a parent, mentioning of murder, mentioning of underage sex, bullying, cyberbullying (including death threats), mentioning of drug and alcohol addiction