48 pages • 1 hour read
Shari LapenaEveryone Here Is Lying: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Impact of Secrecy and Deception
Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the source text’s treatment of child abuse, child abduction, and references to child molestation. The source text also contains stereotypical and stigmatizing portrayals of neurodivergent people.
Lapena explores how The Impact of Secrecy and Deception fuels Avery’s abduction and return by giving every character a secret that they wish to keep hidden. As Stanhope’s secrets become exposed to the police and the media, the trust of the community completely disintegrates.
William’s choice to have an affair with Nora sabotages his standing in the community. Since he wants to keep Nora’s identity a secret, he ends up lying to the police and becoming their primary suspect. As a respected doctor in Stanhope, William’s secrets ruin his reputation, and he ends up losing his family in the process. Erin breaks off their marriage due to his infidelity, but mainly because of the way that he abuses Avery. When Erin learns about how William hit Avery before she disappears, she entertains the possibility that William could have killed their daughter and realizes that it does not surprise her. William loses Erin’s trust, which is why she cannot listen to his warning when he believes that Avery may be lying about her story. William does not get to keep his family, his reputation, or his relationship with Nora because of his continual deception.
As the adults in the narrative lose control of their cookie-cutter suburban life, Avery keeps her composure. Avery’s biggest deception is how she manages to hide her intellect and manipulation behind her behavioral problems. The only people who realize Avery’s manipulative skills are Michael, William, and Marion. However, Marion is the only person who realizes that Avery is secretly violent, which she only learns as Avery stands over Marion to watch her bleed out. Avery never expresses remorse or trauma over killing someone. Instead, she immediately moves on to executing her plan of tricking the police and her family into believing her falsified story.
By the end of the novel, Lapena reveals Avery’s secret to the world. Avery’s downfall comes from her own pride as she foolishly assumes she can deceive the media with her story and then slips up with an inconsistency. The media does not treat Avery as gently as the police and her family did, so they get the truth out of her by luring her into a false sense of security. Eventually, Avery’s secret comes out, and the cliffhanger leaves the remaining characters in the novel to decide what version of events they should believe. Ultimately, the characters in Stanhope have all been impacted by their own secrets and by Avery’s secrets before the end of the novel. This deception has ruined reputations and happiness and, in Marion’s case, taken a life.
The Hidden Nature of Suburban Towns
Stanhope, New York, appears to be the perfect, tight-knit community on the outside, free from crime and deception. However, as the police start to investigate, the town’s secrets cause the community to turn on each other. Gossip and rumors play an important part in the dissolution of the Stanhope community. As the investigation continues, neighbors accuse each other without remorse, hoping to remove the police’s scrutiny from their own families.
Detective Gully feels surprised at how quickly Stanhope residents turn on each other and start reporting their neighbors. Alice Seton, under the guise of helping the police with their investigation, is the most incessant gossiper. Since Alice’s main suspect is Adam Winter, a teenager who has autism, Gully does not take her accusations too seriously, as she believes that Adam’s neighbors do not like him because he is different. Gwen Winter confirms Gully’s suspicions because she calls the town close-minded for the way that they do not welcome Adam. Gwen believes that she may have to leave Stanhope because of the way the gossip of the town ruins people’s reputations, and she worries that the gossip will eventually hurt Adam. Even though Adam has done nothing wrong, she fears that people will think he is a pedophile just because the police are investigating him. Although Lapena reveals that Avery was lying about having an older boyfriend, the gossip creates harm anyway. Despite the way that her lie could ruin people’s lives, Avery tells Michael that she finds it funny that people believed her. Michael realizes the harm his sister had done is irreversible, as Avery’s lie has already planted a seed of doubt and fear in people’s minds. The residents of Stanhope, instead of seeking the truth, tend to nurture and spread rumors.
Stanhope’s ability to turn on anyone who does not fit into their mold of normality reveals the way that the impact of secrecy and deception interacts with the hidden nature of suburban towns. Stanhope’s unforgiving and judgmental nature is the main reason why its inhabitants feel the need to deceive their families and neighbors. Everyone in the town has something to hide, which is why they jump so quickly to point the finger at someone else. Although Gully initially believes that working in Chicago exposed her to more crime, she soon realizes that the inhabitants of Stanhope hold just as many secrets—they have just perfected the art of keeping their crimes hidden behind a veneer of normality.
The Psychological Effects of Crime and Investigation
As the search for Avery continues, the town slowly begins to crack under the weight of the investigation. Even though Avery disappears for four days, the uncertainty and fear that spread in the town during that time causes people to break down. After she returns, Avery loves the attention and wants her abduction story to launch her into fame, revealing how emotionally detached she is from the hurt that her disappearance caused her family and everyone else in Stanhope.
As the investigation reveals William’s infidelity, Erin feels completely alone, as she does not have anyone to rely on. Erin wants answers and clarity, but the confusing nature of the investigation does not give it to her. Erin becomes so consumed by the uncertainty of which neighbor could have hurt her daughter that she lashes out in rage when she thinks Ryan may have done it. Since Erin can no longer trust William, she feels that she must shoulder the burden of raising the children alone. Erin becomes lost in her mind because she does not have anyone to talk to about her fears. Her pent-up anxiety comes out throughout the narrative, showing the psychological issues of investigation that cause family members to suffer emotionally as they must face their own guilt and shame.
Even when Avery is locked in Marion’s basement, Avery loves how the media depicts her as a celebrity, and she fantasizes about how people will react when she reappears. Avery’s obsession with the media when she returns home causes Erin to worry about her mental health because she does not understand why a victim would want to be under more scrutiny about her trauma. Michael notices this strange behavior as well and does not understand how his sister enjoys the family falling apart under pressure. Avery reveals her detachment from reality when she gets angry at her family for not wishing her good luck as she appears on national television. Avery’s narcissism leads to her downfall because she becomes so enthralled by the promise of fame that she forgets the importance of hiding her darkest secret.
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By Shari Lapena
