SuitabookLies Like Poison
Chelsea Pitcher
- Reading
- Check in before reading if murder, alleged family abuse or romantic intimacy may be difficult. Afterwards, discuss choices rather than guessing motives, and leave room for uncertainty about the final resolution.
- Themes
- Protection and responsibility: The friends devise a lethal plan after believing Raven is being abused, then hide the secret when the plan appears to have been abandoned. The situation supports discussion of how care, fear and secrecy may become entangled, but the book’s final judgement is not established.
- Truth, secrecy and betrayal: Belladonna has become skilled at keeping secrets, and the estranged friends reunite when she seeks help proving her innocence. The narrative clearly makes secrecy central to the mystery, inviting attention to how concealment affects trust without establishing a single moral message.
- Abuse and family power: Raven is said to suffer abuse from his stepmother, while Belladonna’s arrest brings police and family authority into the foreground. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Worth knowing
- The book includes murder, a contemplated poisoning, arrest and alleged abuse by a stepmother. The opening also contains romantic physical intimacy and an implied private sexual encounter; the extent of these elements is unclear.