Every Single Lie

A YA book that starts with finding a dead baby in the locker room? Color me intrigued, and boy did I fly through this book once I started it. Every Single Lie by Rachel Vincent is the issues-novel you didn’t know you needed–all about addiction, suspicion, the terrors of social media, and ultimately, just a lot of heart.

Beckett Bergen is taking a mental health day after breaking up with her boyfriend, Jake,but when she remembers she has a French test, she heads to school for 7th period.Hiding out in the closed locker rooms–still covered in fresh paint–proves to be a bad idea though, because she ends up finding a school duffle bag with a dead baby inside–a small baby, freshly born. Within minutes, the police are on the scene, including Beckett’s own mother, one of the small Tennessee city’s two detectives on the force. But the problems start coming and they don’t stop coming–why is the baby lying in Beckett’s ex’s duffle bag? Who starts the anonymous Twitter account and spreads rumors about her being the baby’s mother? What happens when a paternity comes back to reveal something no one wants to think about?

This is a book all about rumors and secrets and how the secrets of the baby interact with the secrets Beckett has been trying to avoid since her father died seven months ago.It’s about what we do and don’t notice about those around us, the way suspicion can cloud our judgement, and the perils of social media and frankly, high school in general. I enjoyed this book–I read it in one day, one evening–but I didn’t feel the POWER of this book until I read the authors note, so I recommend you do that as soon as you finished the book,but not beforehand, cuz spoilers.

Beckett is a super likeable character in that she’s flawed, but you also know she didn’t do it, so that’s fine, right? You also see her make mistakes and assumptions but as a reader you understand why. I’m also kind of liking this new YA trend of the female protagonists not all being college-bound princesses of productivity (I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with that, that’s who I am LOL) but it reflects a more real-worldness. It’s not always the Homecoming Queen who becomes the center of the story, ya know?

Give this book a read! Every Single Lie is on sale everywhere January 12th, 2021.