REVIEW : Little White Lies by Philippa East

Genre: Thriller, Fiction

Publisher: HQ

ISBN: 0008365393

Format: Paperback, E-Book, Audio-Book

Release Date: 4th February 2020

Links: Goodreads, Amazon.com, Indigo,
B&N, Book Depository

Synopsis:

Anne White only looked away for a second, but that’s all it took to lose sight of her young daughter.

But seven years later, Abigail is found.

And as Anne struggles to connect with her teenage daughter, she begins to question how much Abigail remembers about the day she disappeared…

Review:

**Thanks to HarperCollins Canada for sending
me a copy of the book**

I was sent this book recently as part of a #BookstagramTakeover on Instagram to celebrate the release of the book. I hadn't heard much about the book but I was excited to read it.

This book follows the aftermath of a kidnapping. After being missing for seven years, Abigail is reunited with her family. However, after so many years apart, her mother, Anne, struggles to connect with her daughter after missing so many years of her life.

The story focuses mostly on Abigail, her mother, and the relationship between the two of them. Anne has felt guilty ever since her daughter went missing, she keeps hidden a secret that she is terrified will come out and ruin the relationship between her husband and twins. Once Abigail returns she prays that she doesn't remember what happened on the day she went missing, but of course Abigail eventually remembers. 

Anne was a wonderfully written character. She has her flaws as any mother would and the secret she so desperately tries to hide really isn't as bad as she thinks. The guilt really eats Anne up inside and but the truth wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. Anne is still stuck in the past and thinks of Abigail as the young girl she lost so many years ago, but she's now a teenager. She tries to push her too quickly; it's hard for Abigail to make changes and decisions in her life after being locked away for so long. I really felt sorry for both of them. Anne lost the chance of seeing her daughter grow up and Abigail lost the chance to grow up surrounding her loving family.

The book mostly switches between two profiles, Anne and Abigail's cousin, Jess. Jess was really close to her cousin so loosing her for so long was hard for her. I would have liked some of the story to have been told from Abigail's point of view. I think it would really get across the wide range of emotions she was feeling.

A lot of story was spent on how the family was stuck in the past. They acted as if Abigail had never gone missing and wanted things to return to how they were. Of course, after seven years, Abigail went from a young child into a teen. She feels lost and feels as though no-one can truly understand what she went through or the range of emotions that run through her mind.

One aspect I wasn't fond of was that I felt there was a lot of build up to events that then weren't as impactful as I was expecting. For example, I felt the ending of the book had a long build which I felt a little let down by at the end. Throughout the book, Abigail puts an emphasis on the feelings and struggles she goes though and how no one understands her. She then puts Jess in a situation that I was expecting to end badly and I almost feel left down that it didn't. I think it would have made much more of an impact if it had been worse and it would have been interesting to see how it would have affected Abigail in her recovery.

This book focuses heavily on the impacts and aftermath of going through a traumatic event. I really enjoyed the story and how the events unfolded. The struggles of learning to cope with such a traumatic event were written really well in this book. I enjoyed reading a thriller that focused more on the aftermath rather than the actual event. Definitely pick this one up.

**All thoughts and opinions are my own**