After the Lie

By: Kerry Fisher

Narrated by: Emma Spurgin-Hussey

Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

When Lydia was a teenager, she made a decision that ruined her family's life. They've spent the last 30 years living with the consequences and doing their best to pretend it never happened.

Lydia's husband, the gorgeous and reliable Mark, and her two teenage children know nothing about that summer back in 1982. And that's the way Lydia wants it to stay. The opportunity to come clean is long gone, and now it's not the lie that matters; it's the betrayal of hiding the truth for so long.

When someone from the past turns up as a parent at the school gates, Lydia feels the life she has worked so hard to build slipping through her fingers. The more desperate she becomes to safeguard her family, the more erratic her behaviour becomes. But when the happiness of her own teenage son, Jamie, hangs in the balance, Lydia is forced to make some impossible decisions. Can she protect him and still keep her own secret - and if she doesn't, will her marriage and family survive?

©2016 Kerry Fisher (P)2017 Audible, Ltd

Overall, great! Definitely worth a credit!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this audiobook - it has both modern components and also can speak to generations that came to age in the pre-internet age. Good character development, though (and I don't think this will be a spoiler, but want to give that warning just in case) it was really frustrating for me to relate to a character who did not challenge her - in my opinion- completely insufferable mother for most of the book.

Any additional comments?

Only caveats, the storyline takes a bit of willing suspension of disbelief. I also thought it ended a bit abruptly, and would have appreciated a more graceful ending to match the preceding pace of the book.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Try it......you'll like it

I found this story to be interesring, and became very involved with the characters. Great sadness for Lydia, and absolutely none for her horrible mother. I could ever imagine treating one of my children like she did. I found what the author said at the end to be very thought provoking. Their were no facebook, or cellphones around when our first four children were young and it was a better time. We had two daughters late and they did have all the tech things. Because my husband had died and I was on my own with grief and parenting, it was immensely difficult to handle teenagers with all the social media. They are grown now, and wonderful adults for the most part, I can definitely see the difference looking back. I have a lot of emotions about this story and do recommend it. In some ways there are parts of every families story here.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

After the Lie

This book was full of surprises. It's been a long time since a mystery kept me wondering what would happen next. But, this book did so every step of the way.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Captivating & relatable!

I absolutely loved listening to this book. The narrator’s voice was perfect. Kerry’s witty way of writing made me laugh many times and her motherly worries about her children’s exposure to today’s social media is equal to my own.

I’m on to her next book!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

LOVED this book.

The story was so engrossing . Exploring the effects covering up a lie since childhood had on Lydia ' s entire life were fascinating. More Kerry Fisher, please.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Meh is what I feel at the "the end"

I loved the silent wife so thought I would give this one a go...did not keep my interest as well as I would have hoped. Okay story but not one I was over the moon for.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Conflicted Listener

There was a lot I liked about this book, but after about half-way through, I started to feel a bit bored. The big secret did not strike me as so huge or awful, but in a way Fisher does illustrate how easy it may be for a small-ish secret to spiral into something bigger, and that sometimes telling the secret is scarier than the secret itself.
Anyway...the story was quite good, the characters felt real, but I didn't connect to Lydia, the protagonist. I thought she was not very nice, considering that she had a pretty good life and a kind family. Fisher is good at showing how the effects of a lie can eat away at one's peace of mind, which has consequences on all other areas of life. This much is true for Lydia, and though I could sympathize I also felt frustrated, because a lot of trouble could have been prevented if she had simply told her family about her "lie".
This is my second book by this author, and I would read more in the future. While I had some issues with After the Lie, I did come away from it feeling satisfied with the ending and with the way Fisher developed the characters. Her style of writing is easy and eloquent, and I will keep my eye on her future books.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

bad narration

Narrator speaks in a monotone. She makes it difficult to keep focus on the story. The monotone narration takes away from the story.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Excellent from beginning to end

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I'd definitely recommend this book. The characters were sympathetic but also realistically flawed. The secret that is the essential part of the story seemed believable and I could relate to the character's fear of "coming clean". This was in sharp contrast to many of the recent books that have characters keeping secrets in an attempt to create conflict and tension.. Those secrets just annoy me. These secrets were psychologically astute and might even help people explore their own issues of secrecy vs honesty.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Because the author drew in depth characters I find it hard to describe who my favorite character was. No good guy -- bad guy.

Have you listened to any of Emma Spurgin-Hussey’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not read this narrator before but she did an excellent job.

If you could rename After the Lie, what would you call it?

After the Lie is a fine name but a more descriptive title would be "Before the Lie - During the Lie - and After the Lie"

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Touching, funny & thoroughly engaging...

While stories of family dynamics are not my usual fare (I lean toward crime fiction & Nordic noir), I absolutely adored this book. It sails a touching and funny course through the rapids of buried secrets, betrayal, forgiveness and love without ever crashing on the shores of cheesy romance. The characters are smart, witty and relatable, the storyline beautifully conceived, and the narration is pitch perfect.

The secret is too tame!

The quality of the writing here is rather good. Kerry Fisher demonstrates a real talent for elegant and lively prose. However, I gave-up at chapter 13, as I could no longer suspend my disbelief. The main protagonist's secret, though embarrassing and hurtful to her, could not justify her actions. The voice in my head shouting 'Oh, for Heaven's sake', became louder and louder until I could no longer enjoy the story at all.

The narration, whilst okay, was a little fast and did not differentiate between characters.

50 of 54 people found this review helpful

Obsessive, possessive, protective and pathetic Lydia

Well now what can one say about this book? A good story, essentially a domestic drama about the most pathetic weak and obsessive character I have ever read about. Yet the likes of Lydia does exist. She has about as much spine as a jellyfish and Kerry fisher has done a great job of creating her. A guilty secret from the past and an exzggerated reaction to it. Lydia couldn’t boil an egg without making a drama out of it but she’s real. The book itself is interesting. It basically tells the story of one woman’s struggle to deal with life and most of it is of ehr own making. You could seriously learn to hate her because Lydia has absolutely no redeeming characteristics but that aside it’s well told and thought out though the narator sounds as if there are a million things she’d rather be doing than reading this title.

33 of 36 people found this review helpful

Good read

Good read and held me in the grip! Nice story but could have been a more dramatic end!!

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

fantastic book. I really loved this book.

the relationships are so real, but her writing is unforgettable. just read, listen to it. narration impeccable.

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

Clever modern storyline

Really enjoyed this clever, modern storyline and found it hard to stop listening.
Witty, fast paced, interesting characters and eloquently written it's a very real, plausible story, but still with plenty of twists.
The narrated reads very quickly, which took me a while to settle into, but her voice seemed to suit the key character.

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

Gets you thinking!

Loved the narrator, story ticked all the boxes. Had my emotions shooting up and down right to the end.

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

i loved it

I laughed, cried, gasped and a few emotions in between
It was amazingly well written, it will be remembered by me for a long time

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

The dog stole the show!

I loved this. Very real and so beautifully read. Based on a very serious issues but interjected with the dogs hilarious antics. Go Mable! Woof

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Loved it!!

Second book I’ve read by Kerry Fisher and absolutely loved it. Funny,moving and with twists and turns - so sorry when it ended!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Thoroughly reccomended

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It shows how complicated being a teenager, wife and mother is. We all make mistakes, some bigger than others. Totally empathised with Lydia throughout this well told story.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful