Suspenseful thriller with a lot of twists. A family saga with heaps of past history thrown in. Characters are well written and believable but tend to be a depressing. Good ending.

I’m so glad I requested this book on netgalley. The story starts innocently enough... dysfunctional family, daughter leaves home and doesn’t want to take her mother’s calls... until the mother kills herself... or did she? Was everything a lie? Told in the form of a letter to her daughter, the mother’s story unfolds, with exciting twists and turns in the plot. I thoroughly enjoyed this well written thriller.

Cliche, full of tropes, felt like I'd read it before, dull, predictable.

The idea of a death that is hard to explain is really interesting but the way that Sophia finds out what really happens to her parents was dull. Instead of finding clues and piecing together the mystery, she just reads about what happens in her mother's notebook. You are effectively just told what happens and now allowed to uncover anything for yourself as a reader.

These sections, which should have been the most interesting, were the weakest parts of the book. They dragged on, were badly explained and completely lost my attention. Overall, I was really disappointed by the reading experience.

This was an interesting read and if you enjoy reading 'thrillers' or books about cults then you will enjoy this....sadly, I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. It's my first Helen Callaghan novel so I had no expectations of what it might be like and I was intrigued by the premise of the story.

The novel tells the story of Sophia who has an ordinary twenty something life in London, until one night she gets a call from her mother asking her to come home. Sophia gives her the mother the brush off as she is too caught up in enjoying her own night, however, feeling guilty she sets off home the following morning, only to find her mother hanging dead from a tree in the garden and her father suffering from life threatening stab wounds. What follows is Sophia's quest to find out what happened to her parents, and her quest takes her back to her mothers past, a secret religious cult and shocking revelations that change her view of herself.

As exciting as that all sounds, I personally found the writing a little weak and I wasn't as sucked into the story as I hoped I would be. I didn't find it particularly thrilling or exciting, and I had worked out what the 'plot twist' was by the middle of the book. For me it was all a little disappointing but if you like that particular type of fiction I am sure you will love it.

Thanks to Net Galley for the free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

What a brilliant book! Excellent book. Brilliant story and I loved the main characters. I would highly recommend this book.

I had high hopes for this book after reading dear amy and i wasnt disappointed. Helen callaghans writting style is brilliant. Theres something about how she tells a story that just sucks you in and everything is lies was no different. I loved the unique plot line of a cult and getting to see how all the characters were interwoven together. I was able to guess a few twists but how each situation played out made up for that. Thank you for the arc! Will be recommending this book on release!

Recently it has been incredibly difficult for me to just sink in to a book and enjoy it, reading lately has been a complete chore for me. Until this one. I have read work by Callaghan before and loved it so I had a vague idea of what to expect but given the fact that I have struggled with books from authors I have loved previously I wasn't holding my breath, however, from the first few pages this book grabbed my interest and wouldn't let up.

I have devoured this book in a little over 24 hours. And when I was unable to read I found myself wandering back to Sophia and Nina's story in my head. I found I needed to know what happened to Nina all those years ago, and what had happened to her most recently.

Nina's story is particularly heartbreaking, given her parents and upbringing its clear how she became such an easy target for Aaron Kessler and his friends. Watching her be pulled in to his world was quite difficult and there was more than one occasion I hoped for a happy outcome for her, despite what I already knew of her tale.

Whilst the exploration of who joins cults, what makes these people especially attracted to belonging, how they grow evermore reliant on the leader’s approval, and why these groups often implode is an interesting enough subject. However, in reading ‘Everything is Lies’, it is unlikely that you will gain any more insight than you may already have. Rather, the central theme is a vehicle for a novel which is a messy mix of ‘who’s who’, ‘whodunnit’ and ‘whydunnit’ compounded by the problem that very few of the characters are credible, veiled identities are not well disguised, and it’s really not hard to work out why all the crimes are committed.
On top of this Helen Callaghan uses the vehicle of secret notebooks to transport the central character, Sophia, back to her mother’s youth and her cult experience. Mother Nina writes these notebooks for her daughter and even has a publisher interested, perhaps because they expose the morally bankrupt ways of old rocker Aaron Kessler who leads ‘Morningstar’, a movement dedicated to the Creative Spark (yawn!).
However, in order to make Sophia understand why Nina is so enraptured with the charismatic Aaron, the notebooks include the kind of intimate details most mothers – and, in particular, the self-effacing Nina, - would shy away from putting into material written specifically for a daughter. Necessary for the plot, this mistake joins the list of narrative errors mentioned earlier, as does the rather clichéd final chapter. After devoting several ‘reading hours’ to this story, I was left with a sense of time wasted. Sadly, given what could have been an insightful study of the effect of power struggles and mind games, this novel is one to avoid.

A well written page turner. I had guessed the final twist a while before it was revealed, but it's testimony to Ms Callaghan's writing and believable characters that I still continued reading, rather than skimming, to the end.

I absolutely loved this book so many twists and turns and I for one never guessed the ending . I will definitely be connecting with this author and reading more of her books

To begin, I’d like to thank Penguin Random House UK for sending me an ARC of this book, and to NetGalley for facilitating. And a thank you to Helen Callaghan for another thoroughly enjoyable read!

Occult, A Cult, Sex, Death and Lies - all perfectly balanced to make this book utterly delicious and moreish!
I read Dear Amy a while ago and loved it, so when I saw that Helen Callaghan had written another I was desperate to get my hands on it! And to my delight, I was sent an ARC to my Kindle! This is a completely different beast to Dear Amy but holds many of the best qualities of the first book.
Once again - and for the second time in my life as a parent, I ended up staying up WELL PAST when I needed to be asleep just to read “one more page” (or one more chapter as seemed to be the case) until suddenly it was 2am and I was faced with 4 hours sleep before needing to get up for the kids. And I wasn’t even sorry. Lol!

I won’t spoil this book for anyone so my details will be as shady as Wolf (read it - you’ll get it).
But as I said, this is a mixture of the best parts of the genre. Refreshing to pick up a book that doesn’t centre around the tired “girl is missing” plot that has literally been done to death these past few years. This is NOTHING like those books. It was tantalising, and dark, and beautiful. The characters were so diverse and detailed enough that I could easily differentiate all of them just via their mannerisms. And the way that Helen Callaghan has described the places, I could see them so clearly - I was at Morningstar, I was just as smitten and enamoured as Nina was with the place (despite the warning alarms sounding in my head).

It’s very rare to find a book that can pull you into the pages like that. All books try to beckon you in, that’s the point right? But Everything Is Lies doesn’t beckon you in, it entices you closer and then drags you in. I loved it. Definitely one to buy and put on my shelf of trophy books (ones I really like get promoted from Kindle to Hard Copy)!

Thanks again to Helen Callaghan! Loved the first book, loved this one even more, can’t wait to see what’s next!!

Really enjoyed this book everything is lies great tital for a great novel you get an insight into how these people get sucked into things they really shouldn't found myself saying no don't do it was brilliantly written enjoyed Nina's story and how Sophie told it loved the twists and turns and the ending I really wasn't expecting brilliant think this book will appeal to young and old alike very good story

This book was quite the slog to get through! The plot was interesting and I liked that it was about a cult, and the far-reaching effects this has on individuals and those around them. I liked that the narrative alternated between the present and the daughter's perspective, and the mother's experience of being in the cult. That being said, I think that's where the positives end. The first 20% of the book did a great job at building up momentum and setting the scene, making me think this would be a real page-turned and that I'd want to read 'just one more chapter' again and again before being able to get off to sleep. Unfortunately, the middle chunk of the book was incredibly boring, long-winded, and slow-moving. It did catch up and get a lot more interesting for the last 20&, and I enjoyed the twist, but for 60% of the book to be slow and unenjoyable, I certainly wouldn't recommend this one.

I so enjoyed reading this book. The storyline built gradually, but beautifully, and was a totally satisfying read. Hope to read Helen Callaghan's previous books next.

Everything is lies

What a rollercoaster ride this story was, which kept me hooked until the very end.
The second novel by Helen Callaghan and as equally fantastic as her first. Set in the 80’s this psychological thriller is filled with drama and darkness. A great read and I would highly recommend.

I read this book in 24 hours!!! It was excellent!!! Sophia finds her mum hanging and her dad seriously ill....the plot thickens when she starts looking into it....be prepared to read none stop! Excellent read!

Everything is Lies is a wonderful book which I received via Netgalley. Set in two eras it tells the tale initially of Sophia, a young twentysomething young lady living in London who believes that her parents are a run of the mill couple, although she considers her mother Nina to have become somewhat needy since she, Sophia, left home.

What follows is an emotional, twisting tale as Sophia discovers her mother dead and her father seriously injured in what the police insist was a murder/suicide. Through her finding her mother's notebooks she comes to see that although she thought she had them pegged, her parents were not actually the people she believed them to be.

The plot flits between the narrative of the notebooks (this I found the most compelling read) and Sophia's reaction to what she reads.

The reader's frustration reaches the same heights as Sophia's when apparently no-one takes her seriously as she tries to insist that her parents must have been attacked whilst she unravels a tangled web of lies and secrets.

This is a very well-written plot, a real page turner full of suspense, emotions and reminders to all young women that not everything may be as it seems, and on so many levels, thoroughly recommended.

Everything is Lies by Helen Callaghan
A Riveting, dark but compelling thriller
This interesting thriller surrounds the main character’s search into her family’s past to understand why the death of her mother and horrific, simultaneous injury to her father is written off by the police as an attempted murder and suicide.
Sophia’s delving into the past of her parents, who had always seemed so quiet and unassuming whilst running their garden centre business, is skilfully handled by Helen Callaghan. The dark secrets and lies are revealed through an intriguing cast of characters building up to an exciting but believable finale.
This was an easy but absorbing read, with thoughtful and insightful writing producing a dark but compelling narrative of a young woman trying to discover the truth and come to terms with a catastrophic rewriting of her family history.

Everything Is Lies by Helen Callaghan a thrilling five-star read. What a book, I haven’t read the authors debut book but had heard good things so knew I wanted to check this out as soon as I saw the name, she was on a list of authors I have to check out. The whole story kept me on the edge of my seat, it was a real true page turner, don’t start this if you have anything to do as it won’t get done, I started it thinking I would read for an hour then go shopping, I went shopping the following day. I’m not usually a huge fan of this genre but my mum is and she recommended the author, she will definitely be getting a big thank you pressie for recommending this one.
Where to start, Sophia Mackenzie has believed her family and life are all boring and normal until tragedy strikes, then the story starts to unfold. Sophia starts to dig into her family’s past, what she finds will twist your mellon, her mum’s stories about her life and cult life will suck you deeper than you can imagine. The story flashes between now and a time when Sophia’s mum Nina was younger, this can get a little disconcerting at first but stick with it as the more you read the easier it becomes. This was such a suspenseful read, full of complex details that will have you questioning everything. The more you learn about the Morningstar cult the more questions you will have, it shows us how easily people can sucked in and twisted by a cult without realising what is happening until it’s too late.

This story really gripped me. It is hard not to want to know what happens next and the reverting to the main character's mother's notebooks gives it an extra pull on the reader. The characters are entirely believable as is the concept of the cult's fascination for the mother. The book has many unexpected twists which make it even more readable.