What is the Truth of a Murder?

All Eyes on Her by L.E. Flynn

Publication Date: August 18, 2020

Summary from NetGalley:

You heard the story on the news. A girl and a boy went into the woods. The girl carried a picnic basket. The boy wore bright yellow running shoes. The girl found her way out, but the boy never did…

Everyone thinks they know what happened. Some say Tabby pushed him off that cliff— she didn’t even like hiking. She was jealous. She had more than her share of demons. Others think he fell accidentally—she loved Mark. She would never hurt him…even if he hurt her.

But what’s the real story? All Eyes On Her is told from everyone but Tabby herself as the people in her life string together the events that led Tabby to that cliff. Her best friend. Her sister. Her enemy. Her ex-boyfriend. Because everybody thinks they know a girl better than she knows herself.

What do you think is the truth?

ARC provided by Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

This was such an interesting twist on the usual thriller. I’m still not sure that I really know what happened on that cliff. Or what exactly Tabby and Mark’s relationship was really like. This is of course due to the fact that we don’t really hear from either of these characters. The story is told from other perspectives and I don’t think any of them were exactly reliable. I really felt like I was making assumptions based on what others were telling and feeling about Tabby and Mark, which is what really happens in life.

I never really ended up liking any of the characters, although I did feel sympathetic towards a couple of them. All of them were keeping secrets, and not just from each other, but from the police as well. Some important to the mystery and others not so much, until you really think about it.

I did like Bridget, Tabby’s sister, and I think she was the one I trusted the most, although she did withhold very important information from the police. I also think she had the best handle on what her sister was like. Lou, Tabby’s rival in many things, was also somewhat believable up until the end. I also thought it was interesting to see part of the story from a frenemies point of view.

There were a couple of guys involved in this story, not just poor Mark. There was his best friend Keegan, who I started off liking, but eventually I wasn’t quite sure what his involvement in the whole thing was. Beck was Tabby’s ex-boyfriend, and we only see police interviews from him, so not sure about his role or reliability. The one person we never really hear from is Mark himself. It is hard to know just how toxic the relationship is when you only see a few texts and most of those are from Tabby and only a few from Mark. The rest of what we know about them come from the others telling us how bad the relationship was.

Sorry this review is a bit rambly, but it is hard to talk about this with out giving things away. It is a really interesting way to do a thriller and it will certainly leave you thinking about the way we perceive people. If you like thrillers that will make you suspect everyone and still leave you guessing then this is one you don’t want to miss.