A BookViral Review Of The Victoria Lie By Sarah Marie Graye

SUMMARY: ZOE wants to end her life. But she can’t just leave a note. She needs to say goodbye to boyfriend JAMES and best friend ALISON.

 TORI is waiting in the wings to fill the space ZOE will leave behind, wanting to claim both James and Alison for herself.

The BookViral Review: The second eagerly awaited instalment in Graye’s Butterfly Effect series, she always brings a powerful sense of visual energy and imagination to her stories and The Victoria Lie is no exception. Graye writes with a refreshing sense of directness and with such a good ear for everyday dialogue that her characters seem real and plausible after only a few words. Each being uniformly strong whilst neatly sidestepping the curse of cliché to make them both original and highly endearing.

As with The Second Cup what makes The Victoria Lie so gripping and thought-provoking is how nothing happens as we think it will. It’s a perceptive and uncompromising examination of controversial subject matter, written with tenderness and undeniable insight as Graye reveals layer after layer of thoughts and reflections. The plotting is tightly wound, but rather than get bogged down in extraneous detail Graye takes us through a kinetic series of escalating events whilst ramping up momentum towards what proves to be a perfectly pitched and highly thought provoking ending.

Women’s literary fiction at its best Graye’s series is proving a compelling saga and one you will struggle to put down. A five star read it is recommended without reservation.