All Eyes on Her – Book Review

What a captivating mystery!

Title: All Eyes on Her
Author: Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Genre: YA Contemporary Mystery
Publication Date: August 18th, 2020
Ratings: ♥♥♥♥

Goodreads Summary:

You heard the story on the news. A girl and a boy went into the woods. The girl carried a picnic basket. The boy wore bright yellow running shoes. The girl found her way out, but the boy never did….

Everyone thinks they know what happened. Some say Tabby pushed him off that cliff— she didn’t even like hiking. She was jealous. She had more than her share of demons. Others think he fell accidentally—she loved Mark. She would never hurt him…even if he hurt her.

But what’s the real story? All Eyes On Her is told from everyone but Tabby herself as the people in her life string together the events that led Tabby to that cliff. Her best friend. Her sister. Her enemy. Her ex-boyfriend. Because everybody thinks they know a girl better than she knows herself.

What do you think is the truth?

I just find mysteries so freaking entertaining. I can’t put the book down! I was so dialed in with this story and every time I thought I knew what was happening, I was taken down a different road. A couple goes on a hike and only one walks away with their life—and now she is being accused of murder. There was some great commentary on how the media portrays men vs women. Mark was hailed as an Ivy League swimming star, possibly on his way to the Olympics. However, Tabby was a jealous and stoic high schooler who dressed provocatively and slept with most of the guys at her school.  You never know what’s going on behind closed doors.

It was really clever that the book is told from everyone’s point of view except for Tabby, the girl who is being accused. The reader is able to see different perspectives of who Tabby and Mark were as people and how they were together as a couple.  Most of the entries were from friends, acquaintances, and enemies—with news articles sprinkled in as well.

I would liked to have read short entries from random people in town giving their opinion as a sort of objective view of the situation, especially since the fact that they lived in such a small town was frequently being mentioned. Even an entry from the parents of the couple—how they were handling the case and the loss of their children. For the final entry, we are left with a major unreliable narrator: Tabby—can we trust her?

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.