Dark and Shallow Lies

In the small town of La Cachette, magic is everywhere. It is self-proclaimed as the Psychic Capital of the World. Seventeen-year-old Grey spends her summers here when she's not living with her father. However, six months ago, her best friend Elora goes missing. Grey can't understand how her best friend vanished in a town full of psychics and no one knows what happened. She begins to dig into the night Elora went missing and she discovers that everyone in town is hiding a secret. When a blue-eyed boy who has links to Elora mysteriously appears, Grey realizes that the past of La Cachette is more present and dangerous than she thought. She doesn't know who she can and can't trust. Nobody can be presumed innocent when secrets run rampant under the surface of the town and there's a murderer on the loose. La Cachette's dark and shallow lies may end up ripping the town apart. I wasn't a fan of this one. It felt incredibly drawn out and slow and I found myself bored for most of the story. The ending was good but the rest of the story was so monotonous and repetitive.

I wanted to like this book based on the description, but I could never really get into the storyline. The story follows Grey, a teen who grew up in a small Louisanna town called the Psychic Capital of the World. She has just returned to town for summer break, and sets to solving the mystery of what happened to her best friend Elora who vanished a few months back. Sounds like a cool concept, but throughout the book nothing really happens. There’s a lot of dialogue in this book as opposed to action, which would be fine if something actually happened in the dialogue. Instead we just get to hear the same characters say they don’t know what happened over and over, and don’t actually get any clues to solve the mystery. There was also not much character development in the story. All of the side characters have cool-sounding powers, which are introduced in a single sentence, and some of them are never explored again. I would have loved to have seen more of the kids use their powers, or the author go into greater depth to describe their character. Many of the characters come into a conversation to say a line, and then leave. What’s the point of having all of these extra characters if they don’t do anything? There were also some inconsistencies in the storyline. Without spoiling anything, one of the main characters was born in the midst of a hurricane. They tell the story that they came out of the womb and the hurricane picked up the baby and the roof of the house and carried them away. His parents then rushed after to find him unharmed. Then, in a later chapter of a story we learn he was a twin. When did the other baby have time to be born in the midst of this scenario? I get that the author wants to add surprise by adding this extra factor, but it doesn’t really fit in with the story they told. Overall, I did finish the book and there was a good amount of action in the ending, but it still wasn’t a very satisfying ending.

Just looking at the cover and title of this book made me excited and want to read it. Plus add in the magic since it does take place in La Cachette, a town full of psychics and other special powers and it really ramped up my excitement. Though all is not well. There are secrets that are rotting the town from the inside out and Grey has returned for the summer to try to find out what happened to her twin flame, Elora. Both were part of the "Summer Children" all born around the same time and special too. I could feel the humidity and heat of this swampy town as I read it (nicely descriptive!) and I could not figure out the mystery of what happened to Elora. I kept thinking it was one person but was totally side blinded by the truth. So many secrets and so little time, only one summer. There is sadness and heartbreak in this book but I enjoyed it. I think this was a good book to read.