Story for the Week
I recently texted Corinne while she was on a trip with church: “I need you to think of any lies you’ve told me…and no, you’re not in trouble.” She thought it was funny that she was sitting in a church having to think about lies that she’s told. I told her it was the perfect place to make her confession and ask forgiveness. 😉
She doesn’t generally lie (at least I have no reason to think she does). She doesn’t really have a reason to. I give her plenty of freedom as long as she continues to do well in school and does everything she’s supposed to. And she’s also survived the times she’s gotten in trouble, so she knows that this too shall pass.
Her first example came from grade school. Corinne loved participating in P.E. (thanks, Mrs. Dykema!). She was (is) also clumsy like her mother, so she hurt herself a lot. On one of the many occasions she sprained her ankle, I wrote a note for her to be excused from P.E., and she was not happy. When she arrived home that day, I asked how her day was, and she told me it was fine.
The lie? They played dodgeball in P.E. that day, and she really wanted to play. So she threw away the note, and she played.
Example #2 took place in middle school. One of Corinne’s friends stayed with us during Christmas break because her mom had to work, and I was off between Christmas and New Year’s. For a few of those nights, her cousin also stayed over. Here, there are actually two lies.
The first is typical tween behavior. Mom says, “Don’t stay up late.” They say, “We won’t.” Corinne “warned” her cousin and her friend to keep their phones on silent and to turn off the vibrations so that we couldn’t hear them messaging back and forth. All three of them put their phones on DND, and then, of course, they claimed they didn’t stay up too late. (For the record, I did not believe the “not too late” part.)
Over that same break, we ventured out to Walmart. At one point, Friend and Cousin asked if they could go look around in a different department. I told them they could as long as they came back when I texted them to meet us. Corinne stayed with me.
After 15-20 minutes, I was ready to go, so I texted both girls. No response. I texted a few more times. No response. I started calling, first one phone and then the other. Still no response. And the longer I didn’t get a response, the angrier I got because the only condition I gave them was that they had to come back once I texted. I think, at one point, Corinne even said something about not understanding why they weren’t answering.
They eventually came back without me going to the front of the store to have them paged. It was a Walmart Superstore, so I was trying to avoid that. And I laid into both of them. What I didn’t know until literally the day I asked Corinne about lies she has told was that they all forgot to take their phones off DND. While I stood there yelling at her cousin and friend, Corinne stealthily took her own phone off DND so that she wouldn’t get into trouble.
They never ratted her out, and I never knew until now.
In the grand scheme of things, these lies are literally nothing. She probably would have been yelled at in the moment, but we both laughed about them when she told me. I mean, at this point, what am I going to do?
The only other example she gave me is that when I tell her not to stay up too late and then ask the next day what time she went to sleep, she fudges the time. It caught her by surprise on this one when I replied, “Yeah, I know.” 🤣
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐
3 Stars for Everyone Here is Lying by Shari Lapena
336 pages
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Publication Date: July 25, 2023
The Creepy Book Club selection for August 2023, purchased on Amazon.
Publisher’s Description
Welcome to Stanhope. A safe neighborhood. A place for families.
William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he’s been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper.
Hours later, Avery’s family declares her missing.
Suddenly Stanhope doesn’t feel so safe. And William isn’t the only one on his street who’s hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true, Avery’s neighbors become increasingly unhinged.
Who took Avery Wooler?
Nothing will prepare you for the truth.
************
Main Characters:
- William Wooler – doctor, married to Erin, has been having an affair with Nora
- Nora Blanchard – married to Al, volunteer at the hospital where she met William, has just broken off their affair to try to improve her marriage and keep her family together
- Erin Wooler – legal secretary, married to William
- Al Blanchard – married to Nora, conservative Christian, believes that sin results in punishment
- Michael and Avery Wooler – 12 and 9, respectively, William and Erin’s children; Michael is on the basketball team, and Avery is in choir; Avery is kind of an outcast, always in trouble, and is supposed to wait for Michael after school every day to walk home together; Michael wishes that he could stay after practice with his friends instead of always having to walk Avery home
- Ryan and Faith Blanchard – 18 and 11, respectively, Al and Erin’s children; Ryan graduated high school the previous year but didn’t go to college yet because of some legal trouble with drugs; works at a local plant; Faith is on the soccer team at school
- Detective Bledsoe – mid-40s, one of the detectives assigned when Avery goes missing, pretty set in his ways and doesn’t let go of an idea once he thinks he knows where the evidence will lead
- Detective Gully – mid-30s, recently moved to Stanhope, NY, so she has a more unbiased view of the town and its residents than Bledsoe
Well this was quite the roller coaster. This was my first read of Shari Lapena, and to be honest, I can’t really decide whether I’m a fan.
Nine-year-old Avery Wooler leaves school early after she’s kicked out of choir practice. Her father also arrives home early after Nora breaks off their affair. William confronts Avery about why she is home alone, they argue, he slaps her (hard), and then leaves. When Avery’s brother Michael arrives home a little later, no one is in the house, and he calls his mother in a panic because he doesn’t know where Avery is. William arrives home later, and his wife Erin thinks he has been at work. He doesn’t tell the detectives that he had been home and saw Avery because he doesn’t want the affair to come out. The longer he waits to reveal anything, the worse things get all around.
This story starts strong. It hooked me from the beginning. Readers know William left Avery in the house, so even though he makes himself look suspicious by not admitting he was at home, we know it wasn’t William. But I wanted to know what happened to Avery! Seemingly everyone in this small town of Stanhope, New York, is lying about something—to themselves, to each other, to the detectives. Everyone is suspect, which makes for a great whodunit.
But…I feel like the book got bogged down with too many characters, too many secrets, too many suspects, and absolutely no connection. This boy seems a little off. Avery said this. You might want to check out that boy. Avery was seen there with someone. I found myself having to look back to remember who someone was way too many times.
Every chapter was a mash-up of viewpoints. Typically, even if there’s a POV switch in a chapter, there’s some connection in timeline, thought process, something. I had a hard time finding the rhyme or reason to the switches. For example, one chapter starts with William in the middle of the night, and two pages later, we’re with Detective Gully the next morning, and that was the chapter. If the POV changes in a chapter, typically it’s an overlapping timeline, or the POV changes from one chapter to the next. The constant back and forth didn’t seem effective here, and I got to a point where I just wanted to finish in order to finish.
Finally, I think the reveal came too early, which probably pushed the “I just want to finish” feeling. And I really didn’t care for the ending. It’s open-ended (which I guess is a signature of this author). Sometimes leaving endings to the imagination works, but in this case (and without giving anything away), it felt like it takes away everything that was discovered in the investigation.
This is an ok read for me. I think it could have been better if it hadn’t gotten bogged down in the middle.
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