Eve always knew she was adopted, but her parents claimed they never knew much about her birth mother. Unexpectedly, Eve discovers that her birth mother, Stella, was a young artist whose art was featured at her dad’s art gallery. And what’s more, she died a tragic death not long after Eve’s birth. Eve’s father never told her this information previously and this omission felt like the ultimate betrayal. Although Eve’s parents were apologetic for keeping the truth from her, Eve got the sense that her parents weren’t being completely truthful. Now that Eve is expecting a daughter of her own, she feels an inherent connection to Stella. So Eve sets out to uncover the truth about Stella, about the mother she never knew.
Back in 1986, Stella was an art student, living with her friend and fellow artist, Maggie. Ben, Maggie’s married boyfriend owned an art gallery, along with a man named David. Maggie’s art is going to be featured at an upcoming event and when Ben sees samples of Stella’s artwork, he insists that her art is featured there as well. David, who has a real eye for art, is convinced that Stella is extremely talented. And although Stella enjoys David’s company, it’s Ben who can’t seem to stay away from her, which deeply upsets Maggie. Stella gets herself into a situation that she doesn’t think she can get out of. And her involvement with Ben and David’s art gallery seemed to be her most fatal mistake.
All the Little Lies by Chris Curran is a quick, twisty thriller full of nothing but lies. Told through both Stella and Eve’s perspectives, we get to learn what Eve is uncovering about Stella while concurrently seeing what happened to Stella firsthand. No one in this book is trustworthy. They’re all harboring lies, but they all manage to surface eventually, even if that takes over three decades. I appreciated how fast-paced this read was, but the story wasn’t as compelling as I’d hoped it’d be. I found Stella and Eve’s voices to be extremely similar. I’m not sure if it was intentional because they’re mother and daughter, but I wish their personalities/voices differed more. An enjoyable, quick-thrill of a read—3/5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley, Killed Reads and Chris Curran for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.