The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer
♦publisher: Balzer & Bray
♦release date: May 13th, 2014
♦paperback, 304 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review (via SF book review)
Growing up in a house
of female morticians, Lily Graves knows all about buried secrets. She
knows that perfect senior-class president Erin Donohue isn’t what she
seems. She knows why Erin’s ex-boyfriend, hot football player Matt
Houser, broke up with her. And she also knows that, even though she says
she and Matt are just friends, there is something brewing between
them—something Erin definitely did not like.
But secrets, even ones that are long buried, have a way of returning to haunt their keeper.
So when Erin is found dead the day after attacking Lily in a jealous rage, Lily's and Matt’s safe little lives, and the lives of everyone in their town of Potsdam, begin to unravel. And their relationship—which grew from innocent after-school tutoring sessions to late-night clandestine rendezvous—makes them both suspects.
As her world crumbles around her, Lily must figure out the difference between truth and deception, genuine love and a web of lies. And she must do it quickly, before the killer claims another victim.
But secrets, even ones that are long buried, have a way of returning to haunt their keeper.
So when Erin is found dead the day after attacking Lily in a jealous rage, Lily's and Matt’s safe little lives, and the lives of everyone in their town of Potsdam, begin to unravel. And their relationship—which grew from innocent after-school tutoring sessions to late-night clandestine rendezvous—makes them both suspects.
As her world crumbles around her, Lily must figure out the difference between truth and deception, genuine love and a web of lies. And she must do it quickly, before the killer claims another victim.
Review: The Secrets of Lily Graves is a morbid but colorful murder mystery. It’s told from the POV of a teen that has grown up surrounded by corpses in the family mortuary. Lily lives with and gets a daily dose of guidance from a very eccentric group of women; her mother, her grandmother, and especially her aunt. Reflecting that upbringing, we get her skewed, slightly cold attitude toward death. She’s a bit of a gothic outcast, and we know from the get-go that she and Erin, the girl who is found dead in her bathtub, were far from friends.
The story itself is good, though nothing about it truly stood out to me. I did like the way Lily used her family’s insider info and knowledge from working at the mortuary to really help work the mystery out. Lily was tutoring Erin’s boyfriend, and she suspected they were getting a little too close right before she winds up dead, so Lily must do everything she can to find the killer and keep the fingers from pointing at her and Michael.
Many of the characters suffer from a bad dose of heavy cliché: here we have the goth girl who grew up in a mortuary, here’s the jock with questionable intentions, there’s the town stoner, and oh look, there are the mean girls that all the adults think are angels. I also found the humor to be a little off-putting at times, and while it might not bother some, it took away slightly from my enjoyment of this book.
Still, there are a few really good surprises to keep the reader guessing and a shocking twist ending will leave your head spinning! It was, for the most part, a fun and fast read that kept me entertained. This may be a win for fans of Pretty Little Liars (I watch the show, but haven’t read the books, so don’t quote me on that!), it's definitely a similar vibe.
