Tell Them You Lied

De: Laura Leffler

Narrado por: Sarah Naughton

Two New York artists’ tumultuous friendship gets turned on its head when one of them goes missing and the other may be to blame. A riveting debut novel for readers of Bunny, Luckiest Girl Alive, and “Who Is the Bad Art Friend?”

Anna had never met anyone like Willow. Entering art school with lofty ideas about Art and her role in it, Anna was wholly unprepared for someone as mysterious, moody—and cool—as Willow. Here was Anna’s muse and collaborator all in one, ready to bring her in on Art’s great secrets.

Now, five years later, Anna is weary. Where art school was boundless creativity and collaboration, the New York art scene is all about survival. Worse: Willow’s true nature as a muse only to herself has become nakedly apparent, as has her cruelty.

So the mugging Anna has staged for Willow this morning? It’s supposed to send Willow running back to her true friend. The knife is supposed to be a mirror in which this ‘artist’ can finally see the monster she’s become. It’s supposed to give Anna her power back.

But this morning isn’t just any Tuesday. It’s September 11, 2001. And as the city reels from the seismic events of that day, Willow never returns home. Anna keeps quiet about the prank and her growing panic that she’s to blame for Willow’s disappearance. But as the hours and days tick by, Anna begins to question whether she’s the mastermind she thought she was, or the pawn.

Alternating between the friends' art school tenure and their lives in 2001 New York, Tell Them You Lied reveals how difficult the search for answers is when you'd rather have anything but the truth.

©2025 Laura Leffler (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Definitely kept me guessing

Overall a fun one-good narration and relatively engaging story. I felt the ending unraveled a bit, but still worth a listen (or read). Look forward to future work by this author.

Clever, nuanced characters; twists and turns

This was a juicy look into female friendship, ambitious art students striving for a name, complicated love triangles and a few plot thickeners added in to keep things extra-interesting. I loved the narrator and this one kept me rapt for a long car drive!

Twisty Early Aughts Psychological Perfection

Leffler may have created the penultimate mean girl in Willow Whitman. Great twists to keep you guessing, but the true standout is the complex masterful way Willow, as seen through the eyes of Anna, is wrought.

Mean Girls in Life

The story dragged on, who stays friends with someone that awful for four years! Is anyone that naive to think it’s ok for a friend to construct a me too moment!! I will look into other books by this author and hope it’s just the story I disliked! The ending was too twisted!