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For some people, a remote home in the mountains sounds like a dream. But in Please Don’t Like by authors Christina Baker Kline and Anne Burt, a luxurious home outside a small mountain town becomes a nightmare for a woman who’s constantly haunted by her past.
The story follows newlyweds Hayley and Brandon as they move from an apartment in New York City to Brandon’s family home in Crystal River, a small town in the Adirondacks. Though the small-town lifestyle has never really interested Hayley, she’s looking forward to getting out of the spotlight. She’s spent the last two years as the subject of tabloids and true-crime podcasts, following her parents’ death in a suspicious home fire and her younger sister’s overdose. But when Brandon starts becoming more distant and irritable, Hayley begins to feel isolated in their new home.
In the city, Hayley felt that she was able to hide in plain sight. In this increasingly eerie small town, everyone she meets seems to know something about her husband that she doesn’t—and while she begins to feel trapped in their new, remote home, she also feels vulnerable whenever she goes into town.
The authors weave together a whole lot of secrets, lies, and revelations into this novel—but none of it feels especially remarkable (or, in some cases, even logical). Hayley’s past is definitely tragic, but it doesn’t seem like the kind of headline-grabbing story that would make her as infamous as she’s made out to be. Meanwhile, Brandon chooses to move back to Crystal River despite an obviously dark secret in his past that he refuses to talk about—though he should have expected it to come up. And their whole relationship seems to be a field of red flags—from the way that they met to the way that he avoids any questions about his past. Neither character feels strong or well-developed—and readers will struggle to care much about them. And when you add in a couple of new friends whose motivation is questionable, you’ve got a story that’s twisted and somewhat suspenseful—yet nothing here feels new or unique.
Please Don’t Lie definitely has all of the elements of a suspenseful story—from a remote house in the mountains to an eerie small town to a husband who’s clearly hiding something. But instead of making it a gripping thriller, it just makes it a story that feels all too familiar.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
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