Two Truths and a Lie, the newest thriller by April Henry, will take you on a quick romp full of fun twists, but offers only flat, boring characters.
Creepy motels & creepier games
Nell and her theater troupe are off to a theater competition, which they have spent months preparing for. En route, however, a massive snowstorm forces them to stop at a motel to spend the night. Once there, they find another school stranded there as well. Their teacher heads to bed, but the students all decide to stay up to play two truths and a lie.
When it’s Nell’s turn to read, her slips of paper include chilling words:
I like to watch people die.
I’ve lost track of how many people I’ve killed.
These both have to be lies… right?
Nell goes to bed feeling uneasy. When she wakes up the next day, however, the nightmare really begins. Other guests start to go missing one by one, leaving a trail of blood behind them. Nell and her friends don’t know who to trust…or where is safe.
Boring characters here, there, and everywhere
Overall, his thriller draws you in for a pretty fun mystery with good pacing. However, I am a reader who is drawn in by great characters. I found this cast completely uncompelling, which kept me from being invested in the story. From page one, I struggled to connect with Nell. She was a blank slate—no unique, defining personality traits or interests. Despite being a self-proclaimed “theater kid,” she makes no references and mentions no favorites in particular.
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This rings totally false to me, especially after reading When You Get the Chance, the vibrant theater kid book of my dreams, earlier this year. The way she reacted to the wild circumstances happening around her also felt very generic—she was a basic Anxious But Brave Girl™.
Nell’s relationships with the other characters also felt flat. She has a best friend whom she is supposedly very close to, but they have very few conversations and no special connection. She fawns over one of the boys from the other group, and she fights over him with another girl, which feels pointless, exhausting, and rather sexist. The one connection I enjoyed is her budding relationship with Adam—I wish it had been introduced a lot sooner.
Enough fun twists to keep you interested… maybe
If you can tune out bad characters for a while, the mystery itself keeps you hooked. I’m a California girl, like Nell, and nothing scares me more than the idea of getting stuck in a snowstorm. The almost-abandoned motel is a wonderfully creepy setting, perfect for a thriller. While the killer is somewhat obvious from the get go, I was still surprised by twists along the way.
Personally, I did not fall hard for this book, because it did not deliver on elements that I love. But for thriller fans, particularly lovers of isolationist thrillers, this is worth checking out.
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Two Truths and a Lie was published on May 24th, 2022.
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