This incredible book needs a warning put on it that you should clear your schedule before turning to the first page! I found it to be almost completely unputdownable and have hardly done anything else all day except for reading this book!
The chapters are mostly quite short but incredibly punchy and those which are a bit longer are so filled with information and details that I flew through the pages absorbing every word. Most of the characters are understandable and the twists that come along make perfect sense having understood all the characters and their motivations even though I didn't spot them coming!
I've discovered a copy of the authors Truly, Darkly, Deeply on my TBRshelf and, after reading this one, I'm going to have to make time to read that soon!

In 2003 three girls attend a party at Turtle Lake, but only 2 of them return home at the end of the night.
Is there more to the story the needs to be unveiled?

Another thriller bites the dust. Read this in less than a day it was so good.

This was a page turner or in my case a swipe turner (I read on my kindle)

Gripping from the start, the back story added so much to the flash forwards.
The writing style kept me on edge and wondering what was going to happen next. The plot twist right at the climax towards the end hit just right.
I only have praise for this novel by @ and the way the characters were built to create a scene. I did second guess at the start of the book when the
Main character changed names but begun to understand why quickly.

I enjoyed the style of writing. A solid four star read. Great premise. Good characters. Page turner. Plenty of suspense to keep me guessing Would definitely read the next novel. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

An intriguing tale told through 2 time lines. Three girls go to a party and only two come home alive. Sadly this is a believable scenario tapping into peer pressure; teens desperate to belong; grooming and what you will do to keep your family safe.
Well written; good pace; plenty of twists and turns.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Victoria Selman/Quercus Books for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

I didn’t realise that this book was for young adults be not actually for mainstream adults. It was an interesting read but I’m not the target audience so it missed the mark a bit with me. But well written.

2.5 stars.

All the Little Liars is a YA-ish (not sure intended on the YA front) crime thriller about a 13 year old girl who goes missing.

The missing 13 year old girl has 2 close friends, and the 3 of them are troubled, lonely and very vulnerable.

This is told from the POV of one of the 13 yr old girls younger sister - we see before the girl goes missing, straight after she goes missing and "now" (in the future).

This was intriguing to begin with, seeming to be leading down the cult crime path, which is always a hit. However, after one of the big "twists" and with the abrupt ending, it fell apart for me.

Regarding the twist, the idea was there and it was a good one but it was executed poorly and upon getting to it, you see it was poor throughout the whole book. The dialogue didn't work for it and the character development wasn't there for it to work. Unfortunately, it also wasn't an original idea so I've seen it done well and work before, and haven't needed to go back hundreds of pages, as I did here.

At the start, what I did like in addition to thinking we were headed for cult crimes, was the friendship and loneliness aspect and really feeling for the characters, to the point it was mentally hard to fathom young kids dealing with loneliness and grief. This part was written well. There is also mixed media used throughout. Not good on a Kindle ARC but I expect it'll appear different in a physical book and be awesome.

My main and big issues, besides some writing qualms and words used incorrectly, are spoilers so don't read below if you plan to read this book.

In summary and without spoilers: the first is potentially an Aussie issue but more likely an author needing to research more issue. The second is a pretty unacceptable policing miss IMO.

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Spoilers below

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1. One of the accused's says they're pleading guilty and does so. However, the jury is called upon to make a decision on guilt or innocence????

I don't know about other countries, but if someone pleads guilty in Australia, there is no need for a jury to hear the case and return a verdict. One of the reasons early guilty pleas are used and then a reduced sentence is the amount of money it saves avoiding a trial!


2. Huge spoiler here - in this book, 2x 13 year old girls stab their best friend 21x and are believed to have killed her.

They know there's a creeper, much older man around and connected. They know that neither girl has traits of psychopathy or anything to explain the crime. They know that the girls personalities, interests, food habits and behaviours changed (among other things).

It is suspected the girls were controlled by someone. & they were - groomed, drugged, raped, everything.

Yet, despite the grooming from the creeper (essentially a cult leader), the girls guilty pleas are accepted, no further investigation and then they're sentenced.

The cult leader isn't investigated further... Yet they know he's involved!!!! They just go "yep, the behaviour is entirely unexplainable, unless groomed, but let's just call it because of the admission of guilt... knowing this isn't unusual if groomed or in a cult... and forget about the sexual predator paedophile in relation to the crime"??

One of the 13 yr olds was PREGNANT to this cult leader - also a teacher at their school - who was drugging them, raping them - but nah, don't worry about investigating any of that. Just let the 13 yr olds get locked up for murder when it isn't actually 'murder' when groomed and controlled.

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End of spoilers

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This was enjoyable enough to begin but ended up falling apart.

Anticipated publication date: 31 August 2023.

⚠️ Check TWs online ⚠️

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for my eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed ‘Truly, Darkly, Deeply’ last year, I was keen to read the new novel by this very talented author, and I was not disappointed! I found the Before, After and Now timelines worked well for this tale - the chapters being short and snappy, and I especially enjoyed the newspaper and television articles that were interspersed throughout, giving it the feeling of a true crime story, which I thought was very clever. I made several assumptions early on but then a massive twist comes out of nowhere, and I found out that all is not what it seems! From there, I struggled to work out who to trust or what to believe…

All in all, this is a thrilling and sometimes shocking read, which I have no hesitation in recommending.

This is a really intriguing story which is full of unexpected twists and turns. A young teen unable to make friends and unhappy at home due to the death of her mother spends time with her younger sister doing childish things and enjoying them. She is unable to make friends and when her younger sibling joins her school and makes friends on day one she becomes more introverted. A live to another school sees her befriended by two popular girls and her world changes.

This is a story of young hopes and drama being manipulated by someone older and the dangers of grooming. One of the girls disappears and then a body is found.

Many years later the younger sibling is still wracked with ptsd from the events. Can she revisit them and find the truth?

Well written and a good read which kept me interested and wanting to read on.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

A very messed up story which is so well written. There is a lot of assumptions made early on in the book that you then find out where not what you thought which adds an additiional dynamic!

Wonderful thought provoking book. What happens when we lose close family members can fashion our lives as accurately portrayed in this book. It had me gripped from first page to last. I enjoyed the insertions of media reports in the book.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Quercus for the chance to ARC this book.

Go in blind. This is one of those books where the less you know going in the better. You can't really review without spoiling anything either. Reads like a true crime novel but you won't predict most of the twists. Absolutely loved it! Three teenage girls go to a party but only 2 return. They confess to killing her but did they?

A thirteen year old girl has disappeared from a party in Turtle Lake, California and discovered on a nearby tree is the word ‘LIAR’ graffitied in blood. Three friends went to the party that night, but only two returned home. They later confess to murdering their friend but did they really kill her? This novel entertained me from start to finish. It’s told across two timelines and I found this adds to the tension. A novel of toxic friendship and murder. Thank you to NetGalley, Quercus Books and the author for the chance to review.

Such an exciting book! I read it on holiday, in just over a day, as I couldn’t put it down. It’s full of twists and turns, appealing characters and an edge-of-your-seat plot. I got absorbed in the story of Finn, who is nine when the story starts. She watches her sister Izzy become friends with two toxic girls and tries to stop her, but can’t. I loved the way the story moves seamlessly between past and present. I enjoyed the author’s previous novel, Truly Darkly Deeply, so was excited to read this one and it’s just as good - maybe even better!

A very clever novel about teenage life, grooming, grieving, secrets and lies and of course murder. Add to this mix a very unexpected twist in the middle and you have an excellent page turner!
Thank you to netgalley and Quercus for an advance copy of this book

All the Little Liars is an amazing read with a massive twist half way through.Written in a dual timeline ,then and now this is such a gripping story with great characters,it is an understatement to say there are twists and turns .It is difficult to say more without giving anything away .An excellent read .Thankyou to NetGalley for my ARC.

Victoria Selman wrote a pyschological mystery thriller featuring dual timelines, twists and turns - what more could you want?
It deals wuth the question that we all have to ask ourselves feim time to time: what price are you willing to pay to belong???
I guess fir me ut was the right book at the right time!!

Thank #NetGalley #Quercus Books for thus ARC

I loved this book thanks net galley for giving me a early copy to read.
A 13 year old girl disappears from a party at turtle lake three teenagers went to the lake that night and only two came back.
One of the girls Izzy was horrified to find her friend missing, she knew the truth she thought she did but how did she disappear.
Izzy was her close friend but they had an argument.
Izzy was a very disturbed girl, and her sister was always looking out for her but she could not save her thiis time.
A great story and could not put it down.
Well done Victoria Selma’n for this excellent book.

The twist in this book (about halfway through) was amazingly done. I was so shellshocked that I had to go back some pages to make sure I hadn't missed something obvious.

This is the story of sisters, of a broken family and the pieces left behind. This is the story of cruel teenage friendships and murder. Plum, Lu and Izzy are friends, until they aren't. Three girls go to a party at Turtle Lake and only two return. The story itself is told by Finn, Izzy's younger sister, as well as through snippets of Izzy's teenage diary and news reports. I normally don't like when different mediums are used to tell the story, as it normally takes me right out of it (or proves irrelevant to the story) but in this case, I found it all very cleverly done.

This was a fast-paced and exciting, as well as heartbreaking read. I loved it.

Truly Darkly Deeply is one of my absolute favourite thrillers, and so I was super excited to see Victoria had written a new one. And anyone who shares my name instantly earns at least one gold star in my reviews before I've even opened the book.

This is just what I was expecting. It's thrilling and twisty turny, and emotional, and frightening, and so well written and accomplished. It reads like a proper true crime story and it has you caught in its net right from the very first chapter.

I'm not going to spoil it, obviously, but it has so many twists and turns it'll have you audibly gaping at what direction it's taking, and you have to reread bits, so shocked at new developments. In fact, now I've finished it, I might reread it, knowing what I do now, I wonder if it would read differently.

Victoria is great at manipulating her storyline in order to manipulate the reader. You're never 100% sire that what you're reading is right, you don't know who or what to trust or believe. It takes someone special to be able to write like that and it still be an entertaining and enjoyable read.

This isn't a linear story. It has the main present timeline, which I suppose is linear, but it flashes back to before the incident, and straight after the incident. It's a brilliant way of dropping clues and offering suspects. It builds up the tension which is exactly what you want for this genre of book.

It's not always the easiest thing to read. There are some shocking scenes and topics that leave an unsavoury taste in your mouth, but they really help to increase the discomfort you feel at reading this story. And it makes you think about good vs evil: are people 100% one or the other, are there shades of both, can we truly know who another person is?

This is more than a missing-person as such. It has such depth. It's a lost child mystery, a murder mystery, a psychological thriller. It really makes you question everyone and everything.

It is brilliantly created with the perfect pacing, fabulous characters, a thrilling plot, and a shocking conclusion. Considering how thrilling and topsy turvy it is, it is a really easy read. I read it in just two sittings. It flows off the page and you're just constantly eager for more, more. more.

This may only be the second book of hers I have read, but she's definitely up there with the best thriller writers around, and she'll be one that I keep an eye out for, when it comes to new books to read.

I jumped at the opportunity to read Victoria's new book. I enjoyed her debut novel Truly Darkly Deeply and I knew I would enjoy this one too.

We follow the story of Finn and Izzy. They are sisters and couldn't be any different. Izzy went through mutism when her Mum passed away and finally came back out of her shell. She started at a new school and met two friends (she has never had a friend before) Plum and Lu. Finn didn’t trust her new friends and no-one would listen to her. The girls went to a party at Turtle Lake and only two of them came home. Told in two time frames of before and after told in Finn's voice, we also get snippets from Izzy's diary that helps us fill in the blanks. What happened that night? And why have two of the friends confessed to murder? Trust me when I say you should go in to this book blind.

All the Little Liars is an absolute page turner. It is a disturbing read full of toxic friendships, loss of a parent, sisterly love and manipulation/grooming. It is well written and feels like a true crime story when reading. It keeps you wanting all the answers until the last sentence.

Thank you Netgalley and Quercus books for a gifted copy of this book for my honest review.