Our Little Lies

By: Sue Watson

Narrated by: Katie Villa

Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

An absolutely gripping psychological thriller with a brilliant twist

Marianne has a life others dream of. A beautiful townhouse on the best street in the neighbourhood. Three bright children who are her pride and joy. 

Sometimes her past still hurts: losing her mother early, growing up in foster care. But her husband, Simon, is always there. A successful surgeon, he’s the envy of every woman they’ve ever met. Flowers, gifts, trips to France: nothing is too good for his family. 

Then Simon says another woman’s name. The way he lingers on it, Caroline, gives Marianne a shudder of suspicion, but she knows it’s nothing - she can’t entertain this flash of paranoia. 

In the old days, she’d have distracted herself by excelling at work, but Marianne left her glamorous career when she married. She’d speak to a friend, but she’s too busy with her children and besides, Simon doesn’t approve of the few she has left. 

It’s almost by accident that Marianne starts to learn more about Caroline. But once started, she can’t stop, because what she finds makes her wonder: is the question she should be asking not "should I be jealous" but..."should I be scared?"

Fans of The Girl on the Train and I Let You Go who are looking for a dark, gripping psychological thriller with a final twist to put their jaw on the floor will love Our Little Lies.

©2018 Sue Watson (P)2018 Bookouture

WOW. FINALLY. BRAVO. 👏🏽👌🏽

Finally, a real and proper domestic mystery/thriller. Of all the other books I’ve been rating so high before this, I almost want to knock every single one of them down a star so my perfect rating for this book will be more meaningful.

This book was perfectly executed. It unfolded at a fantastic pace and webs were woven and clues were dropped EXQUISITELY. I listen to at least 2 audiobooks a week — literally, so there isn’t much I haven’t heard in audible in the domestic mystery/thriller genre. Sue Watson did a phenomenal job of leaving just the right amount of bread crumbs, not too big, not too small, not spaced too close together but also not too far apart, this is one of the best unfoldings of a mystery/thriller I have ever heard.

The whole book and storyline were amazingly unpredictable. I keep a book journal and I like to note my thoughts and guesses throughout a book so I can reflect and compare how and what I thought during and the ending. Chapter after chapter I assumed I had the storyline pegged and each time I was refreshingly incorrect. I was never ever once bored and I couldn’t stop listening.

I just LOVE intricately and intentionally placed clues and this book nails it. It’s so hard to get that balance right but as I said, the author knew what she was doing. If for whatever reason this book ends up getting rated low on audible, read reviews for the hard copy of the book. I think audiobooks have a whole set of other factors to scrutinize that have nothing at all to do with the books itself — such as a narrator ruining the tone or inaccurately representing moods, tones and voices.

I noticed the author’s other two books aren’t even in the same genre as this so I was even more impressed and I really hope she continues. And if she does I know she will perfect her storytelling even further.

Ok so let me get something out of the way that seems deterrent but isn’t because this book was so good the author could’ve gotten away with A LOT, but I can see how what I’m about to disclose (NOT a spoiler, don’t worry) would make someone roll their eyes...
So in the beginning the point is really hammered home about the wife acknowledging and the husband having a “god-complex” just because he is a cardiac surgeon. It was a repetition of Marianne reveling nonstop in any context possible about how perfect/enviable her life is because she is the wife of a surgeon. She definitely knew and admitted it was all superficial and there was a dark side. But it was almost as if the author was worried we might somehow not understand the extent to which we are supposed to think how fabulous being married to and having a family with a doctor is. However, all that easily becomes nothing as soon as you see how great the book moves along.

This books was organized and so carefully written and there was no moment whatsoever of disinterest or boredom — quite the opposite in fact. You may think you know what will happen but you’ll be oh so pleasantly mistaken. I highly, highly, highly recommend this book. Bravo Sue Watson, please, please keep these quality stories coming!!!

I thought I knew...

Really well developed storyline, characters, and plot. Nearing the end, I thought I’d had it all figured out, and was almost disappointed that the ending was going to be another rush to finish, leaving loose ends, and too many unanswered questions. And then there was another sweet twist, to wrap it all up, and pull it all together.
Excellent narration, and even several witty remarks that had me giggle.
I’ll be looking for more from Sue Watson, and Katie Villa.

Couldn’t Finish It

I know I shouldn’t write a review having not finished the book, but I wanted to share my experience anyway. I listed to about 50% of this story before I just couldn’t take it anymore. Maybe the “twist” will redeem this story, but the journey to get to that point just isn’t worth it.

The protagonist is so unlikable the story is painful to listen to. The reader is supposed to believe that her willingness to marry a man two weeks into dating him despite the plethora of huge red flags is due to her childhood in the foster care system and her mother’s suicide. She’s damaged, the author wants us to think, so that explains her immense stupidity, her head-in-the-sand spinelessness and her self-esteem issues. But there’s a problem with this. She was also a stable, happy, independent person before she met her future husband, but was totally willing to ditch her entire life in order to be a wife and mother, despite near-constant abuse. She revels in believing his abusive rhetoric, agrees with him while he isolates her from her friends and demonizes her to her children. While these are things that people in abusive relationships contend with, the author does not provide any real reasons why our protagonist would so wholeheartedly go along with it. Her husband treats her like shit *constantly*. She gets nothing from the relationship that might cause her to stay. Nothing. We are supposed to believe that she is “deeply in love” with him, but at this point, why would she be? Although many abuse victims do love their abusers, this story lacks the nuance and complexity of a real relationship.

All this is to say that I just couldn’t stand to listen to any more of their toxic behavior. Husband treats wife like she is scum, wife wonders vaguely if husband might be wrong about her sometimes and then decides that her life is “perfect.” I can’t stick around for the “twist” that might make it all better. I just can’t.

Really maddening book

I usually agree with the majority of reviews on audible, but reading this book was a miserable experience. It's tiresome, rambling, manic. The narrator is a victim, but her character veers between two personalities in an unrealistic way. I love sick thrillers, but this isn't a thriller really. There's no mystery here. This is horrible abuse and it's apparent throughout.

A True Psychological Thriller!!! 5 ☆☆☆☆☆'s

This story was AMAZING!! Never a dull moment..gripping..thrilling..suspensful and extremely unputdownable! Clues are hidden throughout, but so subtle that they are very easily missed. Perfect ending and perfect narration by Katie Villa, as usual. Don't hesitate to spend a credit or the money on this book. I read 2-3 audiobooks per week in this exact genre, and have for the last 3 or so years. I can honestly say this is one of the best psychological thrillers I have ever had the pleasure of 'reading'. This one will stick with you long after you have finished. Bravo!!! Will be recommending this one to all my book loving friends. I can't wait to see what this author writes next!!

Terrible

Very long winded story with a ridiculous ending. Narrator is perfect but I would skip this one.

I braved it out for 6 chapters then gave up

This cringe-inducing story was so excruciatingly painful, I could not listen past chapter six. I kept waiting for some, or any plot elements to emerge. But, before I could wait it out, the cruelty of the husband in the story and the extreme anxiousness of the wife/narrator got to me.

Don’t start this book

This book is really hard to listen to for all except maybe the last hour. The way the woman endured abuse from her psycho, controlling husband constantly got very old and frustrating. The last hour or so was more interesting but still not worth what you have to go through to get there.

So Boring

I am not sure how this book got so many good reviews. It was so dull, the first 90% of the book is the day to day of a woman obsessing over her husband. Nothing happens. At all. Not a thing. This book could easily have been a short story and been so much better.

Predictable...slow build.. limited pay off

I just don’t get these rave reviews. I mean. I know I’ve read tons of these domestic thrillers but this story was very predictable... the “twists” aren’t too twisty if you pay attention. Which i won’t lie, that part was difficult. I wanted to scream at the female lead and how repetitive she was... i read another review saying it stopped around chapter 20 so i battled on.

Spoiler alert...

I just didn’t think the ending was realistic. If Simon was painted as this evil, psychopath, sociopath or whatever the ending wouldn’t have been him taking the blame for his child... ppl like that don’t identify with these needs... they are strictly unemotional and unattached.

The only thing that saved this for me was the excellent narration. Loved this performer.

Thoroughly Frustrating and Tedious Audio Book

I honestly struggled to get through this audio book. Nothing happens for the first 20 chapters. I'm not exaggerating. Nothing happens. The narrator/main character repeats endlessly the same thing over and over about her family being important to her. It was impossible to care. There was no character or plot progression for 3/4 of this book. I am utterly astounded that this novel got past the editing process.
Really wish I hadn't wasted my money.
The reader was good but her impersonation of the husband was so terrible it was distracting.

Great narrator, poor story

This story is mainly a first person monologue of a wife who is emotionally abused and cheated on by a nasty husband. There are nice twists and turns, and great dialogue, but the whole book has extremely annoying long passages of repetition and totally unnecessary over explaining. So we are told what a character is feeling (breaking rule show dont tell) then the character has the scene, then we are subjected to ten minutes of backstory explaining the feeling or possible alternatives to it, sometimes this explaining contradicts and lessens the information given in the scene. This shows a total lack of editing and led me to think maybe the book has been self published, and the author has just published her own notes, as well as the story. If not, shame on the publisher for truly dreadful editing.
The project is rescued by a valiant effort from the narrator, without her thus book would have been appalling. Thanks to her and only her, I kept listening.

Really didn’t like it!

Unfortunately I found this to be one of the most disappointing audible purchases I have ever made. The whole thing was so irritating, particularly the characters who were so bland and basic. I spent most of the time wanting to scream at the main protagonist.

The most entertaining part was the last hour, which was not worth the many hours it took to ‘build up’. Every single ‘twist’ was so obvious and just not worth a listen. I really don’t see what others have seen in this book.

Best listen ever

This was brilliant from start to finish, I listened to this in two days and didn't want it to end.

whiny

This was a boringly painful book to listen to. just flicked to the last chapter to see how it ended and not bothered to know how the ending came about. the blurb sounded more exciting.

NOT MY CUP OF TEA

OMG, was waiting for this woman to get a backbone all the way through this book.
I grew up with no parents its hard but just to have money & a nice home you would put up with this. Narrator ok though. Maybe O am becoming a feminist.

Okay, a bit the same story different book

This was an okay book one I listened to whilst at work, but it just came across like a lot of the thriller books I have read recently was hoping that there would be some thing different.

Not a bad listen but heroine starts out annoying!

A pleasant listen with good narration.
If you can get past the frustration of the grating nature of the downtrodden leading lady...you really want to shake her...but I guess it's building the story.
It is a little similar to other books in this vein but if you enjoy an evil husband story you'll like it.

Not bad, psychological thriller

If you’re a fan of psychological thrillers, you will enjoy this. It’s probably more like 3.5 stars but scoring it 3 would be too low. I won’t cover the story as you can read the blurb but I will tell you briefly what I thought of it. Okay, what I liked. the writing was very good and the novel had a good pace. The characters were well written and really made you feel the emotions that mothers go through. The story was good. You aren’t totally sure what’s going on and times and I was keen to get through to the end to find out. The ending was good but this book fell a bit short of the mark for me. It’s not very original, most of the themes and ideas have been down to death recently and it didn’t bring anything new. The first part of the book did drag and take a while to get going but the second half really picked up the pace and was bloody brilliant! Gotta be honest it got quite predictable and we could have done with some more red herrings and the twist ending wasn’t that shocking really. I’ve been a bit critical here... but overall it was a good read.

Took a bit of getting into but loved it

The story does eventually getting going and had me finding many a quite corner to snatch an extra half hour here and there.. Loved all of the # references, kept me laughing and laughing.