Marissa was born in captivity. Until 7 years old the basement was her whole world. She called 3 women Mama and had two little sisters. One day they managed to escape and Marissa had to learn just how big the world really is and that her father is actually a kidnapper and a rapist. Twenty years later it is the anniversary of their escape. Marissa (now Claire) starts to receive strange messages from someone who knows who she really is. That someone is killing people and wants to play a twisted game with Marissa. She has to find out who is behind all this and stop the killings. But how does she do that when she spent such a long time hiding her true identity from the world?
I was hesitant going into this book. I didn't enjoy Elle Marr's previous novel, The Missing Sister. It took me a while to get into Lies We Bury, more than half of the book, but after that I did end up liking it more. The main source of frustration was Marissa herself. Few people tell her that she handled her dark past way better than the rest of the women but I don't think so. She just hides it better than others. On the outside she might seem in control but on the inside she is quite a mess. Now, the portrayal of someone who went through hell was done well in my opinion. Because of course Marissa would not be okay after something like that. Nor would her sisters and mothers. But being in her head while she investigated the mystery was still a pain. She was suspecting everyone except for all the right suspects. Because I figured out the whodunit pretty early on and it was quite obvious I think. I liked the ending though and the hopeful feeling it left for the future of these characters. So I settled on 3.5* on this,not a bad book in the end.
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The cover drew me in and the content kept me reading.

Lies We Bury follows (Marissa) Claire Lou as she attempts to navigate adulthood while ignoring the complexity of her past. That past being that she was born to a captive woman in a basement and spent the first seven years of her life hidden from the world. As a protagonist Claire isn’t exactly likeable but that’s what makes her a little bit more relatable/believable. She’s guarded, she has a lot of walls and the girl needs therapy (don’t we all?). My main annoyance with Claire was how little she thought things through and how quick she was to make assumptions, especially when she was so clearly wrong.

The main aspect that I loved of Lies We Bury was the structure of the ‘dual mystery’. We not only follow Claire in her present as she tries to uncover the murder who seems hellbent on framing her and tormenting her but also her past and those years she spent in the basement with her family. There was enough intrigue in each storyline that I was never slowed down or bored in either one.

While I did catch on to the ending a little early on the way it all played out was still exciting and ‘gasp enduing’, if you will. I wasn’t prepared for it to go down quite like that (iykyk).

Really well written and thought out, definitely a thriller/mystery to add to the reading list!

This book was an absolute emotional rollercoaster. I went from crying, to shouting to be genuinely terrified. Fantastic and really stands out from the rest in my opinion.

A twisty and heartbreaking thriller, LIES WE BURY is one of my favourite reads of the year. There is so much depth, emotion and mystery rolled into this story about facing our pasts and refusing to let them define who we are.

After escaping the basement prison where she lived until she was seven, Marissa has spent the past twenty years trying to reinvent herself and move on from the trauma. When she secures a job as a freelance crime scene photographer for a Portland newspaper, her past comes back to haunt her as she covers a series of macabre murders that all feature dark underground locations just like the one she was born into.

LIES WE BURY takes readers on a fast-paced, heart pounding journey where everything, and everyone, can be questioned and nothing is what it seems. This book is ROOM with a mysterious and murderous twist that doesn’t let up until the “I never saw that coming” conclusion.

Marr’s writing is atmospheric and crisp, with characters that get under your skin. I was hooked from page one and didn’t want to put it down. This is a must add thriller to your shelves.

Thank you to the publisher for the advance reading copy.

Lies We Bury is the story of a woman who was born in captivity and ended up escaping with her sister and mother years later. As an adult, after changing her name and becoming a freelance photographer, she moves to Portland to try and establish a new life there, What she doesn’t expect is that a series of murders will force her to reconnect with the past she tried desperately to bury. The story is told through present and past events, with a twist near the end that I didn’t see coming. This is the second book by Elle Marr that I have enjoyed. I look forward to her next book.

I can see already that I’m in the minority with my rating of this book. As soon as I read the description of this book I was absolutely hooked and was dying to get my hands on an arc from NetGalley.

Overall, it’s a good idea for a story but I just found myself really struggling to like the main character and also understand who she is. Throughout the whole I was grasping for detail, any detail really that would allow me to picture these women/girls, the city of Portland and get a feel for their personalities. I was surprised to learn a quite far into the book that the girls weren’t American, all the characters had unusual names and this I felt didn’t help me imagine Portland or its culture.

Claire is an interesting character but even she wasn’t willing to sit still and explain who she was or what made her who she was today. I understood her self-harm and frosty nature to be her way of dealing with her upbringing but I couldn’t find anything I liked about her personality. I think she just came across too cold and too closed off for me to warm to her. I understand her trust issues but using these for plot twists was a bit unconvincing and lack lustre.

I’m just a bit disappointed as I really really wanted to enjoy this book but just couldn’t get ‘into it’. The ending was not what I imagined and was in my opinion a bit extreme.

As always these are my opinions and my review of what I feel towards this book and there will be some who agree with me and some (hopefully more) that don’t. Thank you to NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was well-written and did a decent job of transitioning between the past and present. I liked the ending and that it ended on a hopeful note.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Main character escapes captivity and rebuild her life. And she sees crime start to happen close to her that mimics what she endured. I really liked this novel a lot.

Claire is a photographer. She's offered a photography job. I really liked claire. I liked the dialogue and descriptions