57 pages • 1 hour read
Freida McFaddenNever Lie
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 23-32Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 23 Summary: “Adrienne—Before”
The narrative returns to Adrienne’s point of view, in the past. Adrienne is at the public health clinic where she volunteers, offering free mental health services. Adrienne finds Luke and asks if she can take him up on his previous offer to install a home-security system for her. He agrees and comes by Adrienne’s house to install the system later that day. After Luke is finished, he and Adrienne start talking about her work and her upcoming book, The Anatomy of Fear. Adrienne reveals that she tapes her sessions. Adrienne asks Luke if he wants to have a mock therapy session with her: “The Dr. Adrienne Hale experience” (156). Luke agrees, reluctantly.
Chapter 24 Summary: “Transcript of Recording”
The narrative continues Adrienne’s point of view as she starts her mock therapy session with Luke. However, the session is relayed as a transcript of the recording of “LUKE” that Tricia is listening to in the present day, allowing the reader to “listen” along with Tricia. Luke, age 36, reveals that he has been married once before and that his wife died. Luke does not want to discuss the incident with Adrienne. During the interview with Adrienne, Luke reveals that he has romantic feelings for her. Luke says, “The whole time, I keep thinking, what if I just got up off the sofa and kissed her [Adrienne]?” (160). Adrienne says, “You never know unless you try” (160).
Chapter 25 Summary: “Adrienne—Before”
The narrative returns to Adrienne’s point of view after her mock therapy session with Luke. Adrienne opens with: “I never expected to end up in bed with Luke Strauss” (161). Adrienne is pleasantly surprised by her experience with Luke. Afterward, Luke and Adrienne talk. Luke reveals that he got in trouble being a hacker as a teenager. Adrienne asks Luke again about his ex-wife’s death, but he again shuts down, just like he did in the mock therapy session. Luke realizes that Adrienne does not want him to sleep over and returns home. After he leaves, Adrienne thinks, “[M]aybe Luke could help me out with the EJ problem” (169).
Chapter 26 Summary: “Tricia—Present Day”
The narrative returns to Tricia in the present day, who has just finished listening to the recording of the “LUKE” session. Tricia thinks: “He liked her. He really liked her. I can hear it in his voice. […] Luke doesn’t sound like a killer” (170). Tricia puts away the tapes and tape recorder and goes to find Ethan. As Tricia is walking through the house, she notices a pull cord leading to a trapdoor into the attic. Tricia goes into the attic, which is mostly full of dusty old boxes. However, Tricia finds a sleeping bag that is clean and recently laundered—not covered in dust like everything else—as well as a clean pillow with a fresh pillowcase on it. Tricia realizes that somebody has been sleeping in the attic recently.
Chapter 27 Summary
The narrative continues from Tricia’s point of view in the present day. Scared, Tricia rushes to find Ethan and tells him about the sleeping bag and pillow in the attic. Ethan downplays Tricia’s fears: “We haven’t seen anything here. I haven’t seen any signs that there’s another person here” (176). Ethan tells Tricia that she is stressed, suggesting that this is to blame for her panic. Ethan manages to calm Tricia down and suggests he make them both lunch.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Adrienne—Before”
The narrative returns to Adrienne’s point of view, in the past. Adrienne and Luke have been dating for four months. Adrienne is watching Luke cook for her in her kitchen; Adrienne loves Luke but has not yet said the words. While Adrienne and Luke are cooking, Adrienne gets a text message from EJ: EJ demands an appointment with Adrienne first thing the next morning. Unable to turn him down for fear of his leaking the video of her, Adrienne agrees.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Transcript of Recording”
The narrative blends past and present together, continuing Adrienne’s point of view as she starts the next morning’s therapy session with EJ. However, the session is relayed as a transcript of the recording of EJ that Tricia is listening to in the present day, allowing the reader to “listen” along with Tricia. In the session, EJ demands that Adrienne write him a prescription for oxycodone, claiming he hurt his knee running. Adrienne resists—these are not the kinds of medications she would logically prescribe a patient, being a psychiatrist—but then, under pressure from EJ, she agrees.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Tricia—Present Day”
The narrative returns to Tricia in the present day. Tricia and Ethan are having lunch together in Adrienne’s kitchen. They talk about the baby; Tricia suggests they could name the child after Ethan’s mom or dad, depending on if it is a boy or a girl. Ethan says that he was not close with his parents; when Tricia presses him for more details, he gets angry. Tricia thinks, “Obviously, there are some topics that Ethan feels he can’t talk about with me. But he’s wrong. I need him to see that he can tell me anything. Anything” (192). Tricia shifts the conversation to another topic. Ethan again reiterates that he wants to buy the house; Tricia finally reveals that she is not convinced. Ethan says, “I can just picture us growing old here and raising our children here. Can’t you?” Tricia doesn’t respond honestly: “‘Yes,’ I lie. ‘I can.’” (195).
Chapter 31 Summary: “Transcript of Recording”
The narrative provides a transcript of the recording of PL that Tricia is listening to in the present day, allowing the reader to “listen” along with Tricia. In this session/recording, PL gifts Adrienne with a large oil portrait of Adrienne. It is a way to thank Adrienne for helping her. However, PL notices that Adrienne seems pale and unfocused during their session—unbeknownst to PL, this is due to Adrienne’s worries about EJ.
Chapter 32 Summary: “Adrienne—Before”
The narrative returns to Adrienne’s point of view, in the past. Adrienne is lying in Luke’s arms in bed, worrying about her EJ problem. She realizes: “He will keep asking for more and more. Pushing me harder and harder. I have to stop him” (199). Luke tells Adrienne he loves her. At this point, Adrienne confesses to Luke about the EJ problem—or partially confesses: Adrienne tells Luke that a patient is extorting her with a video but does not say what’s on the video, other than to confirm that it’s nothing sexual. Adrienne wants Luke to break into EJ’s apartment—Adrienne will procure a copy of EJ’s house keys—and erase all traces of the video from all EJ’s devices. Luke hesitates; he already got into trouble for hacking as a teenager, and Adrienne is technically asking him to commit a crime. Seeing Luke’s hesitation, Adrienne tells Luke that she loves him. Adrienne thinks: “It’s a cheap trick. He told me he loved me, and I’m only saying it back now that I need something from him. I do love him, I really do, but the timing of my declaration is more than suspicious” (204). Adrienne is surprised when her “shameless tactic” works, and Luke agrees to the plot.
Chapters 23-32 Analysis
The theme of The False Nature of Stereotypical Gender Roles in heterosexual relationships is further illuminated in these chapters. The stereotypical concept of a heteronormative male-female relationship is that the man leads while the woman is passive and waits to be led. Tricia is the ultimate example of turning this stereotype on its head, as seen in her manipulation of Ethan in their relationship—the full extent of which is only revealed in the book’s final chapters.
For the time being, Ethan is still in charge. For example, when Tricia finds the sleeping bag in the attic, Ethan gaslights her into thinking it is nothing. Ethan tells her, “I haven’t seen any signs that there’s another person here” (176). This discounts the signs that Tricia has seen of another person, like the footprint, half-full glass of water, and sleeping bag. Ethan’s determination here is the only one that matters. Ethan even blames Tricia’s worries that there is someone else in the house on her own stress, a nod to sexist diagnoses of “hysteria” in women (Sigmund Freud, renowned psychologist, considered hysteria a mental disorder attributable only to women, for example). Tricia will turn the stereotype on its head when she reveals how she manipulated Ethan from the beginning, starting with their “accidental” coffee shop run-in—a Hollywood-worthy meet-cute manufactured by Tricia.
Adrienne, although unmarried, also toys with traditional gender norms in her relationship with Luke. Adrienne does not need Luke and is perfectly fine living life independently. However, when she does need something—a security system, due to the threat of EJ—Adrienne has no qualms turning to Luke. Adrienne plays the part of “damsel in distress,” entrusting Luke with a stereotypically male role—although Adrienne is certainly able to take care of herself. However, Adrienne sees that she can use Luke for her own gain, thinking: “[M]aybe Luke could help me out with the EJ problem” (169). Adrienne acknowledges her manipulation of Luke—like when she tells him she loves him because she wants his help with EJ: “It’s a cheap trick. He told me he loved me, and I’m only saying it back now that I need something from him. I do love him, I really do, but the timing of my declaration is more than suspicious” (204).
Luke’s character is not free of suspicion in these chapters, however, presenting another possible red herring in Adrienne’s death. EJ/Ethan remains the primary suspect. However, Luke comes under the microscope when it is revealed that his wife died quite young. When Adrienne attempts to discuss the topic with Luke, he shuts her down—twice. This could raise suspicions for the reader; the police also investigated Luke after Adrienne’s disappearance. A suspicious reader may wonder if Luke played a role in his wife’s death, too.
The relationships between Luke and Adrienne and Ethan and Tricia also speak to the risks carried by lying versus truth-telling and reveal the theme Truth Hurts but Lies Can Kill. Both relationships are fraught with secrets. Adrienne conceals the truth about EJ from Luke for four months, for example, and even after she tells him, she does not want him to see the videotape of her slashing the stranger’s tires. Meanwhile, Tricia conceals first her pregnancy and, later, her murderous tendences from Ethan. Even at the book’s end, Tricia is concealing part of herself from Ethan, as she reveals only to the reader, via internal thought, that she is prepared to kill Ethan if he threatens to crack and let out their secret.
Much of the lying in the book is “lying by omission”—that is, the characters do not outright lie to one another but rather fail to tell the other person something. This is exemplified in Tricia concealing her real feelings about the house to Ethan. One of the few times when Tricia explicitly admits to lying relates to the house, when Ethan says, “I can just picture us growing old here and raising our children here. Can’t you?” Tricia’s reply: “‘Yes,’ I lie. ‘I can.’” (195). The house itself can be seen as a representation of secrets, a symbolic nod to thematic-relevant topics like truth, lies, and deception. The hidden room with the secret tape recordings is one example; the body hidden under the floorboards, revealed in the final chapters, is another example. Adrienne’s house is full of secrets—just like many of the characters are full of secrets, including Adrienne, Tricia, and Ethan.
Related Titles
By Freida McFadden
