My Review of Jessica Goodman's LIES BETWEEN US

This is my SPOILER-FREE review of Jessica Goodman’s Young Adult Mystery novel The Lies Between Us. I may or may not be doing a more spoiler-heavy review once the book is published on June 30, 2026.

The story is told from three points of view: those of Lucy, Millie, and Frankie Gold, respectively the oldest, middle, and youngest teenaged sisters in the eminently wealthy Gold family. The Gold sisters have all grown up on Pelican Island, an exorbitantly wealthy and idyllic New York island town in side-by-side waterfront mansions with the similarly aged Silver brothers: Alex, Trevor, and Ethan. The Golds and Silvers have known each other for their entire lives as neighbors, as friends, as family. Their island community is a paradise of safety and pleasure where doors are never locked, money is never an object, and the police do little more than issue speeding tickets.

But all that changes on one carefree summer morning, when the lifeless body of another privileged but troubled teenager is found floating in the water and when all signs point to murder as the cause of death. Suddenly, the bonds that tie the Golds and Silvers together are strained by suspicion and fear. Painful secrets surface, revealing fragile truths that the sisters and brothers have all been hiding.

Lucy has been holding back a major secret from Ethan, who is her boyfriend. Millie quietly lusts for Ethan. And Frankie uncovers evidence indicating that Trevor and Alex may’ve had their own motives to murder the victim.

REVIEW

I approached this book expecting an entertaining beach read that’d occupy several hours of my time but that wouldn’t leave any lingering impressions, and that’s what I got. I’ve been following Jessica Goodman since her debut with They Wish They Were Us. And one pattern I've noticed is that Jessica is a strong writer of characters and relationships—particularly regarding rich or rich adjacent teenaged girls—but a mediocre mystery writer. She also tends to undercook the endings of her books in favor of delivering final feel-good moments between characters, whether or not those moments are earned. Be it her first book or her latest (The Meadowbrook Murders), the main characters always sing. The murder mystery premises themselves are also always intriguing, but the execution is always lacking. And while the endings tend to tug at the heart strings, they always feel underdeveloped and at least a little undeserved.

The same is more-or-less true of The Lies Between Us.

Jessica does an outstanding job of portraying the distinct personalities, fears, secrets, hopes, and general life grinds of the Gold sisters, who narrate most of the book in alternating chapters. Each sister undergoes a solid and complete character arc. And the fact of Jessica’s pulling that off is made even more impressive by just how hard it can be to properly service even two, much less three, main characters in a single novel. The Gold sisters are presented as sheltered one percenters, living in luxury on their utopian private island town. Nevertheless, any disconnect that readers might be tempted to feel regarding them and their lifestyle of excess is obviated by the masterfully grounded and real way that Jessica humanizes them as three sisters whose differing personalities and tics and subtleties of interaction collide with each other and spill over into the world. Most people (particularly girls) who've ever had sisters will definitely relate to the Gold girls in their collective drama as it unfolds. Basically, readers will feel like these girls could be real people who live on the island next door.

However, while the central mystery's premise is interesting, that mystery itself is tolerable at best and underwhelming at worst. It is essentially a series of coincidences, poor choices, obvious misdirects, and aimless plot threads that never truly comes together as a satisfying or sensible whole. The ultimate solution will be the peak of disappointment for anyone who picks up this book looking for a traditionally defined murder mystery—that is a story in which there is a murder, a victim, a culprit, a motive, and a trail of plausible clues tying them all together.

The book's ending felt good, but the author evidently skipped plenty crucial steps and emotional beats to get there. And again, this is par for Jessica's course. She delivers major interpersonal twists and turns, doesn’t appropriately pay them off in story, then drops an ending usually set some time after the main narrative revealing that the resolution has occurred one way or another off page.

TRIGGER WARNING/CONTENT ADVISORY

The Lies Between Us is definitely for mature teenagers and new adults. It may be a turn-off for younger kids and/or those with religious sensibilities.

There is abundant foul language, one crucial subplot involves a gay courtship, and said courtship is consummated rather graphically on page.

Alcohol and other drugs are present. 

Major storylines revolve around tragic accidental death and child abuse/neglect. 

Toxic behavior in romantic relationships is a theme.

One major storyline revolves around teenage pregnancy—and it gives rise to some rather cringey and on-the-nose coverage of the abortion debate.

MY OVERALL RATING

I give The Lies Between Us 3 of 5 cronuts.

Basically, it’s a fun read that’ll keep you hooked for a few hours but that won’t make any sweeping or lasting impression.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with the ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.**