The Five Year Lie

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, child sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, death by suicide, and cursing.

“In the olden days—like 2015—unmonitored surveillance cameras were stupid creatures, with the unblinking gaze of a toddler in need of a nap. But times have changed. The overworked security guard isn’t the only one watching. The camera in Bay 24 feeds its images to the cloud, where a piece of AI software triangulates each face in its focal range. All those eyes and noses and scowls. More data for its endlessly hungry maw. The system sees it all. And now it sees her, too.”

The Prologue sets up the theme of The Impact of Technology on Personal Lives by showing that security cameras are directly affecting the protagonist—the camera recording Ariel is figured as a predator, “triangulating” the location of its human prey until it “sees her.” The passage thus establishes the tension that will continue throughout the thriller, linking Ariel to the unseen antagonist trying to stop her from getting at the truth.

“That message would rattle me coming from anyone. But coming from Drew, it’s heart-stopping. Because Drew Miller, the only man I ever loved, and the father of my child, is dead.”

The inciting incident of the novel is a text from Drew, who is believed to be dead. The diction and syntax communicate the impact of receiving the message on Ariel. The words “rattle” and “heart-stopping” build anticipation to the explanation. The last sentence uses two escalating qualifiers to describe the sender: He is Ariel’s beloved and also a permanent fixture in her life through her son. Finally, the last revelation concludes with the kind of surprise that typically characterizes thrillers: A dead man is sending messages from beyond the grave. This cliffhanger ends the chapter, prompting readers to continue the novel.