Review: Dark and Shallow Lies

Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain
Published: September 2021

“The dead? They lie. Just like the rest of us.”

La Cachette, Louisiana, is the worst place to be if you have something to hide. This tiny town, where seventeen-year-old Grey spends her summers, is the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World–and the place where Elora Pellerin, Grey’s best friend, disappeared six months earlier. Grey can’t believe that Elora vanished into thin air any more than she can believe that nobody in a town full of psychics knows what happened. But as she digs into the night that Elora went missing, she begins to realize that everybody in town is hiding something – her grandmother Honey; her childhood crush Hart; and even her late mother, whose secrets continue to call to Grey from beyond the grave. When a mysterious stranger emerges from the bayou – a stormy-eyed boy with links to Elora and the town’s bloody history – Grey realizes that La Cachette’s past is far more present and dangerous than she’d ever understood. Suddenly, she doesn’t know who she can trust. In a town where secrets lurk just below the surface, and where a murderer is on the loose, nobody can be presumed innocent–and La Cachette’s dark and shallow lies may just rip the town apart.

Grey feels lost without her twin flame. Together since birth, her best friend is another part of her so now that she’s disappeared, she doesn’t know what to do beyond find some answers. I do like Grey’s tenacity and her desperation doesn’t feel forced in her need to find Elora. She’s intent of discovering the truth and unlocking her new psychic power to do so. I must say, there were a few moments where Grey felt a little dull, the same conversations taking place and same thoughts running through her head. But on the whole, she was an interesting character and it was nice to see her grow slightly as the book progressed.

Now this is a story that I liked but sadly didn’t love. It has such great reviews that I thought I’d join them but that’s not the case for me. This didn’t feel like much of a thriller to me. I felt a bit bored during most of the book, wondering when we might get some action. It wasn’t until the final chapters of the book that it really picked up but even then, the twist didn’t feel as powerful as it could have done. Of course, that could just be me and my sleep deprived brain not getting into the story but I just didn’t feel as invested as I could have done – which is a real shame.

Overall, Dark and Shallow Lies is a book merging magic and contemporary that sadly missed the mark for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5