I had such good hopes for this book, but quite frankly, the more I read, the worse it got. I requested it sometime last year, maybe in September, because I’d seen a tweet from the author and became intrigued. I will admit, it took me a while to get into it. And I did eventually end up buying a physical copy in hopes that it would allow me to read it faster.

There were many things that bothered me about book, but I think the first thing is quite frankly: these characters are so goddamn dumb it’s not even funny. I have not been sixteen for four years. So maybe I’m misremembering how smart I was as a sixteen year old. But I am ninety percent certain that if I came into a load of money randomly, and I didn’t come into it legally, I would put it away and not touch it. I can understand Layla using it to pay for her brother’s treatment. But Kai and Liam? Especially Liam? That man was supposed to be the smart one out of the group—the stereotypical nerd who knew everything—and yet I think he made the worst decision out of them all, like c’mon man. They were not good liars. They were hilariously bad liars. Only Fliss had any sense, but then that was totally ruined at the end with bogus character development meant to solidify her stance as a ‘bad girl’ as if she wasn’t able to just… move on with her life.

The POVs seemed interchangeable. There were many moments where I had to flip back through the pages to see who’s pov I was reading because they were not different enough. They were annoyingly similar. Too similar.

And on that note, the writing itself also seemed annoyingly melodramatic and far too simple. There should not have been as many sentences that ended in an exclamation mark as there was. It was not needed. It changed the tone of the writing to seem less serious and more sarcastic. I also think the character interactions needed work, because at the end of the book once the climax had happened, everything felt so forced. Kai and Layla had no chemistry. Neither did Lou and Liam. And don’t get me started on Lou trying to tell them what to do with the money they had left over when he wasn’t part of it.

It wrapped up nice and I’m glad Layla’s brother got his treatment and his cancer is in remission but quite frankly, this book was way too melodramatic, poorly written and the four good liars were actually terrible liars.

I don’t think this book was terrible. Maybe I’m just too old now. Other people will like this better than I did. Take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Another modern murder/crime filled YA novel, in the vein of the popular Good Girls Guide to Murder/One of us is Lying vein. I found this story a little far-fetched, even in this field! I didn't really like any of the characters, found their ability to lie so well (especially to police) totally unbelievable, and their motives completely unbelievable mostly, with the exception of Layla.

The ending was twisty, but in a really ridiculous way. I didn't enjoy this much, but I think a younger audience would like it. I just think there's better examples of this genre out there.

They were not good liars at all. In fact, this entire book is centered around just how bad four teenagers who find a million in cash are at lying, and the consequences of their spending sprees. There seemed to be one bad decision after another, and at over 400 pages long, I was tearing my hair out by the end of it.

Layla was easily my favourite character of the four POVs, her love for her family and little brother made her the most selfless character, and her choices made sense to me. I liked Kai well enough, but found Fliss vapid and Liam lacked depth, as his life seemed to center around his boyfriend.

The ending had a lot of twists and turns, each one more ridiculous than the last. Major villain reveals, presidential rubber masks, even more scheming to steal what was left of the money, none of it felt like it was worth the time it took to get there.

The different character perspectives through the book really brought this together. There were twists and turns throughout which kept me guessing until the end, Great read.

Living in north Devon, I was incredibly excited to read this but I found it a challenge. I didn’t really connect with the characters or the plot. Although I didn’t enjoy it as much as i hoped I would, I know my students will as they love this genre of books.

Good, exciting. Order of some chapters seemed odd and confusing and the characters were all pretty similar so wasn't always easy to keep track of who was speaking. Read in one sitting, really good pace, kept you guessing. I found that the ending kept going and going, a while after I'd expected it to finish, a few times. I quite liked how neatly everything was tied up, though it made the story even less probable than it possibly already was.

This had a really good premise for a YA thriller, it was enjoyable and entertaining from beginning to end.

Four Good Liars has a great premise. A group of teens, who have nothing in common, are caught up in a dramatic crash as they travel to school. As they flee, they discover a holdall full of money. The four decide to keep the cash, and this begins a dramatic story which it would be hard to make up!
Fliss is our pampered princess. Kai is a surfer, abandoned by his mother. Layla and Liam are the other pair, though they’re not quite as memorable. Each has their reason for taking a cut of the million pounds…but they hadn’t banked on a drug gang stopping at nothing to get their money back.
From the outset this is action-focused. It doesn’t always make sense, but the way the group members interact is entertaining. The reality of the story is even more crazy than you could imagine, but it was hugely entertaining.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this.

This book is perfect for lovers of Holly Jackson, Ravena Guron, Karen McManus. I enjoyed this from beginning to end and I was totally not expecting the twist at the end.

This book follows 4 high school students who are on the bus to school and end up in an accident where they find a LOT of money and decide together to share it out between themselves. But there are so many lies going on as a reader I couldn’t tell what was truth and what was lies, but this made it all the more enjoyable as I felt so engrossed in the story I needed to know how it was going to end.

I will definitely be looking out for more from Sarah Wishart, I really enjoyed this book it was so fun!

Perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying or Liar's Beach, Four Good Liars is an intriguing, funny YA thriller/mystery that you can easily devour in one sitting.

It opens with a great hook: four (yes, really) teenagers are involved in a catastrophic school bus crash and narrowly escape plunging off a cliff. Their bus driver, however, isn't so lucky. Despite their shared trauma, the four teenagers probably wouldn't have become anything more than acquaintances after the event...probably. But, as it turns out, a bag containing £1million crashed alongside them and, well, they end up staying in touch after distributing it amongst themselves!

Each character has their own motives for wanting the money, with some needs far greater than others, and it's super interesting to see how Wishart makes each character justify the theft within their internal monologues. I enjoyed following the story and found myself repeatedly getting shocked by revelations and twists. Layla is by far the nicest, most well-rounded character (who you would actually want to befriend if you were her age), but I loved Fliss the most. From her mother issues to her 'poor little rich girl' elements, she was funny and sharp albeit vindictive and mean.

I would recommend this book and think it would be a popular choice in a secondary school library!

Even after finishing Four Good Liars, I’m not sure how I feel about it. The opening was super high-intensity and the scenes with the bus crash were action-packed, but I found the descriptions to be a little messy and hard to follow. There’s a lot of ‘this is happening, now this is happening’ type of descriptions and it was all over the place - this did make sense for what was going on though, so I can’t bash it too much.

This was such an unlikable cast of characters. I think I liked Layla the most but even then she wasn’t great. Their personalities and morals felt all over the place and I won’t even get started on the end of the book. I don’t want to spoil anything but never trust a single word any of these characters to say. This did make the story interesting though, you never knew where it was going to go next.

Also, every POV read exactly the same and I found myself getting confused about which character I was reading multiple times.

This is a bit nitpicky, but I studied law as part of my journalism degree and I’m pretty sure newspapers can’t print the full names and photos of minors without a parent’s consent, so that part made no sense. I could be remembering wrong, I studied it years ago now, but I’m sure minors have to have their identities hidden for safety purposes.

Anyway, storywise, this book is very interesting. I love a thriller/mystery and the premise of Four Good Liars was very interesting. It does raise the question of what would you do if you found a bag with a million pounds in it? Especially as a teenager. I feel like a lot of their stupid actions can be forgiven due to their young age, but a lot of what they do is ridiculous.

The number of plot twists is definitely what kept me reading and I really liked the ending scene. It’s a classic will this whole ordeal happen again with someone else situation and it was a great way to end it.

Overall, I think Four Good Liars was a decent read but it definitely has its flaws. It’s a good example of a non trustworthy narrator and I found I had no idea what was going on at any given moment.

An edge of your seat mystery/thriller. I read this in one day as I was hooked from the beginning. A great story about how lies can snowball into actions that have huge consequences. Working with students, it would be a great story to show as an example about how getting yourself tangled up in crime is never going to have a good outcome.

4.5 stars

FOUR GOOD LIARS is an edge-of-your-seat thriller about four teens surviving a bus crash and coming into possession of one million pounds from a drug cartel.

The characters have little in common and all have their own reasons for wanting money but little reasons to trust one another. It's a great set up for plenty of tension and uneasy about what might happen next and who can be trusted.

It's a twisty, compulsive read with so many surprises in store. I had to keep reading and find out who survived and the identity of the various mysterious figures after the teens.

The ending in particular was great, with the rug pulled out from under you several times. There were a few points when I thought it was over but another twist was sprung.

The book is mostly told through chapters told from the four characters' perspectives but there are also extracts from their WhatsApp chats and newspaper articles. The texts are a nice way of getting their different opinions across fast while also feeling so authentic.

I really enjoyed this high octane thriller from beginning to end. Perfect for teenager readers and up. From word one you are thrown into high tension action, Plenty of plot twists that I didn’t expect, and an ending that I didn’t see coming. Have a read and see if you work it out. Thank you to Harper Collins, Children’s Books and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

Interesting characters with a shaky plot that kept me reading. Full of twists and unreliable narrators that keep you guessing and wondering.

✨ 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 ✨

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Four Good Liars
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Sarah Wishart
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 4/5

“‘𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘶𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨.’ 𝘓𝘢𝘺𝘭𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯.
𝘔𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴’ 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘳.
‘𝘓𝘦𝘵’𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘵, 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥,’ 𝘍𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘭𝘺. ‘𝘞𝘦’𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘫𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴.’”

🤍 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿
🌸 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗨𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗟𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝗯𝗲𝘀
🤍 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀
🌸 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶 𝗣𝗢𝗩
🤍 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻𝘀

Four Good Liars is an ambitious YA thriller that is reminiscent of One of Us is Lying, but with higher stakes. The delivery of the premise of this book—four teens stealing one million pounds from a drug cartel—is almost heist-like in nature, requiring levels of deceit from the teens that would not seem out of place in a high end gambling joint.

This book has four main characters and the story is told through all four of them. Layla needs the money for her brother’s treatment, Kai needs the money to bring his family back together, Liam needs the money to impress his wealthy boyfriend, and Fliss needs the money to get her blackmailer off her back. The plot coupled with these morally grey teens make for a fast-paced, fun, and easy read.

I enjoyed all the characters, and I liked the inclusivity of the non-binary supporting character. I think I liked Layla the most, her reason for stealing the money was the most noble and her subplot dealing with the grief of losing her Baba was subtly and cleverly explored. Kai second because his family situation made my heart physically ache for him. I did think that there was potential for better character development in all four main characters but this did not come intro fruition.

Also, I cannot put my finger on why, but it feels very Americanized. I can’t decide whether it’s the level of melodrama (not a dig at American fiction as I simply *live* for the melodrama) or whether it was the fact that there was a reliable school bus service? (On the other hand, this definitely was a dig at the British transport industry). I kept forgetting it was a UK setting.

Regardless, I’d give this book four stars… one for each liar.

—Kayleigh🤍

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This story starts off strong, with its opening chapter hooking the reader in. However the rest of the book struggles to hold up against it. The four main characters lack depth and come across far younger (around 11 or so) or far older (adult) at times, their dialogue making little to no sense in a British, teenage context at times. There is heavy American influence on this story and, unfortunately, it does hamper the ability to enjoy it.

There are plot twists a-plenty and more action than you can possibly plan for, but unfortunately it largely packs no real punch. The characters aren't relatable for the most part and, while there are moments where Layla and Kai both separately tug at the reader's heart strings due to their family situation, it's quickly forgotten by the next chapter thanks to some silly drama which appears next.

Characters like Lou and Liam are 2D at best, and feel shoehorned in. Liam has many opportunities to become a stronger character but it feels like every chance is thwarted by another plot twist, while Lou feels like a character of convenience. It should also be noted that Lou is misgendered in one of the scenes concerning them which will need to be edited prior to publication.

The novel had a great idea and, truly, I could never have predicted some of the twists and turns, but ultimately it is forgettable.

2.5/5

I liked the plot, which had lots of twists and turns but the differences between point of views got a bit confusing and it seemed like the characters would trust each other one chapter and not the next.

Four Good Liars is a novel packed with ambition. Wishart sets out to tell a tale of four high school students who continuously make bad choices, all for different reasons.

I appreciate what Wishart tried to do here, she wanted to build a story rich with suspense and tension, plot twists galore, with striking characters. She was only partly successful.

While this story certainly has tension and suspense, it soon grew tiring and my attention began to drift. Big reveals and twists were made, and then made again, and then again . . . Which I began to felt were a detriment to the story. These plot points took time away that should’ve been spent doing character work.

I didn’t love the characters, I found them all incredibly unlikeable. And not even an “unlikeable but I like their character” sort of way, they were just . . . Not good. Despite having strong motivations for wanting to steal and use the money, I never connected to any of the characters and never felt like they had any depth or complexity to them. They all felt very surface level, even tropey (which another reviewer has also noted in their review).

The romances had no chemistry to them, and the “endgames” did not feel right at all…I just don’t understand why any of them would like each other after spending a lot of the book betraying and lying to each other repeatedly.

I also think, again, some of the plot twists were just disappear and to keep lengthening/complicating them did a disservice to the story and the characters.

I do think this could be a good novel for younger readers who are just getting in to the genre. I think for them this would be exhilarating and fun, filled to the brim with drama.

Overall though I just think this book was a miss. It had a lot of potential, and some moments of really great writing, but it fell short.

Thank you to HarperCollinsUK Children’s Books for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book was all action from the very beginning which meant it captured attention and kept you gripped throughout.
All the main characters were questionable and I only really found Kai and Layla to be likeable but even then Kai's actions up to the end were frustrating.
The plot twists were fairly predictable apart from the people reveals but this didn't make them any less enjoyable.
I found the ending to be satisfying as people got their comeuppance but some of the events seemed unnecessary and only there to provide a reason for how the person was caught.
All in all it was a quick, fun and fast paced read.