Everyone Is Lying to You Summary, Characters and Themes

Everyone Is Lying to You by Jo Piazza is a suspenseful exploration of friendship, betrayal, ambition, and the dark side of social media.  It follows Lizzie Matthews, a suburban magazine editor, and her estranged college friend Rebecca “Bex” Sommers, who has reinvented herself as a glamorous influencer.

Beneath the curated perfection of Rebecca’s online world lies a troubled marriage, hidden abuse, and secrets that threaten to unravel everything.  When Lizzie and Rebecca reconnect after years of silence, their reunion collides with scandal, murder, and buried truths. Piazza examines the blurred lines between reality and performance, questioning how far people will go to protect their image and their freedom.

Summary

Lizzie Matthews lives a routine suburban life with her husband and children, though she secretly obsesses over the Instagram posts of Rebecca “Bex” Sommers, her former best friend from college.  Once rebellious and carefree, Rebecca has built a massive online following as @BarefootMamaLove, projecting the image of a wholesome ranch wife and mother of six.

Lizzie feels resentment and longing toward the friend who abandoned her years ago without explanation.  One night, Rebecca unexpectedly messages her, admitting she too has been following Lizzie’s life from afar.

Their awkward online exchange leads to talk of an in-person meeting, sparking a mixture of curiosity and unease for Lizzie.

Behind Rebecca’s carefully staged posts is a very different reality.  Her marriage to Grayson Sommers is deeply troubled.

He is controlling, manipulative, and at times violent, though Rebecca hides the bruises and emotional damage behind the illusion of family bliss.  Her influencer empire depends on maintaining the facade.

With media staff, photographers, and sponsorships, every moment of her life is crafted for maximum engagement.  Privately, however, she feels trapped, exhausted, and isolated.

When Rebecca proposes that Lizzie write a feature on her for Modern Woman magazine, Lizzie jumps at the chance.  It feels like an opportunity both to advance her stagnant career and perhaps repair the broken bond with her friend.

Rebecca hints at a big announcement she will make during MomBomb, an exclusive influencer conference, and invites Lizzie to cover it.  Hungry for professional recognition and escape from her own stressed marriage, Lizzie travels to the desert resort hosting the event.

The reunion between Lizzie and Rebecca is warm yet charged with unresolved tension.  Memories of their college closeness resurface, but the years of silence and betrayal remain unspoken.

Over drinks in Lizzie’s suite, Rebecca drops her glamorous persona and shows vulnerability, revealing the toll her marriage and lifestyle have taken.  Lizzie notices a bruise under her eye and threatening texts from Grayson.

Rebecca promises that she will explain everything soon, but warns Lizzie that danger surrounds her life.

At the conference, Lizzie witnesses the artificiality of influencer culture—sponsored luxuries, performative panels, and influencers masking messy realities with polished posts.  Rebecca admits that much of what the public sees is fabricated, and that she lies constantly to keep her brand afloat.

She also hints that she has plans that could free her from Gray’s grip.  Before she can reveal more, chaos erupts.

Grayson Sommers is found brutally murdered in his barn, his body mutilated.  The news spreads quickly, and suspicion falls on Rebecca, whose children have also gone missing.

The police question Lizzie, pressing her about Rebecca’s marriage and whether she noticed abuse.  Though hesitant, Lizzie acknowledges the signs she saw.

Meanwhile, online opinion shifts overnight from idolization of Rebecca to public vilification.  Soon after, Lizzie receives a secret note from Rebecca insisting on her innocence and pleading for trust.

Lizzie’s editor pressures her to cover the story, turning her into both reporter and reluctant participant.

Investigating further, Lizzie uncovers rumors of Grayson’s affairs, including with Veronica Smith, one of the famous influencer triplets.  She also learns from Rebecca’s manager, Olivia, that Rebecca had major deals lined up—TV shows, magazines, product lines—that Gray opposed.

Olivia insists Rebecca is not the killer, suggesting instead that powerful men in their conservative community wanted to keep her under control.  Lizzie begins to fear that Rebecca might be in danger rather than the culprit.

Lizzie’s search leads her to Rebecca’s ranch, where she discovers the truth behind the facade.  The immaculate home seen online is just a set, while a hidden “shadow house” behind a locked door reveals the clutter and chaos of real family life.

In Rebecca’s bedroom, Lizzie finds Polaroids documenting years of abuse, including one from the very period when Rebecca had ghosted her in college.  Lizzie realizes Rebecca’s withdrawal had been driven by Grayson’s control, not rejection.

But before she can process this, an unknown intruder arrives at the ranch, forcing Lizzie to escape with the evidence.

Meanwhile, Rebecca is on the run, hiding with help from her confidantes.  She recalls how she once set up hidden cameras in the barn to capture Gray and Marsden Greer, his old friend and a former baseball star, hoping to gather evidence of their wrongdoings.

Instead, she watched Marsden kill Gray.  Olivia persuaded her not to go to the police, arguing they could manage the fallout to protect her brand.

But Marsden now hunts her, determined to frame her.

Marsden kidnaps Rebecca, planning to stage her suicide with a fabricated audio confession.  He paints her as unstable, seeking to destroy her reputation and cover his crime.

Rebecca manages to send a covert message to her allies before Marsden takes her to the barn.  As he forces a noose around her neck, Lizzie and Olivia arrive.

In the struggle, Rebecca kicks Marsden, nearly hanging herself before Olivia cuts her down.  They overpower Marsden, and Olivia ultimately forces him to take his own life, covering their tracks to protect Rebecca.

Afterward, investigators question Veronica, who spins a narrative that Marsden killed Gray out of jealousy before taking his own life.  She protects her image as an influencer widow, while Rebecca begins to rebuild.

A year later, Rebecca remarries Dan, an influencer she once dated casually, and Olivia continues to manage her thriving brand.  Lizzie, meanwhile, publishes a book about Rebecca’s story, gaining her own recognition but retreating from social media.

Veronica reinvents herself for reality television, aligning with Olivia to launch new ventures and target fresh opportunities.

The novel closes with Rebecca, Lizzie, and Veronica smiling together for the cameras, presenting a united front to the world while privately holding the secrets of betrayal, manipulation, and survival.  Beneath their curated images, each woman carries the weight of choices that shaped their fates, leaving the reader questioning where authenticity ends and performance begins.

Characters

Lizzie Matthews

Lizzie Matthews is portrayed as a complex and relatable protagonist in Everyone Is Lying to You.  A thirty-something magazine editor and mother, she is caught between her professional ambitions and her personal struggles.

Her life in the Philly suburbs with her unemployed husband Peter and two young children feels stagnant and unrewarding, pushing her to seek both escapism and validation through social media.  Lizzie’s fascination with her former best friend Rebecca “Bex” Sommers highlights her insecurity and yearning for connection.

Her internal conflict—resentment over being abandoned, nostalgia for their friendship, and fascination with Bex’s curated influencer life—defines much of her arc.  Through her journey, Lizzie emerges as both a witness and an active participant in uncovering the truth behind Bex’s seemingly perfect life.

Her dual role as journalist and friend forces her to balance loyalty with professional responsibility, leading her to confront uncomfortable truths about exploitation, manipulation, and the cost of living under society’s expectations.

Rebecca “Bex” Sommers

Rebecca Sommers, or Bex, is the enigmatic center of the novel, embodying the contradiction between reality and performance.  Once wild and free-spirited in college, she reinvents herself as a polished influencer under the handle @BarefootMamaLove, portraying the idyllic life of a ranch-dwelling mother of six.

Behind the glossy façade, however, lies a woman trapped in a controlling and abusive marriage to Grayson.  Her character is shaped by resilience born of hardship—growing up poor, surviving the death of her mother, and reinventing herself into a brand that supports her family.

Bex’s vulnerability is revealed in her private interactions with Lizzie, where her loneliness, bruises, and exhaustion replace the perfect image she shows online.  Her complexity deepens as the story unfolds—she is at once victim and strategist, both manipulated and manipulative.

Rebecca’s arc culminates in survival, reinvention, and ultimately power, but the shadows of trauma and compromise continue to haunt her, leaving readers questioning how much of her final triumph is victory and how much is performance.

Grayson Sommers

Grayson is the antagonist of the story, representing control, violence, and toxic masculinity.  Outwardly charming, with an air of sophistication that initially drew Rebecca to him, his true nature emerges as their marriage progresses.

He exerts emotional, financial, and physical control over Rebecca, weaponizing her vulnerabilities and isolating her from those who cared about her, including Lizzie.  His influence is not only personal but symbolic of the patriarchal structures that aim to keep women small and compliant.

His murder is the turning point of the narrative, and while it shifts the story into the realm of mystery and scandal, the real legacy of Grayson is the damage he leaves behind.  His character forces readers to confront the devastating consequences of abuse and the ways it shapes the choices and compromises of those trapped within it.

Marsden Greer

Marsden Greer, Grayson’s old friend and a celebrity athlete, is another figure embodying toxic power.  A manipulator with a hidden darkness, Marsden serves as both mirror and extension of Grayson’s world.

He is entangled in scandals, affairs, and violent impulses, ultimately orchestrating Rebecca’s kidnapping and attempting to frame her for murder.  His use of AI-generated confessions to stage her downfall reveals his calculated cruelty and obsession with control.

Though paralyzed and eventually killed, his influence lingers as a reminder of how systems of power protect men like him while silencing women.  Marsden is less a fully fleshed-out character than a chilling force of danger, representing the external threats women face when challenging oppressive systems.

Olivia

Olivia, Rebecca’s manager and advisor, is a fascinating study in ambition and manipulation.  She positions herself as both protector and exploiter of Rebecca, guiding her rise as an influencer while pushing her toward calculated risks and dramatic reinventions.

Olivia embodies the duality of the entertainment industry—capable of empowering women by amplifying their voices, but also perpetuating the very structures of branding and commodification that strip authenticity away.  Her ruthless pragmatism is most evident in the climax, when she ensures Marsden’s death is staged to protect Rebecca’s brand.

Yet Olivia’s loyalty, however transactional, helps Rebecca survive.  She is both ally and puppet master, a character who thrives in the morally gray areas of power and control.

Veronica “Ronnie” Smith

Veronica, one of the famous Smith triplets and Marsden’s wife, is a character who initially appears as part of the influencer spectacle but gradually reveals deeper layers of cunning.  She maneuvers through scandal with an instinct for survival, reinventing herself as a widow influencer after Marsden’s death.

Her ability to manipulate narratives and align herself with Olivia makes her a formidable figure in the novel’s closing chapters.  Veronica represents the adaptability of women within the influencer world—able to capitalize on tragedy, perform resilience for an audience, and remain complicit in morally dubious choices.

Her character underscores the theme of reinvention, but also hints at how power and survival in such an environment often come at the cost of truth and integrity.

Peter Matthews

Peter, Lizzie’s husband, is a quieter but significant character whose role highlights Lizzie’s dissatisfaction with her personal life.  His unemployment and passive presence contrast starkly with Lizzie’s yearning for professional validation and independence.

While not abusive like Grayson, Peter represents stagnation, a lack of ambition, and the heavy weight of domestic responsibility that contributes to Lizzie’s escapism into Bex’s world.  His character underscores the theme of disappointment in personal relationships and the quiet compromises women often make within marriage.

Peter is not a villain, but his lack of drive serves as a mirror to Lizzie’s own fears of irrelevance and unfulfilled potential.

Themes

Female Friendship and Betrayal

The bond between Lizzie and Rebecca forms the emotional core of Everyone Is Lying to You.  Their friendship, once intense and formative during college, collapses under mysterious circumstances when Rebecca abandons Lizzie without explanation.

This betrayal lingers for over a decade, leaving Lizzie with unresolved grief and resentment.  When they reconnect, the narrative shows how female friendships are not only sources of deep intimacy but also profound vulnerability.

The sense of betrayal is not simply about abandonment but about the loss of recognition—the erasure of a shared past and the trust that defined it.  As their relationship rekindles, the complexity of trust resurfaces, mixing nostalgia with suspicion.

Lizzie oscillates between her longing for Rebecca’s validation and her fear of being hurt again.  The book portrays female friendship as a space of both empowerment and fragility, where unspoken expectations and emotional intensity can magnify wounds.

Rebecca’s silence about her abusive marriage also highlights how women often isolate themselves, cutting ties with even their closest allies when they are at their most vulnerable.  Through this theme, the novel reflects on how betrayal can fracture identity, but also how reconciliation, even amid danger and secrecy, can offer redemption.

The Illusion of Social Media

Rebecca’s public persona as an influencer is a carefully manufactured façade, a glittering lie designed to generate admiration, envy, and financial gain.  The ranch, the smiling children, the rustic kitchen—all become props in her performance.

The book reveals how social media encourages a curated existence where authenticity is sacrificed for brand appeal.  Followers believe they are witnessing a genuine lifestyle, but in reality, every image is staged, every caption calibrated.

Rebecca embodies the paradox of digital celebrity: adored by millions but profoundly lonely.  Her influencer empire magnifies her entrapment, both by her abusive husband and by the expectations of her audience.

Lizzie’s fixation with scrolling through Rebecca’s feed mirrors how ordinary viewers are seduced by illusions, willingly complicit in consuming lies that distort their sense of self.  The theme underscores the danger of equating online narratives with truth, exposing how performance culture erases the messy realities of human experience.

Social media here is not just a platform for expression but a stage that demands relentless perfection, leaving those behind the screen increasingly alienated from the lives they claim to live.

Abuse and Control in Marriage

The depiction of Rebecca’s relationship with Grayson reveals the insidious nature of abuse, showing how control operates gradually, often under the guise of affection.  What begins as charm and attentiveness soon turns into dominance, manipulation, and physical violence.

Grayson’s ability to isolate Rebecca from her friends, dictate her actions, and even intercept her communications demonstrates the systemic way abusers erode autonomy.  The narrative emphasizes not just the physical injuries but the psychological scars—how Rebecca internalizes fear, learns to silence herself, and hides her suffering behind a curated persona.

Abuse here is not a private tragedy but a public silence, masked by staged images of domestic bliss.  Even Rebecca’s success as an influencer becomes a double-edged sword: while it gives her financial independence, it also deepens Grayson’s resentment and control.

The book critiques the social tendency to overlook signs of abuse, noting how communities, audiences, and even friends often fail to see what is hidden in plain sight.  By embedding abuse within the glittering world of influencer culture, the story demonstrates how even spaces of empowerment can become cages when distorted by coercion and violence.

The Corrupting Power of Ambition

Ambition in Everyone Is Lying to You is both liberating and destructive.  For Rebecca, the influencer empire offers escape from her past, independence from her husband, and the chance to craft a powerful identity.

Yet the pursuit of influence also entangles her in webs of deceit, rivalry, and exploitation.  Olivia, her manager, embodies ambition’s ruthless edge, treating lives as brands and tragedies as marketing opportunities.

Veronica, too, thrives by manipulating narratives, turning widowhood into marketable content.  Even Lizzie is not immune, as her journalistic career and hunger for validation push her into moral compromises, straddling the line between loyalty and opportunism.

The narrative portrays ambition as a force that magnifies both resilience and corruption, offering survival for some but demanding the sacrifice of truth, intimacy, and sometimes morality.  It raises unsettling questions about whether success in such a world is ever clean, or whether survival itself requires embracing deception.

The Blurred Line Between Truth and Lies

Lies saturate the novel—personal lies, marital lies, professional lies, and public lies broadcast to millions.  Rebecca lies to protect her children and herself; Olivia lies to manipulate outcomes; Veronica lies to build her own empire; and Lizzie lies by omission when she withholds her suspicions from investigators.

These lies are not always malicious but often acts of survival in systems that reward performance over honesty.  The title, Everyone Is Lying to You, becomes both a warning and a diagnosis of modern life, where appearances reign supreme.

The distinction between truth and fabrication collapses, leaving characters and readers alike to question whether authenticity even matters in a world sustained by curated illusions.  Lies here are not just tools of manipulation but mechanisms of endurance, yet their accumulation creates a moral ambiguity where justice and deception are almost indistinguishable.

This theme leaves readers unsettled, forcing them to consider how much of their own reality—online or off—is built on similar fabrications.