Book Review: Only the Pretty Lies

Rebecca Serle
Skyscape, 2021
271 pages

Convention doesn’t carry much weight in Alder Creek. It doesn’t in Amoris Westmore’s family either. Daughter of a massage therapist and a pothead artist, inheritor of her grandmother’s vinyl collection, and blissfully entering her senior year in high school, Amoris never wants to leave her progressive hometown. Why should she?

Everything changes when Jamison Rush moves in next door. Jamison was Amoris’s first crush, and their last goodbye still stings. But Jamison stirs more than bittersweet memories. One of the few Black students in Alder Creek, Jamison sees Amoris’s idyllic town through different eyes. He encourages Amoris to look a little closer, too. When Jamison discovers a racist mural at Alder Creek High, Amoris’s worldview is turned upside down.

Now Amoris must decide where she stands and whom she stands by, threatening her love for the boy who stole her heart years ago. Maybe Alder Creek isn’t the town Amoris thinks it is. She’s certainly no longer the girl she used to be.

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Thanks to TLC Book Tours for sending me a copy of Only the Pretty Lies in exchange for an honest review.

This book has a beautiful, eye-catching cover and takes on an important topic. I was drawn to Only the Pretty Lies because it was advertised as a young love story revolving around teens dealing with systemic racism, but unfortunately the execution of it was not to my taste. There were a few things that made this book fall a little short for me.

First, I had a hard time liking any of the characters. There just wasn’t anyone who felt really believable and genuine that I wanted to root for. I felt like they were all strategically placed to play a part, which I realize is what characters in a book are for, but in really good stories you aren’t aware of the placement.

The second thing I didn’t like is that it felt like the subject of racism (what I was most interested in reading about) was overshadowed by all the teenage drinking, drugs, and sex. I kept thinking, “How are these kids going to address this big social issue if they can’t even stay sober for a few days?” It was really distracting, and since this isn’t a very long book (only 271) there just weren’t pages to waste on that stuff, especially since there was also lots of relationship drama both among the teens and in their family situations. It seemed like there was too much going on to the point that the message was diluted.

All that being said, other reviews I’ve read tell me that lots of people liked Only the Pretty Lies, so if the description sounds appealing don’t let me discourage you from picking it up! Just because it didn’t land for me doesn’t mean it won’t be a hit for you.