Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Jennifer Mathieu book and I absolutely loved it! It was well written with real characters. Elena was a trapped young girl who wanted to be able to live her life but couldn’t because of her over-bearing mother Caridad, who is still living with the trauma from her childhood of living in Cuba. Her brother Jouqain has the freedom to come and goes as he wants but still struggles with balancing work, relationships and trying to help Elena escape his mother’s abusive behaviour.

This book is told from each of their perspectives with Caridad’s focusing on her past. Most of it is told from Elena’s POV with the final third being from Joaquin’s. I really enjoy multi-perspective books and this one was perfect. It allowed you to learn more about each character and watch their development.

However I do feel like the ending could have been better and is the main reason that this book doesn’t get a five star review. Whilst I was happy for Jouqain, I felt like Elena honestly deserved a better ending. I don’t know if that’s because I felt myself being more attached to Elena but I wanted a happy ending for her.

This book is a lot darker that I thought it would be and there are a lot of triggers in this book so please be aware of this before picking this book up!

I adored this book! The Liars dealt with many different conflicts and disputes that touched my heart. Through Caridad's perspective, the reader gains way more insight as to why she's such an abusive mother after all. I found myself feeling heartbroken at the fact of how sad her life really is.

Elena was another primary character and just as developed and so real. Her emotions and teenage rebellion that means so much more than what its surface is taught me a lot. The trials of living with an abusive mother like Carrie came through and how Elena is still a girl. All she wanted was normality. We don't get much closure towards the end as to how J.C. may stay relevant. However, I think that makes it way more real.

Joaquin was another character I thought wouldn't have a narrative. When he did, I was pleasantly surprised as to what he had to say. He was probably my favourite one, complex and conflicted. All the other secondary characters still had vivid personalities and I really liked that.


Thank you for this lovely book and Netgalley for letting me read it xx

This book was completely different to everything else I've read by Jennifer Mathieu, but it was brilliant! I loved this novel, it was surprisingly set a few decades ago rather than in the modern day but that only added to the intrigue and mystery of the secrets and lies.

We follow two time lines and three POVs throughout this novel, we start with Elena in 1986 who's excited for the start of the Summer holidays. Elena lives on Mariposa Island, Texas and the Summer holidays always grant her a small amount of freedom away from the house that she shares with her mother, Caridad, and brother, Joaquin. Caridad is an alcohol addict and abusive, Elena usually finds herself putting her mother to bed when she's too intoxicated to do it herself.

Caridad's POV is set in Cuba in 1957. Although rebels are threatening more and more violence nearby, Caridad convinces her father to host an elegant and expensive quince for her. On the night of the celebration disaster strikes, resulting in Caridad being shipped off to Texas to live with a family willing to host a refugee. Torn from her world of splendour and affluence, Caridad feels lost and unhappy in Texas, she clings to the only means of escape; marriage.

In the later chapters of the book we have the opportunity to read from Joaquin's POV in 1986, I wasn't expecting to learn much about Joaquin so these chapters were a very interesting development in the story. I gained a much deeper insight into how Joaquin was feeling throughout the book.

It was incredibly fascinating to read about Caridad's journey from a young, innocent girl at fourteen to an abusive middle aged woman full of secrets and lies. Including Caridad's backstory in so much detail created empathy for her situation.

The only reason this book wasn't a five star is that the ending left me a little deflated, I loved the ending for Joaquin but I think Elena deserved a better ending. It was left fairly open, whereas I prefer my endings to be finished and precise. But I would definitely still recommend this book to everyone, you never know, you might love the ending!

A very different book from Jennifer Mathieu, but I’m grateful to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this prior to publication.
The ARC I received has the simple title ‘The Liars’ and this definitely indicates more characters could be given this title than the family of three we predominantly focus on.
The majority of the story focuses on 17 year old Elena, who has invented a family that she babysits for in order to be able to leave the house. Her older brother, Jouqain, is allowed to work and go out at night but he recognises their mother’s controlling behaviour is abusive. With nobody else to support him though, Jouqain doesn’t know what to do to improve their situation.
Alongside the story of these two and the summer that starts to signal change, we get the background to their mother’s life. It is jarring at first, but the details about her wealthy home in Cuba and the change in lifestyle when she’s sent alone to America do explain - at least in part - some of her actions.
Nothing is really resolved by the end of the book for Elena, but the circumstances around Jouqain do give some hope that things might change in time.

This book was not an easy read. By that I mean the subject matter. The writing was superb. It dealt with some quite dark and delicate subject matters with ease. It was enticing and gripping read with "real" characters whose emotions were complex but written beautifully so that you understood the gravity of their situation.. The unresolved ending also gave the novel a more realistic base.

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You rarely see low-key domestic dramas in YA, so Mathieu's latest novel kind of took me by surprise. Readers expecting a twisty thriller will be disappointed: 'The Liars' is more of a brooding character study.

It's eloquently written, with fantastically real and frustrating characters. I loved the interchange between the different family members' povs, including flashbacks to the mother's childhood in Cuba. I did feel a little let down by the lack of plot, and the final reveal never quite hits its mark, leaving the whole novel feeling curiously shapeless. It's only really when you finish the book (with its unresolved ending) that you realise that was the intention all along.

'The Liars' is a heavy and ambitious read, as cloying as the atmosphere in the Finney family home. It's an astute exploration of lies and entrapment, slow to bloom but wonderfully weighted.

There are very few authors I will drop my TBR for the minute I’m able to read a new book from them. Jennifer Mathieu is one of those authors.
The Liars is a powerful read that will stay with me for a long time. It’s narratives are haunting and heartbreaking. I thought this was amazing right from the beginning and then there was a flip; in came a third voice that challenged everything I thought and felt. I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life.

It’s themes don’t make for an easy read, but I feel it’s one that is much needed for the current climate.

A beautiful story of the trials of love as families and the things that go against us. This was beautifully written, the setting was exceptional. Fantastic YA thriller xx