Everyone Here Is Lying: A Novel

“She’s complicated. She’s a lovely nine-year-old girl. Very bright—gifted, actually. But she’s challenging. She has a learning disability and ADHD. She also has behavioral problems.”

In this quote, Erin tells the police that Avery has behavioral problems. Erin believes that someone may have wanted to hurt her if she was rude to them. Lapena sets up Avery’s criminal mind with this quote, because she describes how Avery is smarter than the average child, suggesting early in the novel that Avery may have plotted her own disappearance.

“We’re just normal people. There’s no reason for anyone to harm our daughter.”

This quote reveals The Hidden Nature of Suburban Towns. Everyone in Stanhope believes that they are just “normal,” even though every family harbors a dark secret. William’s words foreshadow Marion’s motivation because William’s affair gives her ever reason to harm Avery.

“‘It’s a yes-or-no answer, Michael.’ ‘He just slapped her sometimes, to calm her down.’ ‘To calm her down,’ Bledsoe repeats. ‘She deserved it,’ Michael says in his father’s defense. The two detectives shift their eyes to stare at his mother.”

Michael exposes his father’s abuse to the police but reveals how he rationalized it by believing that his father’s slap calms Avery down. Michael defends his father because he wants to look up to his father and it is too painful to believe that William abuses Avery. There is a complexity to all of the characters in Stanhope. Michael enables William’s abuse of Avery, but he also truly believes that it isn’t as bad as it may seem.

“He does lose his temper, he’s not proud of it. He’s ashamed of it. He’s slapped his daughter on several occasions, but it was nothing like what his own father did to him.”

William tries to justify his actions by shifting the topic away from Avery’s abuse and pain toward how ashamed and guilty his abuse makes him feel. This shows William’s narcissism, because he always makes the conversation about himself, as he wrongly convinces himself that he is just as much a victim as Avery.

“In the end, his wife always makes excuses for Avery, but never for him. She always points out with an annoying air of superiority that he is the adult. Avery is what has come between them; they both know it. The constant strain of dealing with her has set them at odds, pulled them apart. It has entrenched resentments, caused untold damage in their marriage. It’s ruined them. Erin is more progressive, more patient, he’s old-school and flies off the handle.”

Lapena exposes William’s narcissism and immaturity in this quote because she shows that he does not know how to take responsibility for his own actions. He wants Erin to come to his defense, even though as the adult, he knows he is clearly in the wrong. This shows how William justifies his affair as well the abuse, because he blames Avery and Erin for the way that he gives up on his family.

“Immediately after the television appeal, however, the tips start to come in. Uniformed officers take the calls and follow up on every one of them, except for the truly outlandish. For a town that prides itself on its sense of community, of looking after one another, there’s a surprising number of people willing to tell the police that someone they know is strange or might be a pervert. Like in small towns everywhere, Gully sighs to herself, the mindset can be narrower than in a large metropolis.”

This quote reveals the hidden nature of suburban towns because it does not take much for the community to turn on each other. Gully does not like the gossip of the town because she fears it will distract the detectives from finding the true perpetrator, which foreshadows how the gossip in the town leads the detectives astray later in the novel.

“Avery’s behavior hurts Erin too. It’s worn her down, destroyed her confidence as a mother. But the difference between her and William is that William lashes out at their daughter, and she doesn’t. What if he’d had enough? And she wasn’t there to stop him for once?”

Erin realizes how she perpetuated and covered up her husband’s abuse at Avery’s expense. This quote reveals one of the first moments that Erin decides to take agency in her life and leave William to protect Avery and Michael from his volatile nature.

“Alice nods. She knows what men are like, how they prey on women and girls. Pete’s a good man, of course. Lots of men are. But there are plenty of bad ones out there. And she really fears that one of them may have been taking advantage of Avery, and it’s horrible, just horrible, even to think about.”

This quote shows how Alice’s gossip comes from a place of concern for the children in her neighborhood. However, she quickly turns her attention to the one boy who is different. Alice, despite her best intentions, causes a ripple effect in her accusation of Adam Winter.

“When they go to church on Sundays, and he sits beside her in the pew, he doesn’t listen to the sermon anymore. Instead, he thinks about what’s going through her mind. Is she thinking about her lover? About what they do in that motel room? Is she asking the Lord for forgiveness? Does she feel guilty at all about the sins she’s committing?”

Al’s obsession with thinking about Nora’s infidelity creeps into every aspect of his life. He can no longer pay attention in church; instead he only thinks about her hypocrisy. Rather than being a place of worship, church becomes a place for Al’s anger to fester and for him to feel superior to his wife.

“But now, Al thinks, maybe Wooler will end up going to prison for murder. Wouldn’t that be perfect? Al feels terrible about the little girl, but if this had to happen to anyone, he’s glad it’s happened to William Wooler. And Nora will learn an important lesson. The wages of sin is death. If the man she chose to fall in love with is a murderer, Al doubts his wife will ever cheat again.”

Al uses Biblical passages to justify his self-righteousness and satisfaction at the destruction of another person’s reputation. Al gains satisfaction from watching William’s family fall apart because he believes it is divine retribution for what William and Nora have done.

“William Wooler is now a pariah. He used to be respected in this town. How quickly things change. His wife hates him. Her face as he told her what he’d already admitted to the police—the disbelief, disgust, rage, hatred. She’d thrown him out of the house, probably for good. His son must hate him too. He must have overheard their harrowing argument, so he knows what a lying, deceitful shit his dad is. Michael had watched him pack, numb horror on his face. William has taken indefinite voluntary leave from work. The police think he’s a killer. The media thinks he’s a killer. Is there anyone anywhere who will believe he is innocent?”

Avery’s plan to make her father suffer falls into place as he loses every ounce of respect from his community and family. William hates that he has lost credibility with Michael, one of the only people who still believed in him. Since William has built his life around lies, he does not think that anyone will believe him every again, as even Nora feels doubtful when she thinks about what William may have done.

“He’s just different. Like autistic, maybe? I don’t know. He won’t talk to you or look you in the eye. He goes to a special school. I see him around, but he’s always by himself. He doesn’t seem to have any friends.”

Alice’s insensitive description of Adam insinuates that he is evil simply because he is different. This quote shows how unfounded gossip and discrimination leads to real pain and hurt for people accused of crimes just because they do not fit the status quo.

“‘I was up quite late and saw you and the other detective take Ryan Blanchard away in a car. Is he under suspicion? Do you think he might be the one who took Avery?’ Gully shakes her head. ‘I can’t discuss that.’ Finally, Alice stands and grabs her bag, and says, ‘I mean, you just never know, do you?’”

Alice’s questions about Ryan show how she regards everything happening as if she is watching a television drama rather than real life. It is not until Alice’s family becomes involved in the investigation that she realizes the seriousness of being under police investigation.

“No one around her understands Adam. This is a small-minded town. I’ve been thinking about moving, but I’ve got Adam in a good special school near here, so…”

This quote shows how Gwen calls out Stanhope for their narrow-mindedness. She knows that having a neurodivergent child does not fit into the prescribed social norms of the town, and she fears that this narrow belief system will eventually hurt Adam.

“But Al has no enemies, and neither does his wife. The idea is ridiculous. They are just normal, average people; they don’t make enemies.”

Al has the same naive belief as William that just because they live in a suburban town, he and Nora do not have enemies. The Blanchards perform normality so well that Al cannot even begin to imagine who would want to hurt Ryan and his family, even though Al himself has fantasized about hurting Nora.

“Gully’s genuine sympathy for Alice in this situation is tempered somewhat by the other woman’s earlier eagerness to point the finger at Adam Winter simply because he’s different. She knows that it’s not necessarily the ones who seem different that you need to be afraid of—it’s the ones who can carry off normal without anyone suspecting a thing.”

Once Alice experiences what it is like to be under investigation and have someone else accuse her son of wrongdoing, she realizes how upsetting it is. Although Gully knows that it is unprofessional, she feels glad that Stanhope’s main gossiper gets to experience the same level of scrutiny as Adam.

“No, she can’t believe that her son would ever want that kind of vengeance. He doesn’t have it in him. But she wonders if Al might. What if Al took Avery, in an act of revenge, and this is his punishment, the police thinking his son is guilty of the father’s crime? Oh God—is she losing her mind? They are churchgoers. Al is devout, but she is unsure—sometimes she believes, and sometimes she doesn’t. But she knows that if God does exist, He is not always benevolent, and He works in mysterious ways.”

This quote shows how Nora feels so uncertain over who she can trust that she starts to wonder if Ryan or Al had something to do with Avery’s disappearance. Nora’s paranoia reveals The Psychological Effects of Crime and Investigation in that people become so desperate to escape scrutiny that they will put the blame onto anyone else around them without evidence, even their own family members.

“But she hasn’t told her husband what she did once Gully left in her car. How she lost her mind and tore the house apart, looking for the body of a dead girl. How she’d gone through the house—the crawl space, the furnace room, the attic, everywhere, anywhere you could hide a body, even the shed in the back. She’ll never tell a soul. It’s something she will take with her to her grave.”

Alice experiences extreme doubt over whether Derek hurt Avery. She shamefully searches the entire house for evidence. This shows how doubt can eat away at a person and make them act out of character. Alice does not want anyone to ever know what she did because she cannot face the fact that she thought her son may have harmed a little girl.

“But Avery hasn’t fled, not yet. She’s looming over her. She’s smiling down at Marion, a horrible grimace of a smile. And now Marion knows for sure that Avery is truly bad, that she has no moral limits at all. Now Marion thinks Avery is capable of anything. She’s got the cold, unfeeling selfishness of a psychopath. In that, they are alike. And in her final moment, as she feels blood trickling down her neck, Marion knows that Avery has won.”

In this quote, Marion’s realization that Avery is deeply manipulative and apathetic dies with her so that no other character knows Avery’s true nature. Avery reveals herself to be unbothered by Marion’s death; instead of watching her in horror, she watches with satisfaction that she came out on top.

“She’s not proud of it, but her first thought when she heard Avery was alive was not relief or happiness. She’d thought that Avery was dead. She’d taken a certain unholy comfort in that. Because if Derek had ever done anything to Avery, no matter how mild or innocent, she wouldn’t be around to tell. She never trusted Avery. There’s something about her. Jenna says she tells lies.”

Alice’s doubt and fear return once Avery comes home, because she knows that Avery can accuse Derek of wrongdoing herself. Although Alice tries to comfort herself with the fact that Avery lies, she anxiously waits for the moment when Avery may come after her son.

“It’s almost like she’s dragging things out slowly for effect, Gully thinks. She tries to dismiss the uncharitable thought, but now that Avery is in front of her, rather than an idea of a girl she’s trying to find, she realizes she’s not warming to the real girl. There’s something about her.”

Although Gully never voices her distrust to the Woolers, she does not trust Avery and senses her narcissistic personality. Gully notices that Avery does not act like other victims; instead, she seems to relish talking about her abduction. Gully feels ashamed of her thoughts because of the evidence pointing toward Marion and away from Avery, but she cannot get rid of the feeling of uneasiness around Avery.

“It’s repugnant to her, what William was suggesting. She thinks he’s trying to whitewash what he did—to shift the blame for his shameful behavior onto his daughter somehow. He struck her and he feels embarrassed and ashamed and sorry for himself now that she and the detectives know the real extent of it.”

Although Erin is right about William’s narcissism and the way that he tries to shift the blame away from himself onto Avery, Erin misses the truth in his words when he warns her about Avery’s manipulation. Erin believes her daughter because the past few days have only proven that William is a liar.

“The thing is, Erin thinks, Avery has been fine. Just the same as she was before the abduction. Moody, demanding, uncooperative, controlling. But no different than before. Except—if anything—she might be more cheerful. She isn’t withdrawn or having nightmares or wetting the bed. Erin will try to make an appointment with a doctor—one from the list—soon, but she worries that Avery will refuse to go.”

In this quote, Erin pushes away the doubt in her mind that Avery is not acting like a girl who has survived a traumatic event. Erin does not have the ability to view Avery’s actions critically because she still feels so grateful to have her daughter back at all.