Listen for the Lie, Review

Predictability Isn't a Good Thing

"Listen for the Lie", by Amy Tintera, is a young adult novel that seeks to incorporate elements of the psychological thriller. In theory, the book ought to work well in that genre because, after all, it has all the familiar and demanded ingredients: suspense, character development, and narrative tension. Yet in practice, the novel falls far short of being a psychological thriller and instead offers a predictable story with flat characters.

The protagonist, a young woman who has survived a life-altering event, uncovers a conspiracy related to her event. Yet for all of that, she remains utterly unoriginal—both in her characterization and her story.

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Depth is Lacking

Tintera's version of this trope has no elevated mystery; in fact, it has no mystery at all. It gases and hints at things that probably could have been interesting but that ultimately are never explored.

The depth of character that Tintera tries to achieve is not convincing and is in fact rather shallow. This reduces her protagonist to a simple archetypal figure, not a fully realized human being.

Narration

Will Damron's narration is what you might call a mixed bag. His voice certainly has a kind of gravitas that might lend the narrative a sense of urgency, but there is as much story in the voice as in the words, and in this case, that's not much. I was disappointed in Damron's performance. He gives no impression of trying to capture the different characters in the story. His rendition is all too much the same. For the most part, he is emotionless in his reading. When a character does express something, it becomes a sign of how seriously to take the words being read.

A Rush to the End?

The story consists of escalating un-coverings, one eluding escape after another, and it is told in the most efficient manner possible.

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Phoning it In?

One cannot call the story well-told because there is so little suspense. The revelations and escapes tend to happen in threes, each one building a little tension by reaching a point at which one thinks the protagonist is perhaps caught and in which, conversely, one thinks one may have figured out the plot twist that is coming.

Yet one is right to think that the twists come at such an ironical time and in such an ironical manner that they can't be helped—one sees them coming but at a point in the story where it is supposed to be a surprise.

Disappointing

"Listen for the Lie" is an implausible and predictable story with only an occasional glimmer of competence that never coalesces into anything more than a misshapen whole.

I was hoping for a tale that would dig deep into the murky waters of the human condition, but instead, I got the facsimile of one—a superficial thrill ride that often resorts to tired old tropes and never begins to build a sense of suspense or investment in any of the characters.

In a world filled with fine thrillers, *Listen for the Lie* is more of a miss than a hit.

To hear "Listen for the Lie" is to experience a sonic deception, a deception that thrills only in the journey promised and not in the destination delivered.

What emerges from this aural vacuity is a tale that, although already flawed in novel form, now exists in a format even less engaging than the page.

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