Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Release Date: January 12, 2021
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult / Contemporary
In this gripping YA novel, one girl’s discovery of a stillborn baby in her high school locker room will rock an entire community.
To avoid her grief over her father’s death months ago, Beckett has been obsessing over whether her boyfriend Jake is cheating on her. When following him one day at school, Beckett ducks into the girls’ locker room to avoid discovered. But Beckett is shocked to find the body of a newborn baby carefully wrapped up in an open gym bag—one she recognizes as Jake's.
Beckett soon finds herself embroiled in an investigation—led by her own police detective mother—into the identity of the baby and its parents. But as rumors swirl that Beckett herself is the mother, she vows to learn the truth, even if it could alter everything she thought she knew about the only family she has left.
A page-turning thriller set in a small Southern community, this is a jaw-dropping, twisty must-read for fans of Sadie.
Rachel Vincent's Every Single Lie is a compelling mystery that has many half-truths and twists. It you are obsessed with Twitter, or Facebook, or Instagram, this is a book you should be reading. Every Single Lie challenges society and the way women and teenage girls are labeled and treated. 16-year old Beckett Bergan lives in a small town called Clifford, Tennessee and is a Junior at Clifford High School. Nobody in Beckett's life seems to be telling the whole story. Not her boyfriend Jake who keeps hiding texts and might be cheating on her. Not her father who lied about losing his job before his shocking death.
But none of that compares to the day Beckett finds the body of a newborn baby (later called Lullaby Doe) in a gym bag on the floor of her high school locker room. After she calls it in, the case is given to her mother, Lieutenant Julie Bergen, their town’s police detective who hasn't exactly been attentive since her husband's death. Things spiral out of control when Beckett learns that it was her boyfriend’s gym bag the baby was wrapped in as well as her brother's T-Shirt. Then a mysterious Twitter account called the Crimson Cryer starts spreading rumors that it was Beckett’s baby.
As the media descends on the story, and her mother tries to determine if a crime was committed and who her family was, Beckett finds herself caught in the crosshairs. Social media trolls already determined that Beckett is guilty without being convicted of any crime. #BabyKiller they call her. She's the alleged pregnant teenager who dumped her baby in a high school locker room and went about her business. As the trolls come out of the woodwork, and misinformation spreads like wildfire, as it always does on Twitter and Facebook, Beckett discovers that everyone has a secret to hide and the truth could alter everything she thought she knew.
Beckett's bullying is way different than people treat her boyfriend, Jake Mercer. Of course, Jake is a super-star baseball player who people would never consider to be more than perfect. It highlights the difference in how people treat young girls and women and the ongoing fight to bring actual women who have been abused to the forefront so abusers can be prosecuted. While the police investigate, Beckett starts her own investigation. Starting with questioning her boyfriend. Beckett is a really strong main character. While she is shaken by the bullying and harassment, which escalates to threats, she doesn’t back down.
Nor is she afraid to challenge her friends and family to find the truth. The more she digs, the more she uncovers, and it’s not all pleasant. Between this, and the lies she discovers about her father's last few months before his death almost a year before, she is unsure of who to trust. Because by now, everyone is coming after her and she thinks the only way she can clear her name, and move on with her life, is to expose the truth. But what happens when the truth finally does come out? What happens when the truth is so shocking that I am unable to properly put into words my disgust at the revelation as to who was involved and why.
Beckett's family has major issues. Her mother started working more and more and is barely aware of what is happening in her own household. Her brother Penn is pushing himself hard in order to get into West Point and be better than his father who was also in the military. Beckett's younger sister Landry has become the person who puts food on the table. And, to make matters worse, even if Beckett proved without a reasonable doubt that she's never been pregnant, nor did she dumb the baby in a locker room, she's still going to feel the stigma of the trolls sickening behavior until she moves away or goes to college.
I may have made some comments about Jake, but I have to tell you, he's not a bad guy. He really loves Beckett and didn't want to break her heart when he tells her what the reason for blocking the text messages from her was. No spoilers. Same with Penn. Penn may have basically checked out on the family and had one foot out the door, but I do believe he would do anything for his younger sisters. One of the most heartbreaking aspects of this story is the father figure Kyle Bergen. Kyle may have checked out before this story began, but his demons caught up to him, and I am not going to throw shade at a man who desperately needed help and suffered from PTSD.
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