I have read quite a few Lucinda Berry books at this point, and I pretty much know what I’m getting myself into when I pick one up. Dark family secrets. Trauma. Complicated characters. And at least a few moments where I wonder why I do this to myself.
Her First Lie definitely delivered all of that.
You can find Her First Lie by Lucinda Berry on Amazon.
This book is a prequel to The Perfect Child, which was the first book I read about Janie. And honestly, I think having already read The Perfect Child made Her First Lie so much harder to read.
I knew where this story was going.
I knew what eventually happened to Janie.
What I wasn’t prepared for was everything that came before.
Amazon Summary
Becky Watson learned early that trust is a weapon and secrets are survival. From foster homes to abandoned backroads, she and her childhood confidant Orion have buried more than just memories. Now, as a college freshman, Becky’s harboring her most dangerous secret yet: her newborn daughter, Janie.
Desperation drives Becky to contact her estranged grandmother, Lillian. She swoops in like a guardian angel, but her salvation comes with a poisoned price tag. Behind Lillian’s nurturing facade lurks a web of generational secrets. As buried truths claw their way to the surface, Becky faces an impossible choice: sacrifice her daughter or herself to break a twisted family legacy.
My Her First Lie Book Review
This was a tough book to read.
And I mean tough.
Because I had already read The Perfect Child, I knew what happened to Janie. I knew the child she would become. So reading Her First Lie felt less like waiting for some huge twist and more like watching all the pieces slowly fall into place while knowing there was nothing good waiting at the end.
But somehow, I still wasn’t prepared for just how dark Becky’s family history would be.
The level of abuse throughout this family is awful. Lillian, Becky’s grandmother, initially seems like she might finally be the person Becky needs. But she isn’t. Then there is Becky’s mother, Cerena, and everything that happened with her. The deeper you get into this family, the more you realize just how much trauma has been passed from one generation to the next.
And, of course, I kept coming back to Janie.
Is this why Janie is the way she is?
That question was in the back of my mind through basically the entire book.
If you’ve read The Perfect Child, you already know there is something deeply disturbing about Janie. And even in Her First Lie, the way she treats Becky and Orion is horrifying. There were moments when I found myself thinking, maybe Janie really was just a terrible child from the very beginning.
But then you look at her family.
You look at Becky. Cerena. Lillian. You look at generations of abuse, trauma, secrets, and people hurting the people they are supposed to love.
And suddenly it becomes a lot harder to separate who Janie is from where she came from.
I don’t know that there is a simple answer to that, and I’m not even sure there is supposed to be. How much of Janie was already there? How much came from what happened to her? How much came from generations of trauma before she was even born?
I have no idea.
What I do know is that Lucinda Berry managed to make me feel sympathy for characters while also being completely horrified by them, which is probably one of the reasons I keep reading her books.
Her First Lie was disturbing. It was heartbreaking. At times, it was genuinely hard to keep reading.
And I loved it.
That feels like a very strange thing to say about a book this dark, but here we are.
If you’ve already read The Perfect Child, I definitely think Her First Lie is worth reading. Knowing Janie’s future doesn’t ruin the story. If anything, it makes it hit even harder.
And if this is your first Lucinda Berry book?
Well…just know what you’re getting yourself into.