What happens at the end of Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera?
When Lucy’s memory begins to come back in bits in pieces, she realizes that Emmett is the one who killed Savannah.
At the wedding, Emmett and Lucy kiss, but Lucy doesn’t want to go further. She leaves with Savvy instead, and the two talk about moving to Los Angeles together. Emmett confronts her on the small road out of the estate and confesses his love for her. Emmett has spent his whole life pining after Lucy. Lucy rejects him and makes it clear it’s “not going to happen” and Emmett attacks her. Savvy then attacks Emmett and an altercations ensues. Emmett gets the upper hand and chases them down with a hammer (presumably he went and got it from his car). In the end, Savvy dies and Lucy has her brain injury.
Matt shows up shortly after and Emmett tells him that Lucy killed Savvy. Matt gets rid of the tree branch that he believes is the murder weapon. He tells Lucy’s father Don what happened, and Don later tells Lucy’s mother Kathleen. (This is why they all were certain she did it.)
In the present day, Lucy goes to talk to Emmett and she watches him hurt Nina when he’s upset with her, which triggers her memories. She’s on the phone with Ben when this happens. Emmett hangs up on Ben and tries to convince Lucy that her version of events is a false memory she constructed and that he simply stumbled upon Lucy (he said he left to take his dog out) after Lucy had killed Savannah.
Lucy gets into a physical altercation with him which only stops when Ben comes to find her. Emmett is arrested, and Ben lies and says that Emmett admitted to already having attempted to kill Lucy. Ben knows Emmett never admitted it to him, but he also knows that his listeners will believe it if that’s what he says.
The book ends with Emmett being arrested. Lucy and Ben make plans to meet up in Los Angeles.
What are the big plot twists in Listen for the Lie?
There some smaller plot twists, but the two big plot twists are:
1) When we find out that the murderous voices that Lucy hears throughout the novel is actually her hearing Savannah’s voice and recalling things Savannah’s said to her, and;
2) When we find out that Emmett is the one who killed Savannah. He spent his whole life pining after Lucy, and when she kisses him, but then rejects him, he tries to hurt her, and Savannah defends her. There’s an altercation and Savannah is killed while Lucy has suffered a traumatic brain injury. (See above for more details.)
What were the voices that Frankie kept hearing?
She was replaying things that Savannah had said to her, or at times, imagining Savannah being there.
Could Lucy be the real killer?
There’s definitely an argument to be made that Lucy could be the real killer and that she’s an unreliable narrator. In that case, the memories that she has exonerating her are just constructed memories, the murderous voices she heard that she’s attributing to things Savannah said are some combination of the two (actual things and constructed memories), plus her natural violent tendencies are part of her nature. See the comments for a longer discussion of this theory, or jump in with your own thoughts!
What was the secret that the grandma at the end said she knew of Lucy’s? I don’t think it was ever revealed was it?
I don’t think it’s stated explicitly, but I took it that her grandma knew that Lucy didn’t reveal the full truth about what happened to Ben.
More specifically, Lucy never talked about their plan to kill Matt and certainly not about how Savvy had killed someone before. I don’t know if her grandma knew all those exact details, but I’m certain her grandma knew there was more to Savvy than the angel with a halo that everyone had been depicting her as, which is probably why her grandma says that she doesn’t owe everyone her or Savvy’s secrets.
I feel like the secret that her grandmother was referring to could be that Lucy may be lying about what happened that night – this would perfectly integrate the title, aside from it being the name of the podcast. Dangling that carrot in front of our faces (there’s a lie but I’ll never tell you what it is.) Her grandma specifically says “Let Ben think he found the truth. He did what we needed him to do.” I think Lucy and Savvy were in love and when Lucy and that’s they lie she’s leaving out. Her grandma also talks about the secrets – plural- they had together. It also talked about how Savvy was never exclusive with Colin but never says who she might have been seeing even though the town had rumors about everyone else back then. I just think there’s a lot more to this book than surface level stuff.
oooo that’s a really interesting theory. Hmm I guess I haven’t thought too hard about some of the loose ends and trying to see how they might connect to uncover some hidden truths in this book, but it’s definitely worth considering…
I think it’s quite clear Lucy was the real killer, and the memories telling otherwise were made up by her psychotic mind.
In the fight with Emmett in the end, if you read carefully you can see Emmett is actually trying to flee and it’s Lucy who is going after him like a lunatic. The memories about Matt starting the fights are probably made up as well, it was actually Lucy being the violent one, that’s why it was so easy for Matt to believe her to be the killer. The parents probably knew about her true nature as well.
The author even makes the psychosis very clear with the voices inside Lucy’s head encouraging her to kill various people, the novel is just so cleverly written we can’t believe her to be the killer despite this being right in front of us.
On the motive for Lucy (if a psycho needs one): If you read carefully, you can see it’s actually Savannah who was in love with Emmett, and Lucy who tried to kiss him against his will in the wedding. The clues are:
-Describing the end of kissing scene in the wedding, Lucy says to Emmett (in a “baffling choice”): “I’m sorry” and “I shouldn’t have done that”.
-End of the chapter: “Why did Savvy look mad about me making out with Emmett at the wedding? Did she have feelings for–”
Seeing Lucy’s behaviour, Savvy got mad, didn’t want to cause a scene at the wedding so they drove a bit, then argued in the car and got into a fight outside that ended with Lucy killing Savvy. Matt and Emmett tried to intervene but were too late.
In the kissing scene between Lucy and Emmett five years later, it’s again Lucy imagining who started it, as she had the tendency to do. It was Lucy who drove to Emmett’s place to meet him, and he waved hesitantly in the window, not actually eager to meet her. Emmett is the passive one and Lucy forces a kiss on him.
Didn’t understand her last conversation with her Grandmother. Don’t like to read books that you are supposed to figure it out yourself and is open to interpretation. Won’t read anymore of her books.
I don’t like that either. This isn’t Tolstoy. I’m not looking to read carefully and find all the details that make really great writing. I want it spelled out for me when I am reading for pleasure!!