I wasn’t expecting a paranormal story when I started this, but that’s what I got. Check out my review of The Truth Lies Here below!
The Truth Lies Here by Lindsay Klingele
To be published on August 21, 2018 by Harper Teen
Synopsis from Goodreads: In small town Michigan, Penny, an aspiring journalist, teams up with the nerdy boy-next-door and the town’s star quarterback to find her conspiracy theorist father after he goes missing and several other townspeople turn up dead in the woods.
The deeper she digs, the weirder things start to get. Townspeople repeat the same phrases—verbatim. Men in black suits stroll around Main Street. Chunks of her memory go missing. Pretty soon, Penny’s research leads her to the long-ago meteorite crash in Bone Lake’s woods, and she’s going to have to reconsider her definition of “real” if she wants answers. . . .
Review of The Truth Lies Here:
I was excited by the premise of The Truth Lies Here: a girl who wants to get into journalism school and has a father who is a conspiracy theorist. Penny Hardjoy (lol – does she sound like a Bond Girl or what?) leaves Chicago to spend the summer with her father in the small midwestern town where she lived until her parents spilt up. Penny plans to do research on the ways a plant closing impacted the town residents’ lives and instead gets embroiled in an X-Files/Stranger Things style whodunit. Her father is missing, as are a couple of local teens. A meteorite hit town about 15 years prior and things have been weird since then.
So Penny – assisted at times by two guys from her past, one a dreamy football player, one a more awkward guy-next-door – ditches her planned story and starts trying to find her father and figure out what is going on around town.
I wish the suspense had been ramped up more throughout – there is mild suspense but things don’t get very tense until the last few chapters and even then the tension doesn’t last long. I’d also have liked a little more explanation for the sci-fi stuff at the end. I liked Penny as a character but the other characters weren’t as well-developed. As for romance, Penny seems to be into one guy and then the other, if that is an issue for you.
That is kind of a Bond name? Anyway… moving on. Yes the premise of this sounds fantastic! Plus Michigan (yay- my state). Sounds like it maybe didn’t quite live up to its promise though- this is the kind of story that definitely needs some tension and creep factor, seems like! I love the idea of the townspeople being “off”, and men in black, the meteorite- that all sounds fab.
Hahahaha – right? I do love a creative name. You should definitely try this one – I think you might like it!
Thanks for the review! It would be good to know about the paranormal/sci-fi kind of stuff happening in the book ahead of time as the synopsis doesn’t really warn enough about it being included in that kind of genre! It’s a shame that the suspense wasn’t felt enough for you, and it should’ve lasted longer at the end as well :/
Yeah, I do like shows like Stranger Things but am often less fond of books with paranormal elements, especially mysteries…
Argh, a love triangle. They can be written well, but I don’t like it when the main character flip-flops between two potential love interests. It’s okay if there are two options available, but I like for my characters to be confident in who they fall far. Conflicting emotions makes me believe they’re not really committed to either of them.
Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear?
I agree completely!
Penny Hardjoy is definitely a Bond girl name! lol
Karen @ For What It’s Worth
I had a hard time getting past this….