The Color of Lies by CJ Lyons
Release: November 6, 2018
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Blink, HarperCollins Publishing
Source: Amazon
The Color of Lies Synopsis:
High school senior Ella Cleary has always been good at reading people. Her family has a rare medical condition called synesthesia that scrambles the senses—her Gram Helen sees every sound, and her uncle Joe can literally taste words. Ella’s own synesthesia manifests itself as the ability to see colors that reveal people’s true emotions…until she meets a guy she just can’t read.
Alec is a mystery to Ella, a handsome, enigmatic young journalist who makes her feel normal for the first time in her life. That is, until he reveals the real reason why he sought her out—he wants to learn the truth behind her parents’ deaths, the parents that Ella had always been told died in a fire. Alec turns Ella’s world upside down when he tells her their deaths were definitely not an accident.
After learning her entire life has been a lie, Ella doesn’t know who she can trust or even who she really is. With her adoptive family keeping secrets and the evidence mixing fact and fiction, the only way for Ella to learn the truth about her past is to find a killer.
Review:
Watch my video review of The Color of Lies by CJ Lyons!
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYx6uVmAH4o[/embedyt]
The first thing that drew me to reading this novel is the concept of synesthesia. I had actually never heard of this term before, and I thought the author described the concept perfectly through the characters, where she mentions that it is not seeing words as colors, but it can also be triggered as a feeling or a touch. This book introduced me to synesthesia, and made me want to research more about it after reading it. Moreover, the book also maintained the suspense really well for the most part, and the author throws quite a few red herrings where you keep guessing as to what happened to Ella’s parents. The author also paces the storyline nicely, where we get to gradually see Ella starting to suspect everyone around her.
However, there are a few parts of the book that I found unnecessary. The main aspect which I did not like was the instant love between Alec and Ella. The two fall in love as soon as they meet and it feels unnecessary. Even though the author does a good job in maintaining the suspense, I feel the romance could have been avoided. Another part I found to be a bit boring was the reveal of what happened the night Ella’s parents died. Since the story doesn’t have many characters, it really isn’t shocking when the killer is revealed. The book gets a little clichéd towards the climax where you know how things are going to pan out.
