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The Elizas
When debut novelist Eliza Fontaine is found at the bottom of a hotel pool, her family at first assumes that it’s just another failed suicide attempt. But Eliza swears she was pushed, and her rescuer is the only witness.
Desperate to find out who attacked her, Eliza takes it upon herself to investigate. But as the publication date for her novel draws closer, Eliza finds more questions than answers. Like why are her editor, agent, and family mixing up events from her novel with events from her life? Her novel is completely fictional, isn’t it?
The deeper Eliza goes into her investigation while struggling with memory loss, the closer her life starts to resemble her novel until the line between reality and fiction starts to blur and she can no longer tell where her protagonist’s life ends and hers begins.
Desperate to find out who attacked her, Eliza takes it upon herself to investigate. But as the publication date for her novel draws closer, Eliza finds more questions than answers. Like why are her editor, agent, and family mixing up events from her novel with events from her life? Her novel is completely fictional, isn’t it?
The deeper Eliza goes into her investigation while struggling with memory loss, the closer her life starts to resemble her novel until the line between reality and fiction starts to blur and she can no longer tell where her protagonist’s life ends and hers begins.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 17, 2018
303 people are currently reading
8409 people want to read
About the author
Sara Shepard
128 books14.7k followersSara Shepard graduated from NYU and has an MFA from Brooklyn College. She has lived in New York City, Brooklyn, Tucson, Arizona, Philadelphia, and now lives in Pittsburgh, PA. Sara's Pretty Little Liars novels were inspired by her upbringing in Philadelphia's Main Line.
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April 24, 2018
The Elizas Review & Blog Tour
About: The Elizas is a mystery thriller written by Sara Shepard. It was recently published on 4/17/18 by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, 352 pages. The genres are adult, mystery, thriller, and fiction.
My Experience: I started reading The Elizas on 3/26/18 and finished it on 4/7/18. This book is an okay read. I like the glimpse into the author’s experience when comes to publishing a book. I smile following the discussion between Eliza and her agent about bloggers & instagramers reviewing her book and getting tons of advance review copy requests. It’s fun to read about the other side because I am on the blogger’s side. I like the main character’s dry sarcastic humor when she couldn’t find her phone because she worries she has been missing hours of news from Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc even statuses on some relatives she doesn’t even like. This is my first read from the author even though I am aware of her other books.
This book is told in the first person point of view following Eliza Fontaine, a young woman with a record for attempted suicides by drowning in hotel pools. When she was yet found in the bottom of another hotel pool, her mom wanted to send her to a psychiatric home for treatment. However, Eliza claims that this time she didn’t intentionally try to hurt herself but was pushed by someone. She couldn’t remember the details because she had ingested some drinks with her medications. In past suicide attempts, Eliza also explained the same reasons but when doctors performed a brain scan, they said that she suffered from a tumor pressing against an amygdala. This pressure causes the body to tell the brain how to react to emotions. Before the current incident, the tumor has been removed. Since the current incident is so similar to her past attempts, no one believes Eliza of what she claims to be true. The story goes parallel with a book Eliza authored calls The Dots, where the character named Dot suffers seizures but not knowing exactly the causes. In Eliza’s book, Dot is very close to her aunt Dorothy and resents her mom for always working. In Eliza’s life, she lives with two roommates and not very close with her mom and family, but adores her aunt Eleanor. Eliza often has blackouts where she doesn’t remember what happened in the chunk of time that passed by. Since no one believes her, Eliza set out to investigate what happened. This book narrates between Eliza and her book’s main character, Dot.
This book has an interesting take when comes to alternating through two separate stories. I don’t enjoy reading about characters with false memory so much because it makes the story slow going. There are some oddities that I don’t enjoy reading, such as her quickies with guys that hardly have any background info from a bar. Eliza just takes Desmond’s words without questions. She puts a move on him and he backs away, yet he came back to ask her out. Everything I read and thought I understand started to change because of Eliza’s false memory. I was able to guess about Dot’s aunt Dorothy but this type of story just couldn’t hold my attention. I still recommend everyone to read it and form your own opinion.
Pro: easy to read, fast paced, dry sarcastic humor,
Con: slow story building, just not my cup of tea in general with false memory
I rate it 3 stars!
***Disclaimer: Many thanks to Atria Books for inviting me to host a blog tour. I appreciate the opportunity to read and review. Please be assured that my opinions are honest.
xoxo,
Jasmine at www.howusefulitis.wordpress.com
About: The Elizas is a mystery thriller written by Sara Shepard. It was recently published on 4/17/18 by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, 352 pages. The genres are adult, mystery, thriller, and fiction.
My Experience: I started reading The Elizas on 3/26/18 and finished it on 4/7/18. This book is an okay read. I like the glimpse into the author’s experience when comes to publishing a book. I smile following the discussion between Eliza and her agent about bloggers & instagramers reviewing her book and getting tons of advance review copy requests. It’s fun to read about the other side because I am on the blogger’s side. I like the main character’s dry sarcastic humor when she couldn’t find her phone because she worries she has been missing hours of news from Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc even statuses on some relatives she doesn’t even like. This is my first read from the author even though I am aware of her other books.
This book is told in the first person point of view following Eliza Fontaine, a young woman with a record for attempted suicides by drowning in hotel pools. When she was yet found in the bottom of another hotel pool, her mom wanted to send her to a psychiatric home for treatment. However, Eliza claims that this time she didn’t intentionally try to hurt herself but was pushed by someone. She couldn’t remember the details because she had ingested some drinks with her medications. In past suicide attempts, Eliza also explained the same reasons but when doctors performed a brain scan, they said that she suffered from a tumor pressing against an amygdala. This pressure causes the body to tell the brain how to react to emotions. Before the current incident, the tumor has been removed. Since the current incident is so similar to her past attempts, no one believes Eliza of what she claims to be true. The story goes parallel with a book Eliza authored calls The Dots, where the character named Dot suffers seizures but not knowing exactly the causes. In Eliza’s book, Dot is very close to her aunt Dorothy and resents her mom for always working. In Eliza’s life, she lives with two roommates and not very close with her mom and family, but adores her aunt Eleanor. Eliza often has blackouts where she doesn’t remember what happened in the chunk of time that passed by. Since no one believes her, Eliza set out to investigate what happened. This book narrates between Eliza and her book’s main character, Dot.
This book has an interesting take when comes to alternating through two separate stories. I don’t enjoy reading about characters with false memory so much because it makes the story slow going. There are some oddities that I don’t enjoy reading, such as her quickies with guys that hardly have any background info from a bar. Eliza just takes Desmond’s words without questions. She puts a move on him and he backs away, yet he came back to ask her out. Everything I read and thought I understand started to change because of Eliza’s false memory. I was able to guess about Dot’s aunt Dorothy but this type of story just couldn’t hold my attention. I still recommend everyone to read it and form your own opinion.
Pro: easy to read, fast paced, dry sarcastic humor,
Con: slow story building, just not my cup of tea in general with false memory
I rate it 3 stars!
***Disclaimer: Many thanks to Atria Books for inviting me to host a blog tour. I appreciate the opportunity to read and review. Please be assured that my opinions are honest.
xoxo,
Jasmine at www.howusefulitis.wordpress.com
June 8, 2018
2.5 stars. I just could not get into this book. I did a mixture of skimming and plowing through on sheer grit and determination. I didn't like the main character, Eliza (in fairness, I'm not sure I was really supposed to like her), I found her poor decisionmaking wincingly painful to read about, and I thought the plot dragged badly and needed to be tightened up.
I did find the "Dots" chapters (excerpts from Eliza's novel) interesting - it was pretty clear to me early on that Aunt Dorothy ). And I liked the way the story all came together in the end after the big reveal. But not enough that I'd recommend this book to anyone else.
I did find the "Dots" chapters (excerpts from Eliza's novel) interesting - it was pretty clear to me early on that Aunt Dorothy ). And I liked the way the story all came together in the end after the big reveal. But not enough that I'd recommend this book to anyone else.
April 30, 2018
3.75 Stars → THE ELIZAS is a dual narrative featuring Eliza, a young author who's about to have her first novel published, and Dot, the main character in her book. Eliza is a troubled individual, both her past and present self. I found her irritating at times, but I understood her current paranoia. When she's pulled from the bottom of a swimming pool yet again, her family is convinced it's another suicide attempt, but Eliza thinks she was pushed in. Whose story is to be believed?
And then there's Dot. This is a book within a book, as chapters from Eliza's novel THE DOTS alternate with her own. I enjoyed this set up quite a bit, because it added to the overall madness of the situation. After a while it was hard to tell who was real and who was the character. Though some parts were a bit far-fetched, it was still a fun and strange read, especially if you love unreliable narrators.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
And then there's Dot. This is a book within a book, as chapters from Eliza's novel THE DOTS alternate with her own. I enjoyed this set up quite a bit, because it added to the overall madness of the situation. After a while it was hard to tell who was real and who was the character. Though some parts were a bit far-fetched, it was still a fun and strange read, especially if you love unreliable narrators.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
April 26, 2018
Eliza and Dot - one is a real person, and the other is a character in Eliza’s book.
The similarities are striking and a bit confusing.
We follow both Eliza and Dot as they move through situations both in real life and in Eliza's book.
The book begins as Eliza was pulled out of a swimming pool, and no one believes that it was an accident since she previously tried to commit suicide. Doctors and family members also question her story and her memory about many things, but are they just trying to make her think she can’t remember things?
THE ELIZAS was odd, but interesting. The characters seemed to be trying to put Eliza in a bad light even though Eliza’s publicist met with her and said the stunt with the pool was a brilliant tactic for publicity.
Were they really worried about Eliza or their book sales? Was anyone really worried about Eliza or just themselves?
Eliza couldn't let everyone think she had purposely jumped in the pool and was more interested in clearing up the story the police are telling everyone about the pool incident than worrying about publicity for her book.
Each chapter was titled Eliza or Dot, and the ending of the chapters about Eliza seemed to have someone questioning her memory. When Eliza asks a question about a situation since she can't remember, the other characters confirm that it is someone she knew or a situation that had happened. Each chapter parallels each other with a similar situation for each character.
THE ELIZAS was a psychological fest. Did I or didn't I do that? Did I or didn't I remember that situation? Is the character in my book really me?
THE ELIZAS was a bit confusing at first and kept me guessing. Once a few things were revealed, the tension mounted and things came together, but the oddness continued.
More than one story seemed to be going on at once throughout the book.
Be patient and read carefully when you read THE ELIZAS. You never know who may be lurking. 4/5
This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher and NetGalley in return for an honest review.
August 4, 2018
This is one of the strangest things I've ever read.
It took me quite a while to get into but then I got to a point where I couldn't put it down.
I hated how Eliza constantly insulted the main male character's appearance and personality but then we were supposed to believe she liked him.
I loved the dual narrative between Eliza's real life and her novel. You discover parts of the mystery in her life as you read sections from her book.
You may like this if you enjoy unreliable narrators.
Potential triggers: memory loss/blackouts, heavy drinking, brain tumor, child abuse, being roofied, suicidal thoughts & attempts, PTSD.
It took me quite a while to get into but then I got to a point where I couldn't put it down.
I hated how Eliza constantly insulted the main male character's appearance and personality but then we were supposed to believe she liked him.
I loved the dual narrative between Eliza's real life and her novel. You discover parts of the mystery in her life as you read sections from her book.
You may like this if you enjoy unreliable narrators.
Potential triggers: memory loss/blackouts, heavy drinking, brain tumor, child abuse, being roofied, suicidal thoughts & attempts, PTSD.
April 17, 2018
I’m a huge fan of Pretty Little Liars, both the books and the show (the books were better, duh) but I haven’t read anything else from Shepherd since the final installment of that series and that was quite a few years ago, so naturally I was very excited to read one of her adult novels to see if she could still reel me in with something with a bit more maturity. While overall this was an entertaining, easy read it didn’t have that bite, that sharpness that I need in a “grown up” thriller.
There WAS plenty that worked for me here, I absolutely love books about books and this one alternated Between Eliza’s POV in the present and chapters from her debut novel, The Dots. To begin I was equally invested in both narratives but as the lines between fact and fiction started to get fuzzy, I found myself more interested in Eliza’s book rather than her story. I don’t necessarily think that’s a problem per se, but I didn’t expect to feel like that nonetheless.
I really think that my main issue is that I’m far too seasoned in terms of reading true, gritty thrillers to be surprised by this one. This would be perfect for a YA audience or anyone who is wanting to branch out into thrillers who isn’t as jaded and picky as me. It would also be ideal for anyone who is looking for a lighter suspense read with no gore or graphic details, this focuses more on paranoia and the unknown than violence. Shepherd is a solid writer and does write page turners though, I’m sure the right audience will love this but unfortunately that’s just not me.
There WAS plenty that worked for me here, I absolutely love books about books and this one alternated Between Eliza’s POV in the present and chapters from her debut novel, The Dots. To begin I was equally invested in both narratives but as the lines between fact and fiction started to get fuzzy, I found myself more interested in Eliza’s book rather than her story. I don’t necessarily think that’s a problem per se, but I didn’t expect to feel like that nonetheless.
I really think that my main issue is that I’m far too seasoned in terms of reading true, gritty thrillers to be surprised by this one. This would be perfect for a YA audience or anyone who is wanting to branch out into thrillers who isn’t as jaded and picky as me. It would also be ideal for anyone who is looking for a lighter suspense read with no gore or graphic details, this focuses more on paranoia and the unknown than violence. Shepherd is a solid writer and does write page turners though, I’m sure the right audience will love this but unfortunately that’s just not me.
February 19, 2018
Novelist Eliza was discovered one night in a pool and her family assumes it’s one more of her many suicide attempt resulting due to the tumor in her brain. Eliza though is pretty sure she was pushed and is confident that somebody is stalking her. Soon Eliza enlists the help of a friend that rescued her and tries to piece back the events of that night. But reality and fiction collide and Eliza is unable to differentiate between her novel and her real life.
Sara Shepard has a way of drawing out the characters and sympathizing with even the unlikable characters . The book started slow for me but picked up pace in the middle. A slow moving suspenseful read enjoyable by all Sara Shepard fans
I would like to thank Atria Books & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.
This and more reviews at https://chloesbooksblog.wordpress.com/
Sara Shepard has a way of drawing out the characters and sympathizing with even the unlikable characters . The book started slow for me but picked up pace in the middle. A slow moving suspenseful read enjoyable by all Sara Shepard fans
I would like to thank Atria Books & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.
This and more reviews at https://chloesbooksblog.wordpress.com/
February 6, 2018
Full review to come! This is a lighter suspense novel that will work well for readers who typically prefer YA, but are looking to branch out into adult suspense! I enjoyed this book's drama and lighter tone, but I don't think this will deliver a satisfying read for those who are avid psychological thriller readers. This one is probably best suited to fans of Shepard's YA novels.
August 25, 2018
When Eliza is found in a hotel pool, she claims she was pushed, but her family thinks it was another one of her suicide attempts. That's right, another attempt. It seems Eliza has made several suicide attempts. Eliza has a hard time convincing anyone that someone pushed her, so she investigates on her own.
Eliza is dealing with two main issues in this story. One, she was found in a pool. She can't swim, and her family believes she tried to kill herself, but Eliza is convinced someone pushed her. The other issue concerns Eliza's new book that is about to be published. She's excited about it, but her family doesn't want the book out, and Eliza can't quite figure out why they feel that way.
Told from Eliza's point of view, who seems to be an unreliable narrator since she has a gap in her memory. Eliza spent some time in a hospital recovering from an illness. This time of her life is a little hazy. However, Eliza's growing paranoia does seem justified with the way things are going in her life.
A slow building psychological thriller. This is lighter than a lot of adult thrillers, so a good intro for people looking to read more thrillers, but not interested in too heavy of a story. Dark, chaotic, and suspenseful.
Eliza is dealing with two main issues in this story. One, she was found in a pool. She can't swim, and her family believes she tried to kill herself, but Eliza is convinced someone pushed her. The other issue concerns Eliza's new book that is about to be published. She's excited about it, but her family doesn't want the book out, and Eliza can't quite figure out why they feel that way.
Told from Eliza's point of view, who seems to be an unreliable narrator since she has a gap in her memory. Eliza spent some time in a hospital recovering from an illness. This time of her life is a little hazy. However, Eliza's growing paranoia does seem justified with the way things are going in her life.
A slow building psychological thriller. This is lighter than a lot of adult thrillers, so a good intro for people looking to read more thrillers, but not interested in too heavy of a story. Dark, chaotic, and suspenseful.
May 7, 2018
This just honestly did not work for me. I found myself not loving either Eliza’s story or her novel, The Dots and when they finally came together, I kind of just said oh well, that’s interesting, I guess. Which is never the feeling you want when getting to the twist. And then, there was another 25% left in the book. The word count definitely could have been cut down here. I am a huge fan of the PLL series and The Lying Game series, too, but sad to report this one wasn’t for me.
I received an advance copy. All opinions are my own.
I received an advance copy. All opinions are my own.
April 30, 2018
Full disclosure: I haven't read Pretty Little Liars, nor have I seen the hit television series. Like everybody else in the universe, I have heard of Sara Shepard and was very excited to pick up
The Elizas
when my dear friend Tracy sent me a copy. Eliza Fontaine is an unreliable narrator (yes!) and debut novelist who was found at the bottom of the Tranquility Hotel pool and rushed to the Emergency Room. Her family is quick to pronounce the episode as a suicide attempt, but as Eliza recovers, she vehemently believes that she was pushed and wants to figure out why. Eliza becomes obsessed with finding out the person who attempted to murder her; investigating on her own accord—speaking with her rescuer, her family, the hotel staff, anyone who might have a clue as to the situation in question. At the same time, her novel gains serious press due to her pool incident and becomes the upcoming buzz book to read. Eliza's publicist and publisher are both ecstatic for the launch of Eliza's debut novel, The Dots and are banking on it's success.
As Eliza dives deeper into her investigation, she starts to realize that her memory loss (due to a brain tumor she had recently) has really become a serious ailment. Eliza needs to focus on her mental health and career. As Eliza's sanity begins to deteriorate, the lines of reality starts to blur. Eliza may believe that she needs to find the culprit who tried to kill her, but she also needs to figure out what is going on within herself as well before it's too late.
I'm not going to sugar coat this review at all folks. If you have a copy of The Elizas and read my blurb or the blurb provided by the publisher; read that and then skip alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the way to the end to find out what happens. Literally that is the entire story. The Elizas a feeble attempt of joining the ranks of psychological thriller mavens Gillian Flynn or Ruth Ware. Maybe if the story was marketed as a drama, it could've worked better for me. At first, the story was very promising and engaging, but after a quarter of the way into the story, I was bored and ready to move on. I powered through it because the copy was sent to me by a dear friend and I wanted to make sure I gave my friend the respect in reading it, but this was tough folks. The two POVs (Eliza and then excerpts from her book The Dots) just didn't work for me, although I appreciated the reasoning behind it by the end of the novel. I do think this story will have a niche market to invest in (e.g.: I'm sending my sister this book, because I know she'd love it), but it's definitely not for everybody. I could slam and roast this book all day long, but I'm just going to keep my review short and to the point (I've decided to be nicer in 2018 #NewYearsResolutions). If you end up enjoying this one, please tell me why! I'd love to have a discussion about it.
As Eliza dives deeper into her investigation, she starts to realize that her memory loss (due to a brain tumor she had recently) has really become a serious ailment. Eliza needs to focus on her mental health and career. As Eliza's sanity begins to deteriorate, the lines of reality starts to blur. Eliza may believe that she needs to find the culprit who tried to kill her, but she also needs to figure out what is going on within herself as well before it's too late.
I'm not going to sugar coat this review at all folks. If you have a copy of The Elizas and read my blurb or the blurb provided by the publisher; read that and then skip alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the way to the end to find out what happens. Literally that is the entire story. The Elizas a feeble attempt of joining the ranks of psychological thriller mavens Gillian Flynn or Ruth Ware. Maybe if the story was marketed as a drama, it could've worked better for me. At first, the story was very promising and engaging, but after a quarter of the way into the story, I was bored and ready to move on. I powered through it because the copy was sent to me by a dear friend and I wanted to make sure I gave my friend the respect in reading it, but this was tough folks. The two POVs (Eliza and then excerpts from her book The Dots) just didn't work for me, although I appreciated the reasoning behind it by the end of the novel. I do think this story will have a niche market to invest in (e.g.: I'm sending my sister this book, because I know she'd love it), but it's definitely not for everybody. I could slam and roast this book all day long, but I'm just going to keep my review short and to the point (I've decided to be nicer in 2018 #NewYearsResolutions). If you end up enjoying this one, please tell me why! I'd love to have a discussion about it.
April 24, 2018
Eliza Fontaine is a trainwreck. That's how the story begins. Found at the bottom of a pool in a drunken stupid with a belly full of vodka is how this twisted tale begins. I found the opening to be rather frantic and oozing of panic, which was a great way to lead the story of this heavily psychological melodrama featuring a novel within a novel. Eliza Fontaine is not a likable or reliable character and that really fit well within this story for me. That being said, some things with this novel really worked for me while others were things I wasn't able to grasp.
This novel is good. More psychological and overwrought than her previous work, Shepard takes a giant leap into the adult world of psychological thrillers and the result is a novel that throws so many questions at you that it's painful to not continue to read. I really loved the alternating chapters of Elizas novel "The Dots" and could see the correlation within the two worlds as they continue to bump into each other before a disastrous collision.
While this novel is a lighter read and fun, similar to that of a Lifetime movie, my only issue that I was having a hard time grasping was the chapters from Eliza's world as she tries to piece together what happened that night. It was almost like the character did have full on amnesia and the results were not only frantic chapters, but those that left me wondering at times if I had missed a chapter or a larger portion of the novel was trying to worm its way out of the center of truth.
Shepard again does a great job of wrapping everything up neatly with a bow and answering all questions the reader may have and the ending was not only shocking, but complex, and didn't let me down as a reader. I would mark this as a novel that is a great and light beach read, perfect for those who are young adult readers transitioning into the world of adult suspense or for those who want a psychological thriller that isn't too gritty or violent.
Special thanks to Atria Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.
This novel is good. More psychological and overwrought than her previous work, Shepard takes a giant leap into the adult world of psychological thrillers and the result is a novel that throws so many questions at you that it's painful to not continue to read. I really loved the alternating chapters of Elizas novel "The Dots" and could see the correlation within the two worlds as they continue to bump into each other before a disastrous collision.
While this novel is a lighter read and fun, similar to that of a Lifetime movie, my only issue that I was having a hard time grasping was the chapters from Eliza's world as she tries to piece together what happened that night. It was almost like the character did have full on amnesia and the results were not only frantic chapters, but those that left me wondering at times if I had missed a chapter or a larger portion of the novel was trying to worm its way out of the center of truth.
Shepard again does a great job of wrapping everything up neatly with a bow and answering all questions the reader may have and the ending was not only shocking, but complex, and didn't let me down as a reader. I would mark this as a novel that is a great and light beach read, perfect for those who are young adult readers transitioning into the world of adult suspense or for those who want a psychological thriller that isn't too gritty or violent.
Special thanks to Atria Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.
April 9, 2018
3.5 stars
Having been a fan of the Pretty Little Liars series, I was really excited to jump into the authors newest standalone suspense novel. Eliza is truly an unreliable narrator and wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but I still managed to really enjoy the story once the plot thickened! The constant questioning of what's reality and what is simply in Eliza's head is what drove me to continuously think about the book once I had set it aside for the night.
While the jumping back and forth between the present and Eliza's novel irritated me in the beginning, by mid-way I couldn't decide which version I liked more and thoroughly enjoyed the story as a whole. Though I can't say I am completely satisfied after finishing this book, I do appreciate the obstacles taken to get there - I truly couldn't figure this one out and especially loved the curveball there at the end.
Overall, I think this was a pretty good slow burn thriller and a fun read to take you away from reality for a little while and get your mind reeling.
Having been a fan of the Pretty Little Liars series, I was really excited to jump into the authors newest standalone suspense novel. Eliza is truly an unreliable narrator and wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but I still managed to really enjoy the story once the plot thickened! The constant questioning of what's reality and what is simply in Eliza's head is what drove me to continuously think about the book once I had set it aside for the night.
While the jumping back and forth between the present and Eliza's novel irritated me in the beginning, by mid-way I couldn't decide which version I liked more and thoroughly enjoyed the story as a whole. Though I can't say I am completely satisfied after finishing this book, I do appreciate the obstacles taken to get there - I truly couldn't figure this one out and especially loved the curveball there at the end.
Overall, I think this was a pretty good slow burn thriller and a fun read to take you away from reality for a little while and get your mind reeling.
April 11, 2018
Eliza Fontaine heads to Palm Springs and finds herself at the bottom of the hotel pool. Eliza can't swim, and her family assumes this was yet another one of Eliza's failed suicide attempts, as she has a history of winding up at the bottom of swimming pools. But Eliza swears this time was different; yes, she was drinking that evening, but she's sure someone pushed her, even if she can't remember exactly how she wound up at the pool or even the hotel bar. The sole witness is the man who rescued her, so Eliza tracks him down. But as they attempt to figure out what happened, Eliza only grows more confused. She's about to get her first novel published, and it seems as if events from the novel are intertwining with her life. She thought her novel was fiction, but now she's bewildered, feeling followed, and wondering if she's finally losing her mind for good.
This was an odd little book and not at all what I was expecting. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, and the more I think about it, the more I should have realized that Sara Shepard is quite masterful at playing with our minds. This is actually almost two books in one: we get the novel itself; as well excerpts from The Dots, Eliza's debut novel, which is set to be published a few weeks after she's found in the pool. As we get deeper and deeper into The Dots, we're left to wonder how much its protagonist, Dot, is like Eliza--where does Eliza end and Dot begin?
It's really quite an ingenious setup and it's quite fun. I actually really liked the excerpts more at times. The novel revolves around the confusing question of identity, as Eliza struggles to figure out who she is and what she remembers about her life and past. My only struggle was that Eliza does a lot of thinking (aka talking or narrating) and I lost interest at some points when she talked on a bit. Still, most of the time, this was a pretty suspenseful book; it's certainly "trippy" and often confusing, as you work to puzzle out things alongside Eliza. I definitely didn't have everything figured out immediately, though I worked most things out as I went along.
Overall, this is a quick read (I read the entire thing during during two consecutive plane rides), and the book-within-a-book setup is fun and adds to the suspense. This isn't a read for those who love intricate, deeply plotted thrillers, but it's enjoyable and compelling and perfect for YA fans looking for a psychological thriller. 3.5 stars.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review (thank you!); it is available everywhere as of 04/17/2018.
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This was an odd little book and not at all what I was expecting. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, and the more I think about it, the more I should have realized that Sara Shepard is quite masterful at playing with our minds. This is actually almost two books in one: we get the novel itself; as well excerpts from The Dots, Eliza's debut novel, which is set to be published a few weeks after she's found in the pool. As we get deeper and deeper into The Dots, we're left to wonder how much its protagonist, Dot, is like Eliza--where does Eliza end and Dot begin?
It's really quite an ingenious setup and it's quite fun. I actually really liked the excerpts more at times. The novel revolves around the confusing question of identity, as Eliza struggles to figure out who she is and what she remembers about her life and past. My only struggle was that Eliza does a lot of thinking (aka talking or narrating) and I lost interest at some points when she talked on a bit. Still, most of the time, this was a pretty suspenseful book; it's certainly "trippy" and often confusing, as you work to puzzle out things alongside Eliza. I definitely didn't have everything figured out immediately, though I worked most things out as I went along.
Overall, this is a quick read (I read the entire thing during during two consecutive plane rides), and the book-within-a-book setup is fun and adds to the suspense. This isn't a read for those who love intricate, deeply plotted thrillers, but it's enjoyable and compelling and perfect for YA fans looking for a psychological thriller. 3.5 stars.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review (thank you!); it is available everywhere as of 04/17/2018.
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April 21, 2018
I decided to DNF this one. I’ll write a full review to elaborate.
Want to read
June 21, 2018Not what I expected.
July 27, 2018
(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
)
This may come as a surprise to you guys given my predilection for soapy and thrilling mysteries, but I never actually read the “Pretty Little Liars” series by Sara Shepard. I DID read the first book in her series “The Lying Game”, but didn’t feel a need to go on for five more books and instead opted to spoil myself thanks to wikis and Internet sleuthing. I think that knowing that there were LOTS of books in each series didn’t bode well, as in my experience having a thriller series with a long drawn out mystery sprinkled with OTHER mysteries isn’t as sustainable as I usually like to see. But since I DO like soap in my mysteries, I was interested in her new adult standalone “The Elizas”. I figured that maybe I could get some fun suds but not have to worry about going on and on and on long past the point of believability and my waning interest. Nor harm in trying, right?
Meh. Wrong, kind of. “The Elizas” on the whole failed to really suck me in, mostly because it falls into too many traps and tropes that we have seen all too many times before in the genre. My first big quibble was with Eliza Fontaine herself, our hot mess of a protagonist. Hot mess protagonists are kind of par for the course with this kind of book, as them being messes and screwed up lends to the unreliability that is needed for this kind of mystery. But as you all know, I have LONG lost my patience with this kind of protagonist, and Eliza checks all the boxes that turn me off. She’s struggles with addiction issues. She has fraught relationships with her family and her friends. She’s managed to be successful with her writing, but as fame and fortune try to fall into her lap she starts to unravel, and may self sabotage her success and happiness. She is an incredibly unreliable narrator because of these things combined with other things. And on. And on. I am willing to give these hot mess protagonists a pass if there is something about them that is relatable or likable, but Eliza is pretty blah, her only redeeming features based in her odd relationship with Desmond, the man who rescued her from her fall in the pool. But even that relationship didn’t quite work because they were thrown together, but you don’t know WHY they are together. Sure, there are some cute quirks that Shepard added in, like their fondness of donning Halloween masks and sitting on the apartment balcony, but even THAT is treading into ridiculously quirky territory. Desmond himself is a bit too quirky too, but at least this time it’s a guy who is fitting the manic pixie dream girl role, so I was more okay with it than I might have been.
The mystery itself was okay in theory. The big questions of the book are 1) who pushed Eliza into the pool (or did she do it herself?), and 2) why is Eliza having these memory lapses. I’m one hundred percent on board with both of those questions, as they add some fun layers to plot points that may have been seen before. The narrative is told through Eliza’s POV and through excerpts from her novel, “The Dots”, which makes this an epistolary thriller, a thriller genre that I generally like. “The Dots” is about a girl named Dot and her aunt Dorothy, and Dot’s childhood illness (which mirrors Eliza’s own medical history). I actually enjoyed those sections because I enjoyed seeing the relationship between Dot and Dorothy as it went from “Auntie Mame” to disturbing and sour, and found myself excited when we got to another “Dots” section. But the problem with this is that the proof is in the pudding because of the plot summary: “The Dots” gives away a whole lot of the mysteries surrounding Eliza! Whenever a question came up in Eliza’s life, we’d get a plot point in “The Dots” that would at least partly give away the solution. And even though Shepard tries to parse these moments out slowly and evenly between the two, by the time we got to some of the big reveals in Eliza’s story, they were already spoiled because of “The Dots”! Because of this, I didn’t feel terribly invested in finding out confirmation in Eliza’s side of things. And in turn, this book ended up being more of a slog than I wanted it to be. Eliza herself wasn’t likable enough for me to invest, so if the mystery can’t even give me what I need, what is the point?
So outside of an enjoyable side story and a kind of cute relationship, “The Elizas” was a disappointment, showing its cards too early. I will probably give Shepard another chance if she writes another adult standalone mystery, but I’ll have more managed expectations if I do. And they probably won’t be too high.
This may come as a surprise to you guys given my predilection for soapy and thrilling mysteries, but I never actually read the “Pretty Little Liars” series by Sara Shepard. I DID read the first book in her series “The Lying Game”, but didn’t feel a need to go on for five more books and instead opted to spoil myself thanks to wikis and Internet sleuthing. I think that knowing that there were LOTS of books in each series didn’t bode well, as in my experience having a thriller series with a long drawn out mystery sprinkled with OTHER mysteries isn’t as sustainable as I usually like to see. But since I DO like soap in my mysteries, I was interested in her new adult standalone “The Elizas”. I figured that maybe I could get some fun suds but not have to worry about going on and on and on long past the point of believability and my waning interest. Nor harm in trying, right?
Meh. Wrong, kind of. “The Elizas” on the whole failed to really suck me in, mostly because it falls into too many traps and tropes that we have seen all too many times before in the genre. My first big quibble was with Eliza Fontaine herself, our hot mess of a protagonist. Hot mess protagonists are kind of par for the course with this kind of book, as them being messes and screwed up lends to the unreliability that is needed for this kind of mystery. But as you all know, I have LONG lost my patience with this kind of protagonist, and Eliza checks all the boxes that turn me off. She’s struggles with addiction issues. She has fraught relationships with her family and her friends. She’s managed to be successful with her writing, but as fame and fortune try to fall into her lap she starts to unravel, and may self sabotage her success and happiness. She is an incredibly unreliable narrator because of these things combined with other things. And on. And on. I am willing to give these hot mess protagonists a pass if there is something about them that is relatable or likable, but Eliza is pretty blah, her only redeeming features based in her odd relationship with Desmond, the man who rescued her from her fall in the pool. But even that relationship didn’t quite work because they were thrown together, but you don’t know WHY they are together. Sure, there are some cute quirks that Shepard added in, like their fondness of donning Halloween masks and sitting on the apartment balcony, but even THAT is treading into ridiculously quirky territory. Desmond himself is a bit too quirky too, but at least this time it’s a guy who is fitting the manic pixie dream girl role, so I was more okay with it than I might have been.
The mystery itself was okay in theory. The big questions of the book are 1) who pushed Eliza into the pool (or did she do it herself?), and 2) why is Eliza having these memory lapses. I’m one hundred percent on board with both of those questions, as they add some fun layers to plot points that may have been seen before. The narrative is told through Eliza’s POV and through excerpts from her novel, “The Dots”, which makes this an epistolary thriller, a thriller genre that I generally like. “The Dots” is about a girl named Dot and her aunt Dorothy, and Dot’s childhood illness (which mirrors Eliza’s own medical history). I actually enjoyed those sections because I enjoyed seeing the relationship between Dot and Dorothy as it went from “Auntie Mame” to disturbing and sour, and found myself excited when we got to another “Dots” section. But the problem with this is that the proof is in the pudding because of the plot summary: “The Dots” gives away a whole lot of the mysteries surrounding Eliza! Whenever a question came up in Eliza’s life, we’d get a plot point in “The Dots” that would at least partly give away the solution. And even though Shepard tries to parse these moments out slowly and evenly between the two, by the time we got to some of the big reveals in Eliza’s story, they were already spoiled because of “The Dots”! Because of this, I didn’t feel terribly invested in finding out confirmation in Eliza’s side of things. And in turn, this book ended up being more of a slog than I wanted it to be. Eliza herself wasn’t likable enough for me to invest, so if the mystery can’t even give me what I need, what is the point?
So outside of an enjoyable side story and a kind of cute relationship, “The Elizas” was a disappointment, showing its cards too early. I will probably give Shepard another chance if she writes another adult standalone mystery, but I’ll have more managed expectations if I do. And they probably won’t be too high.
June 30, 2018
3.5 stars
Pretty entertaining read. I saw where this was going long before it was ultimately revealed, but that didn't totally wreck it for me. It's very fast-paced and a great story...except for the very end. I didn't love it and thought it should have ended with what we thought was the ultimate reveal. It made sense and wrapped things up well. Then the ending took it down a half star for me, it's like authors just don't know when to quit throwing in twists these days, the ending that was presented was satisfying. To throw in one last twists just took it out of the realm of believable and put it into the SMH zone. (Kind of like The Couple Next Door, just one too many twists)
Overall a decent book and I'd recommend it.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
Pretty entertaining read. I saw where this was going long before it was ultimately revealed, but that didn't totally wreck it for me. It's very fast-paced and a great story...except for the very end. I didn't love it and thought it should have ended with what we thought was the ultimate reveal. It made sense and wrapped things up well. Then the ending took it down a half star for me, it's like authors just don't know when to quit throwing in twists these days, the ending that was presented was satisfying. To throw in one last twists just took it out of the realm of believable and put it into the SMH zone. (Kind of like The Couple Next Door, just one too many twists)
Overall a decent book and I'd recommend it.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
June 5, 2018
3.5 stars-- If you are a fan of unreliable narrators, look NO FURTHER than this one. This may be as unreliable as they come. This book follows Eliza, soon-to-be published debut author while she deals with the fact that she woke up in the bottom of a pool and cannot swim, so someone is trying to kill her. The chapters in Eliza’s life are set side-by-side with chapters from her book. Ultimately, what is she to believe happened to her and what should we believe as the reader?
This book is by the author of the PLL series and hits shelves next week!
This book is by the author of the PLL series and hits shelves next week!
April 19, 2018
A standalone psychological thriller of a story for adults and revolving around the primary Eliza and her paranoia. But then, you know what they say, are you really paranoid if it’s true?
My Take
This is a horrible story. Horrible and yet good. I’d give it a “5”, except I hate the protagonist. And that isn’t really fair. But I gotta say I struggled through the first 60-some percent of the story, as Eliza was so offputting. I wanted to strangle her myself.
AND, I’m glad I persisted, if only to discover the truth. I suspected a part of it. It was too obvious not to. But that sudden flip at the end…hoo-boy. Actually I should say the several flips. It’s hard to say who I felt was the more guilty by then.
Shepard did an excellent job of conveying Eliza’s fears and paranoia. I was feeling it and jumping at every sound, twitching at every shadow. Unfortunately, Eliza’s personality only made me want to off the bitch. I cheered on the drowning (Shepard certainly conveyed her bliss at drowning), if only to put me out of my misery, let alone her family's. Of course, Eliza did everything she could to sabotage herself.
My god, she was a self-centered, snotty, little sociopath! Psychopath?? Hard to tell, as she appeared to be this way from childhood — strangling Barbies, hanging teddy bears with mini suicide notes… Everything revolved around her. The nasty stuff she pulled on her stepsister when they were children! The way she treated people, wanting to hurt them to cover up her own sense of shame. What? She’s never heard of automatic bill pay? That obsession she had with death! It makes me wonder if her family did as they do more for their own welfare than for hers. I’m sure they felt more empathy for her than I did, even if they were so incredibly cruel.
Getting into the technical aspect, Shepard uses present tense with a first person protagonist point-of-view from Eliza’s perspective. It’s ideal as it is all about Eliza, a very unreliable narrator, and her thoughts with a good bit of foreshadowing.
The Story
When debut novelist Eliza Fontaine is found at the bottom of a hotel pool, her family at first assumes that it’s just another failed suicide attempt. But Eliza swears she was pushed, and her rescuer is the only witness.
Desperate to find out who attacked her, Eliza takes it upon herself to investigate. But as the publication date for her novel draws closer, Eliza finds more questions than answers. Like why are her editor, agent, and family mixing up events from her novel with events from her life? Her novel is completely fictional — isn’t it?
The deeper Eliza goes into her investigation while struggling with memory loss, the closer her life starts to resemble her novel, until the line between reality and fiction starts to blur and she can no longer tell where her protagonist’s life ends and hers begins…
The Characters
Twenty-three-year-old Eliza Fontaine has written a book, The Dots , that has terrific promise. Gabby is her meek stepsister, who works at That’s A Wrap; she’s dating her boss, Dave, whose son, Linus, has leukemia. Bill is her caring stepfather with a love for Civil War history. Mom is Francesca and works for a podiatrist. Beauty is the horse who lives down the way. Eleanor Reitman is Mom’s sister; supposedly the sisters came from a wealthy banker family, but Mom spurned the family money. Why, I don’t know.
Kiki Ross and Steadman, her brother who runs the creepy curiosities shop in Venice where Eliza works, are Eliza’s roommates. Herb is another of his employees. Kiki is obsessed with cats and had a Maine Coon named Buster. Theo will become a boyfriend. Leonidas Lorre is Eliza’s ex-boyfriend and works in his father’s plastic surgery office.
The dramatic Desmond Wells is quite the character; he even plays one at the Circus Maximus in Sunnyvale. He’s also obsessed with comic-cons and is second-in-command of marketing for the Los Angeles Comic-Con. Paul is a friend. Stefan is his weird dabbler of a brother.
Laura is Eliza’s New York agent. Posey is Eliza’s very pregnant editor. Dr Roxanne has a very popular talk show. Crew behind the scenes of the show include Sal who is the limo driver, Roz Lowry, and Cathy who is a hairstylist.
Lance Collier is a forensics psychologist with the Palm Springs PD. Officer O’Hara is one of the responders in the alley incident. Detective Carson takes her confession.
Evan Richards is Dr Richards’ devoted husband. Dr Forney was the neurologist who operated on Eliza’s brain tumor. Herman Lavinsky is a spiritual healer and neuroscientist. Dr Sweitzer, a psychiatrist, is supposed to do a follow-up. Dr Geist is a radiologist on staff at a clinic. Bridgewater is a psychiatric hospital in Menlo park. Crystal, Jim, and Pablo are some patients at the Oaks where Albert is a therapist.
Mariel had been a college classmate. Sasha led a writers group which is where Eliza met Kiki. Diana Dane and Gigi Reese were two actresses back in the 1960s. Richie and Sam are bartenders at the Shipstead bar at the Tranquility Hotel. Darrell is a manager. Brian is the grumpy bartender at the whorehouse bar where Eliza meets up with Andrew Cousins-Glouster. An Albert came to the funeral.
In The Dots, there is…
…the younger Dot's mother who is a dental assistant and the manipulative Dorothy Ophelia Banks, the wealthy sister to Eliza’s mother. ( Phillis is Dot’s code name for her.) She’s adventurous, magical, was married to fabulous and wealthy men, is/was the toast of society, and so much more. Thomas is her son who died. She wrote Riders of Carrowae . I suspect the Magnolia Hotel where Dorothy lives is a stand-in for the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Dot is her niece, totally enthralled with her marvelous aunt. Ko is the M&F Chop House pet dog along with Tristan, the bat who has the power of reciting sonnets. Matilda is the school-age child who is Dot’s best friend with the same love for the gothic. Kyle is Matilda’s brother. Brody Fish and Darius were boys Dot made out with in high school. Marlon, Dot’s college boyfriend and a performance artist who intends to study quarks, saved her.
Bernie is a waiter at the M&F Chop House. Dr Vishal Singh is the Magnolia’s in-house doctor. Milton is one of Dorothy’s husbands. Otufu is the warlord in Somalia. Frederico was an Italian lover and part of a Sicilian mob. Hospitals include St. Mother Maria’s where Dr Koder and Stella, the nurse, once worked. Dr Osuri and Lisa, a nurse, work at the second hospital.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a dramatic and bright rainbow of colors making up Eliza’s face, colors that are being torn away, streaming from her horizontally. All the text is in white and centered, from the title at the top and the author’s name in the bottom half along with the info blurbs.
The title is a foreshadowing for all The Elizas out there.
My Take
This is a horrible story. Horrible and yet good. I’d give it a “5”, except I hate the protagonist. And that isn’t really fair. But I gotta say I struggled through the first 60-some percent of the story, as Eliza was so offputting. I wanted to strangle her myself.
AND, I’m glad I persisted, if only to discover the truth. I suspected a part of it. It was too obvious not to. But that sudden flip at the end…hoo-boy. Actually I should say the several flips. It’s hard to say who I felt was the more guilty by then.
Shepard did an excellent job of conveying Eliza’s fears and paranoia. I was feeling it and jumping at every sound, twitching at every shadow. Unfortunately, Eliza’s personality only made me want to off the bitch. I cheered on the drowning (Shepard certainly conveyed her bliss at drowning), if only to put me out of my misery, let alone her family's. Of course, Eliza did everything she could to sabotage herself.
My god, she was a self-centered, snotty, little sociopath! Psychopath?? Hard to tell, as she appeared to be this way from childhood — strangling Barbies, hanging teddy bears with mini suicide notes… Everything revolved around her. The nasty stuff she pulled on her stepsister when they were children! The way she treated people, wanting to hurt them to cover up her own sense of shame. What? She’s never heard of automatic bill pay? That obsession she had with death! It makes me wonder if her family did as they do more for their own welfare than for hers. I’m sure they felt more empathy for her than I did, even if they were so incredibly cruel.
"But sometimes lying’s my natural response.”The ultimate reveal of that shadow haunting Eliza’s every step was satisfying, BUT I didn’t buy the reality of it. And I can’t say more without spoiling it.
"I needed her to fear me.”
"I make a list of people who might hate me … people from the writing group … whose fiction I critiqued the teensiest bit too harshly …”
"People without style have always fascinated me. Is it that they don’t care?” … Could she not have gotten cuter glasses?"
Getting into the technical aspect, Shepard uses present tense with a first person protagonist point-of-view from Eliza’s perspective. It’s ideal as it is all about Eliza, a very unreliable narrator, and her thoughts with a good bit of foreshadowing.
The Story
When debut novelist Eliza Fontaine is found at the bottom of a hotel pool, her family at first assumes that it’s just another failed suicide attempt. But Eliza swears she was pushed, and her rescuer is the only witness.
Desperate to find out who attacked her, Eliza takes it upon herself to investigate. But as the publication date for her novel draws closer, Eliza finds more questions than answers. Like why are her editor, agent, and family mixing up events from her novel with events from her life? Her novel is completely fictional — isn’t it?
The deeper Eliza goes into her investigation while struggling with memory loss, the closer her life starts to resemble her novel, until the line between reality and fiction starts to blur and she can no longer tell where her protagonist’s life ends and hers begins…
The Characters
Twenty-three-year-old Eliza Fontaine has written a book, The Dots , that has terrific promise. Gabby is her meek stepsister, who works at That’s A Wrap; she’s dating her boss, Dave, whose son, Linus, has leukemia. Bill is her caring stepfather with a love for Civil War history. Mom is Francesca and works for a podiatrist. Beauty is the horse who lives down the way. Eleanor Reitman is Mom’s sister; supposedly the sisters came from a wealthy banker family, but Mom spurned the family money. Why, I don’t know.
Kiki Ross and Steadman, her brother who runs the creepy curiosities shop in Venice where Eliza works, are Eliza’s roommates. Herb is another of his employees. Kiki is obsessed with cats and had a Maine Coon named Buster. Theo will become a boyfriend. Leonidas Lorre is Eliza’s ex-boyfriend and works in his father’s plastic surgery office.
The dramatic Desmond Wells is quite the character; he even plays one at the Circus Maximus in Sunnyvale. He’s also obsessed with comic-cons and is second-in-command of marketing for the Los Angeles Comic-Con. Paul is a friend. Stefan is his weird dabbler of a brother.
Laura is Eliza’s New York agent. Posey is Eliza’s very pregnant editor. Dr Roxanne has a very popular talk show. Crew behind the scenes of the show include Sal who is the limo driver, Roz Lowry, and Cathy who is a hairstylist.
Lance Collier is a forensics psychologist with the Palm Springs PD. Officer O’Hara is one of the responders in the alley incident. Detective Carson takes her confession.
Evan Richards is Dr Richards’ devoted husband. Dr Forney was the neurologist who operated on Eliza’s brain tumor. Herman Lavinsky is a spiritual healer and neuroscientist. Dr Sweitzer, a psychiatrist, is supposed to do a follow-up. Dr Geist is a radiologist on staff at a clinic. Bridgewater is a psychiatric hospital in Menlo park. Crystal, Jim, and Pablo are some patients at the Oaks where Albert is a therapist.
Mariel had been a college classmate. Sasha led a writers group which is where Eliza met Kiki. Diana Dane and Gigi Reese were two actresses back in the 1960s. Richie and Sam are bartenders at the Shipstead bar at the Tranquility Hotel. Darrell is a manager. Brian is the grumpy bartender at the whorehouse bar where Eliza meets up with Andrew Cousins-Glouster. An Albert came to the funeral.
In The Dots, there is…
…the younger Dot's mother who is a dental assistant and the manipulative Dorothy Ophelia Banks, the wealthy sister to Eliza’s mother. ( Phillis is Dot’s code name for her.) She’s adventurous, magical, was married to fabulous and wealthy men, is/was the toast of society, and so much more. Thomas is her son who died. She wrote Riders of Carrowae . I suspect the Magnolia Hotel where Dorothy lives is a stand-in for the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Dot is her niece, totally enthralled with her marvelous aunt. Ko is the M&F Chop House pet dog along with Tristan, the bat who has the power of reciting sonnets. Matilda is the school-age child who is Dot’s best friend with the same love for the gothic. Kyle is Matilda’s brother. Brody Fish and Darius were boys Dot made out with in high school. Marlon, Dot’s college boyfriend and a performance artist who intends to study quarks, saved her.
Bernie is a waiter at the M&F Chop House. Dr Vishal Singh is the Magnolia’s in-house doctor. Milton is one of Dorothy’s husbands. Otufu is the warlord in Somalia. Frederico was an Italian lover and part of a Sicilian mob. Hospitals include St. Mother Maria’s where Dr Koder and Stella, the nurse, once worked. Dr Osuri and Lisa, a nurse, work at the second hospital.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a dramatic and bright rainbow of colors making up Eliza’s face, colors that are being torn away, streaming from her horizontally. All the text is in white and centered, from the title at the top and the author’s name in the bottom half along with the info blurbs.
The title is a foreshadowing for all The Elizas out there.
March 1, 2019
Like some readers have mentioned, I've also never read or seen Pretty Little Liars but I picked up
The Elizas
because the premise sounded vaguely intriguing, though not unique.
** Spoiler-y bits ahead **
Let's start with the unlikable character of Eliza; she is whiny, bratty, and has just recently published a novel called The Dots, about a young girl named Dot and her charismatic and abusive aunt Dorothy.
When Eliza is found floating in the hotel pool, her family is convinced it is a cry for help but Eliza is not suicidal: she insists someone is out to kill her.
But who?
And, do we care?
I certainly didn't. Eliza is not interesting or fascinating; in fact, I'm surprised she can string a sentence together, much less write a book.
She drinks, she admits to being unfaithful to all her boyfriends, she is a brat and petulant.
She's quite a winner. Okay, she's young, but that's still no excuse for being boring.
Eliza goes on a hum drum journey to find the truth, which includes contacting her rescuer, Desmond; confronting her parents, and dealing with her agent and publicist. It's all equal parts boring, tedious and monotonous.
At the same time, readers are given snippets of The Dots, a common literary device that offers details about Eliza's past, clues as to who Eliza is and why she is acting the way she is.
As always, the truth is less dramatic than life.
Eliza discovers a conspiracy concocted by her parents to protect her from a troubled childhood and the abuse she suffered at the hands of her aunt.
Ever notice that when your parents want to help you, especially in a book, it always goes disastrously wrong?
The quack they hired to perform this unorthodox procedure was not successful and those suppressed memories manifested themselves into the book, a coping mechanism Eliza said she needed after surviving a medical procedure for a benign tumor.
Naturally, the details of her book began to seep into her life, blurring the edges of her reality....blah blah blah.
Okay, let's get to he ridiculous and hilarious parts of the book, like:
Desmond driving a Batmobile? Is it to show he's quirky and a nerd?
The lack of chemistry between Desmond and Eliza.
I've said it before and I'll say it again until I'm blue in the freaking face: does every female need to couple up at the end?
Eliza's mother shoving her in the alley and then running away like a purse snatcher. What???
I laughed and rolled my eyes when I got to this part.
The author expects me to believe this? Come on! Try a little harder, really! That's your job!
In the end, Eliza is not crazy. Her family is.
** Spoiler-y bits ahead **
Let's start with the unlikable character of Eliza; she is whiny, bratty, and has just recently published a novel called The Dots, about a young girl named Dot and her charismatic and abusive aunt Dorothy.
When Eliza is found floating in the hotel pool, her family is convinced it is a cry for help but Eliza is not suicidal: she insists someone is out to kill her.
But who?
And, do we care?
I certainly didn't. Eliza is not interesting or fascinating; in fact, I'm surprised she can string a sentence together, much less write a book.
She drinks, she admits to being unfaithful to all her boyfriends, she is a brat and petulant.
She's quite a winner. Okay, she's young, but that's still no excuse for being boring.
Eliza goes on a hum drum journey to find the truth, which includes contacting her rescuer, Desmond; confronting her parents, and dealing with her agent and publicist. It's all equal parts boring, tedious and monotonous.
At the same time, readers are given snippets of The Dots, a common literary device that offers details about Eliza's past, clues as to who Eliza is and why she is acting the way she is.
As always, the truth is less dramatic than life.
Eliza discovers a conspiracy concocted by her parents to protect her from a troubled childhood and the abuse she suffered at the hands of her aunt.
Ever notice that when your parents want to help you, especially in a book, it always goes disastrously wrong?
The quack they hired to perform this unorthodox procedure was not successful and those suppressed memories manifested themselves into the book, a coping mechanism Eliza said she needed after surviving a medical procedure for a benign tumor.
Naturally, the details of her book began to seep into her life, blurring the edges of her reality....blah blah blah.
Okay, let's get to he ridiculous and hilarious parts of the book, like:
Desmond driving a Batmobile? Is it to show he's quirky and a nerd?
The lack of chemistry between Desmond and Eliza.
I've said it before and I'll say it again until I'm blue in the freaking face: does every female need to couple up at the end?
Eliza's mother shoving her in the alley and then running away like a purse snatcher. What???
I laughed and rolled my eyes when I got to this part.
The author expects me to believe this? Come on! Try a little harder, really! That's your job!
In the end, Eliza is not crazy. Her family is.
April 14, 2018
My friends told me to read and/or watch Pretty Little Liars.. and I just never got around to it.. soon... SOON! But until then, I was thrilled to get a copy of Sara Shepard's The Elizas! What an interesting and head spinning novel!
The book in a book feel was a little confusing at first. I was actually almost irritated by it at first but as it became clear why it was being incorporated, it began to make more sense and I was almost looking forward to The Dots more than The Elizas... but then... wait for it.... You'll have to read it to figure it all out. It can be a bit confusing at first and it certainly was for me at various times. However, it comes together quite nicely towards the end.
I did feel like it got stretched out just a little bit more than necessary but I was definitely concentrated on Eliza's character. I felt just as confused as she was and I was getting just as irritated and frustrated as she was as well! Good lord - with friends and family like that, who needs enemies? Or is she creating scenarios that aren't even happening? What do you do when your brain is working against you?
This is a fantastic read for those who like that lighter side of a thriller.
Thanks so much to Atria books for this copy <3
The book in a book feel was a little confusing at first. I was actually almost irritated by it at first but as it became clear why it was being incorporated, it began to make more sense and I was almost looking forward to The Dots more than The Elizas... but then... wait for it.... You'll have to read it to figure it all out. It can be a bit confusing at first and it certainly was for me at various times. However, it comes together quite nicely towards the end.
I did feel like it got stretched out just a little bit more than necessary but I was definitely concentrated on Eliza's character. I felt just as confused as she was and I was getting just as irritated and frustrated as she was as well! Good lord - with friends and family like that, who needs enemies? Or is she creating scenarios that aren't even happening? What do you do when your brain is working against you?
This is a fantastic read for those who like that lighter side of a thriller.
Thanks so much to Atria books for this copy <3
May 6, 2018
Although this book was completely confusing and mind boggling, I still found it really entertaining although I can't sit here and tell you that this was the best mystery thriller book I've read.
July 14, 2018
I rarely rate a book below three stars, perhaps because I inwardly appreciate the laborious work the author has put into crafting the story regardless of my positive or less positive opinion of it. At already a quarter of the way through Sara Shepard's newest publication, I was unimpressed and slightly annoyed at the double storyline, especially that featuring Dot as the protagonist. Structurally, The Elizas is constituted of two pieces of writing: the book per se and several chapters from The Dots, a fiction novel soon to be published, written by debut author Eliza Fontaine, the main character whose chaotic, seemingly psychopathic existence we witness throughout the book. The Dots follows the evolution of the intricate, addictive relationship between Dot, whose childhood had been afflicted with illness and thus spent mostly within hospital rooms and her aunt Dorothy, a mysterious, flamboyant socialite excelling at storytelling. While I was able to infer a sort of parallelism between Eliza and her fictional character Dot at an early stage into the novel, a technique The Elizas is highly based upon and which I presume was incorporated as an attempt to pique the curiosity of the reader as well as build the psychological suspense, I thought Eliza's psychological complexity and demeanor were sloppily and haphazardly represented by Sara Shepard and consequently, despite her unreliability, it felt I was reading a poorly written YA mystery rather than a mature, adult mystery thriller with a complex heroine reminiscent of prominent female characters crafted by Gillian Flynn, Ruth Ware, Paula Hawkins, and other well known novelists of the genre. Furthermore, the story within the story, The Dots, was written in an amateurish and slightly childish manner, giving me a hard time from the beginning. On top of the generally disappointing writing, I was displeased with the lack of development of Eliza's storyline predominating in over half of the book. We were presented with an abundance of Eliza's increasing paranoia, her difficulty to distinguish between real and unreal as well as the easiness with which she engaged in sexual intercourse. All this added to the overarching impression of reading about a teenager's drama instead of reading about a female adult's justified fear.
While I was inclined early on to give a two-star rating to The Elizas, the central twist, albeit not difficult to intuit nor jaw-dropping , was nicely thought out and well embodied into the novel. Hence, the rather unique and smart construction of the said revelation compensated for its predictability and the aforementioned aspects I was not particularly fond of.
A common and tiresome practice in the realm of psychological thriller is that of a new publication marketed as bearing resemblances to worthy bestsellers of the genre or pledging an astounding twist. More often than not, the content of the novel proves underwhelming or does not correspond to its glamorized blurb. It is safe to say that the promotion of the The Elizas has followed a similar faulty trend. Firstly, I opine that Sara Shepard has struggled lately in her quest for material to deliver best-selling page turners such as Pretty Little Liars, The Lying Game, The Perfectionists series and even The Heiresses. Both The Amateurs trilogy and The Elizas left me with the impression of a decline in the quality of the author's style of writing and her creative resources. Secondly, I believe Sara Shepard should maybe stay inside her comfort zone, YA mystery, since her adult novels, including The Elizas, read like YA fiction anyway.
To conclude, I have mixed feelings about this mystery thriller: I disliked the first half and then I appreciated certain parts of the second. I suppose you can try the The Elizas if you are an usual reader of Sara Shepard's literature but don't expect awesomeness.
While I was inclined early on to give a two-star rating to The Elizas, the central twist, albeit not difficult to intuit nor jaw-dropping , was nicely thought out and well embodied into the novel. Hence, the rather unique and smart construction of the said revelation compensated for its predictability and the aforementioned aspects I was not particularly fond of.
A common and tiresome practice in the realm of psychological thriller is that of a new publication marketed as bearing resemblances to worthy bestsellers of the genre or pledging an astounding twist. More often than not, the content of the novel proves underwhelming or does not correspond to its glamorized blurb. It is safe to say that the promotion of the The Elizas has followed a similar faulty trend. Firstly, I opine that Sara Shepard has struggled lately in her quest for material to deliver best-selling page turners such as Pretty Little Liars, The Lying Game, The Perfectionists series and even The Heiresses. Both The Amateurs trilogy and The Elizas left me with the impression of a decline in the quality of the author's style of writing and her creative resources. Secondly, I believe Sara Shepard should maybe stay inside her comfort zone, YA mystery, since her adult novels, including The Elizas, read like YA fiction anyway.
To conclude, I have mixed feelings about this mystery thriller: I disliked the first half and then I appreciated certain parts of the second. I suppose you can try the The Elizas if you are an usual reader of Sara Shepard's literature but don't expect awesomeness.
February 11, 2018
** ARC provided by the author for an honest review **
Sara Shepard is famous for her Pretty Little Liars series but her upcoming standalone The Elizas is sure to be just as big a hit.
Novelist Eliza Fontaine is rescued from the bottom of a pool and her family assumes it is just another suicide attempt. Eliza is insistent that she was pushed, but as she sets about to find out who did it and why she questions the motives of everyone around her. Her family, editor and agent all seem to be mixing up events of her novel with her real life and Eliza begins to think that she doesn’t know what’s real and what’s fiction anymore.
This is my kind of read! I love the book within a book aspect and the twists and turns that keep you guessing. Reminded me in some ways of Pretty Little Liars but aimed at a slightly more mature audience. Sara is adept in writing a psychological thriller that will have you suspecting everyone. No one is safe from scrutiny in the world of Sara Shepard!
I highly recommend this to long time fans and to those looking for an engaging captivating read. This is one of those books that once you start you cannot put it down. I finished in a few hours and took a few to let everything sink in before writing this review. All I can say is you will be pulled into Eliza’s story! Five reality vs. fiction stars.
Sara Shepard is famous for her Pretty Little Liars series but her upcoming standalone The Elizas is sure to be just as big a hit.
Novelist Eliza Fontaine is rescued from the bottom of a pool and her family assumes it is just another suicide attempt. Eliza is insistent that she was pushed, but as she sets about to find out who did it and why she questions the motives of everyone around her. Her family, editor and agent all seem to be mixing up events of her novel with her real life and Eliza begins to think that she doesn’t know what’s real and what’s fiction anymore.
This is my kind of read! I love the book within a book aspect and the twists and turns that keep you guessing. Reminded me in some ways of Pretty Little Liars but aimed at a slightly more mature audience. Sara is adept in writing a psychological thriller that will have you suspecting everyone. No one is safe from scrutiny in the world of Sara Shepard!
I highly recommend this to long time fans and to those looking for an engaging captivating read. This is one of those books that once you start you cannot put it down. I finished in a few hours and took a few to let everything sink in before writing this review. All I can say is you will be pulled into Eliza’s story! Five reality vs. fiction stars.
June 5, 2021
“We are only falsehood, duplicity, and contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves.” —BLAISE PASCAL”
This was an ok read. An entertaining-enough read for a couple of hours (pro: it's definitely a quick, easy read), but not at all memorable and just oh-so predictable. This is the type of novel I'd have read in 7th grade and thought was a masterpiece, but if you have any familiarity whatsoever with the mystery/thriller genres (more specifically, the teen and YA mystery/thriller genres to the likes of Karen M. McManus and Holly Jackson), you'll find this to be unsurprising, formularized and basic.
It's not to say it was all bad, though. It starts pretty fast-paced with an interesting mystery (though it soon turns monotonous and uninspiring) and does end on a somewhat high note. The excerpts from the novel Eliza is writing, The Dots are great, especially the first few ones, and it was quite fun to read from the POV of a publishing author new to the market. Part of me feels like instead of reading The Elizas, I'd have had a much better time reading The Dots instead.
This was an ok read. An entertaining-enough read for a couple of hours (pro: it's definitely a quick, easy read), but not at all memorable and just oh-so predictable. This is the type of novel I'd have read in 7th grade and thought was a masterpiece, but if you have any familiarity whatsoever with the mystery/thriller genres (more specifically, the teen and YA mystery/thriller genres to the likes of Karen M. McManus and Holly Jackson), you'll find this to be unsurprising, formularized and basic.
It's not to say it was all bad, though. It starts pretty fast-paced with an interesting mystery (though it soon turns monotonous and uninspiring) and does end on a somewhat high note. The excerpts from the novel Eliza is writing, The Dots are great, especially the first few ones, and it was quite fun to read from the POV of a publishing author new to the market. Part of me feels like instead of reading The Elizas, I'd have had a much better time reading The Dots instead.
July 23, 2018
Despite how glaringly obvious the ending of the novel was, I couldn't guess it for the life of me.
Another peculiar note, I can't remember much of what happened in this book even though I finished it less than 22 hours ago. [Probably because I read something after]
Eliza here has been, as she thinks, pushed into a pool and obviously no one believes her. Since she's done it before. Multiple times.
Another fun thing to add to Eliza's personal bio. She can't recall a lot of the events that happened to her. Why?
Brain tumour? Abduction? We find out in the next 200+ pages, along with what happened that night at the pool.
Reading this book I wasn't bored at any point in time. Which I'll say is a pretty good indicator for a decent book.
Though I will remark, Eliza is a very out there character. For a good part of the book she acted on whim, not a lot of thinking behind what she was doing.
And then there was that ending I was supposed to guess. So it was 3 something a.m. when I was nearly the end of the novel, so suffice to say I wasn't really focused on guessing what was going to happen. More of what is going on?
So in hindsight, the plot was pretty straightforward. Especially when I put it in chronological order. When the resolution came, the feeling I got was like Oh gee, that makes a lot of sense.
While with other books, with unreliable narrators I straight up cannot trust the protagonist period. And my thoughts are more like I bet that it was her nurse who tried to kill her
But the plot made sense. No holes. And quite frankly that's pretty good for me. At 3 in the morning.
Another peculiar note, I can't remember much of what happened in this book even though I finished it less than 22 hours ago. [Probably because I read something after]
Eliza here has been, as she thinks, pushed into a pool and obviously no one believes her. Since she's done it before. Multiple times.
Another fun thing to add to Eliza's personal bio. She can't recall a lot of the events that happened to her. Why?
Brain tumour? Abduction? We find out in the next 200+ pages, along with what happened that night at the pool.
Reading this book I wasn't bored at any point in time. Which I'll say is a pretty good indicator for a decent book.
Though I will remark, Eliza is a very out there character. For a good part of the book she acted on whim, not a lot of thinking behind what she was doing.
And then there was that ending I was supposed to guess. So it was 3 something a.m. when I was nearly the end of the novel, so suffice to say I wasn't really focused on guessing what was going to happen. More of what is going on?
So in hindsight, the plot was pretty straightforward. Especially when I put it in chronological order. When the resolution came, the feeling I got was like Oh gee, that makes a lot of sense.
While with other books, with unreliable narrators I straight up cannot trust the protagonist period. And my thoughts are more like I bet that it was her nurse who tried to kill her
But the plot made sense. No holes. And quite frankly that's pretty good for me. At 3 in the morning.
June 26, 2018
A psychological thriller that kept me confused throughout because of the plot of memory issues (medical? Psychological?) and the fact that the story ran on a parallel track with excerpts from a book which the main character wrote called “The Dots.”
Eliza is the main character; someone who makes bad choices, has dysfunctional family relationships, exhibits ongoing mental confusion, overanalyzes yet underanalyzes what’s happening to her, has illnesses, seizures and memory loss due to (medical? Alcohol? Drugs? Conspiracy?) At times I wondered how the ending would turn out because the plot kept spinning and spinning out of control and I did not know what to believe or who to trust. I did not know which story to believe, Eliza’s or Eliza’s soon to be published book, “The Dots.” I rather preferred reading the extracted chapters of “The Dots.”
I disliked Eliza and her odd personality and character and while I did not care what actually happened to her in the end, I wanted to know the WHY.
The end is twisted with a surprise effect and to me, still seems distrustful and untrue and confusing. So I did not really feel a closure to everything that happened in the book. I think because I mistrusted everyone and everything so heavily at the beginning, I still mistrusted all of them at the end. It was like a thick web of deceit was created by the author at the beginning and middle of the book and sucked you in. But when the reader got towards the end, that original web was still so tight and thick, the reader just could not get through it.
Eliza is the main character; someone who makes bad choices, has dysfunctional family relationships, exhibits ongoing mental confusion, overanalyzes yet underanalyzes what’s happening to her, has illnesses, seizures and memory loss due to (medical? Alcohol? Drugs? Conspiracy?) At times I wondered how the ending would turn out because the plot kept spinning and spinning out of control and I did not know what to believe or who to trust. I did not know which story to believe, Eliza’s or Eliza’s soon to be published book, “The Dots.” I rather preferred reading the extracted chapters of “The Dots.”
I disliked Eliza and her odd personality and character and while I did not care what actually happened to her in the end, I wanted to know the WHY.
The end is twisted with a surprise effect and to me, still seems distrustful and untrue and confusing. So I did not really feel a closure to everything that happened in the book. I think because I mistrusted everyone and everything so heavily at the beginning, I still mistrusted all of them at the end. It was like a thick web of deceit was created by the author at the beginning and middle of the book and sucked you in. But when the reader got towards the end, that original web was still so tight and thick, the reader just could not get through it.
April 18, 2018
Thanks to Atria Books for the advanced ebook copy in exchange for my honest review.
Who here has read the PRETTY LITTLE LIARS series? Unfortunately I'm not part of that group (I know, I know, I'll eventually get to them!) but Sara Shepard's new standalone sounded very intriguing! THE ELIZAS is a lighter thriller read and perfect for those that want to transition into the thriller genre.
This is one of those that all readers love - a book within a book and a book about an author! Eliza Fontaine is a debut novelist and she is found at the bottom of the pool of her hotel. It appears to be a failed suicide attempt, but she is insistent that she was pushed.
She is determined to find out who her attacker is, but with slight memory loss it is proving harder than she ever imagined. With the lines between her life and her upcoming novel beginning to blur, how do we know what is fiction and what is the truth?
Without going into too much more detail, I'm going to say that this is a great unreliable narrator story! Who doesn't love not knowing if you can trust everything your narrator is telling you? It keeps the suspense up and it had me flipping the pages to see what would happen next. Like I previously mentioned, this is on the lighter side of the thriller genre, so don't go into it thinking you'll get a gruesome investigation and crazy twists.
I really enjoyed the writing and will be bumping up the PRETTY LITTLE LIARS series in my TBR. Maybe this summer?
I give this one 4/5 stars!
Who here has read the PRETTY LITTLE LIARS series? Unfortunately I'm not part of that group (I know, I know, I'll eventually get to them!) but Sara Shepard's new standalone sounded very intriguing! THE ELIZAS is a lighter thriller read and perfect for those that want to transition into the thriller genre.
This is one of those that all readers love - a book within a book and a book about an author! Eliza Fontaine is a debut novelist and she is found at the bottom of the pool of her hotel. It appears to be a failed suicide attempt, but she is insistent that she was pushed.
She is determined to find out who her attacker is, but with slight memory loss it is proving harder than she ever imagined. With the lines between her life and her upcoming novel beginning to blur, how do we know what is fiction and what is the truth?
Without going into too much more detail, I'm going to say that this is a great unreliable narrator story! Who doesn't love not knowing if you can trust everything your narrator is telling you? It keeps the suspense up and it had me flipping the pages to see what would happen next. Like I previously mentioned, this is on the lighter side of the thriller genre, so don't go into it thinking you'll get a gruesome investigation and crazy twists.
I really enjoyed the writing and will be bumping up the PRETTY LITTLE LIARS series in my TBR. Maybe this summer?
I give this one 4/5 stars!
April 16, 2018
The Elizas
Sara Shepard
Received from Atria Books
Eliza is rescued from the bottom of a hotel pool. Her family believes it's another failed suicide attempt, but Eliza feels certain she was pushed. Of course, no one believes her and she is determined to find the person who tried to kill her and find out why. THE ELIZAS is such a thrilling creepy ride so hang on tight. This story was a little confusing to me at first but once I settled down, I was totally invested in Eliza's story and was hoping she could figure out what really happened.
Eliza tracks down the only witness, the man who rescued her from the bottom of the pool. After talking with him she is even more confused than ever but is determined to figure out what happened and who did this to her. Why would someone want her dead? At the same time, she is getting ready to publish her first novel and soon it feels like her life becomes the story she wrote. THE ELIZAS has everyone, including Eliza herself, wondering if she is finally losing her mind for good. Sara Shepard really plays with the reader's mind and will have them questioning what is truth and what is fiction.
THE ELIZAS jumps back and forth between the present and Eliza's novel. Pay attention, be patient and read on. Sara Shepard continues to throw the reader curve balls and keeps them guessing right up until the end of the story. Will Eliza ever be able to untangle the web of lies to finally figure out who tried to kill her? How does her upcoming novel, The Dots, a story she wrote after she had surgery for a brain tumor, fit in to what has happened at the pool that night, or does it? Just when the reader has it all figured out, the twists and turns take them into a different direction and leaves them scratching their heads. That is exactly what happened to me. I've never read Sara Shepard before, but after reading THE ELIZAS I think I'm going to read her Little Liars series soon.
Sara Shepard
Received from Atria Books
Eliza is rescued from the bottom of a hotel pool. Her family believes it's another failed suicide attempt, but Eliza feels certain she was pushed. Of course, no one believes her and she is determined to find the person who tried to kill her and find out why. THE ELIZAS is such a thrilling creepy ride so hang on tight. This story was a little confusing to me at first but once I settled down, I was totally invested in Eliza's story and was hoping she could figure out what really happened.
Eliza tracks down the only witness, the man who rescued her from the bottom of the pool. After talking with him she is even more confused than ever but is determined to figure out what happened and who did this to her. Why would someone want her dead? At the same time, she is getting ready to publish her first novel and soon it feels like her life becomes the story she wrote. THE ELIZAS has everyone, including Eliza herself, wondering if she is finally losing her mind for good. Sara Shepard really plays with the reader's mind and will have them questioning what is truth and what is fiction.
THE ELIZAS jumps back and forth between the present and Eliza's novel. Pay attention, be patient and read on. Sara Shepard continues to throw the reader curve balls and keeps them guessing right up until the end of the story. Will Eliza ever be able to untangle the web of lies to finally figure out who tried to kill her? How does her upcoming novel, The Dots, a story she wrote after she had surgery for a brain tumor, fit in to what has happened at the pool that night, or does it? Just when the reader has it all figured out, the twists and turns take them into a different direction and leaves them scratching their heads. That is exactly what happened to me. I've never read Sara Shepard before, but after reading THE ELIZAS I think I'm going to read her Little Liars series soon.
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