Tell Me Lies

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of mental illness, death, disordered eating, emotional abuse, sexual violence, animal cruelty, and substance use.

Lucy is the novel’s protagonist and a Baird College graduate. She is deeply interested in literature, enjoying novels such as The Catcher in the Rye and A Farewell to Arms and the works of writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald. This interest leads her to attend Baird College with plans to enter the competitive Writers on the Riviera program. Lucy is deeply devoted to her family and friends but feels angry and resentful toward her mother, CJ, after she had an affair with Lucy’s crush Gabe Petersen. Later in the novel, this anger reaches its peak when Lucy disposes of Marilyn’s heirloom jewelry, for which she later apologizes. To overcome much of her pain, she has to confess what she knows to CJ, giving her mother a chance to apologize and earn forgiveness.

Lucy also tends to develop strong, all-consuming, and unhealthy infatuations with men who touch her heart. Her infatuation with Gabe ended with him statutorily assaulting her and causing her significant emotional distress, but her only emotion at his departure was sadness and longing.