A bachelorette party serves as the pretext for the journey in Toda la verdad de mis mentiras (on Netflix since August 28), Elísabet Benavent’s latest novel that arrives on the streaming platform after the success of Valeria, A Perfect Tale, and We Were Songs. A real anecdote that happened at a bachelorette party, experienced by the bestselling Valencian author, was also the premise of this book, which has sold more than five million copies.
In Benavent’s novels there is almost always a journey that acts as a catalyst for important twists in her characters; here, the journey is everything. Toda la verdad de mis mentiras is a road story, a caravan trip from Madrid to Mazarrón, in which a group of friends will have to speak aloud everything they have been swallowing for years, even though they know it could hurt others.
Although it’s a very ensemble story, Coco (Itziar Manero) and Marín (Daniel Ibáñez) carry more prominence; they are two roommates and best friends from the moment they met, after making an implicit pact not to pursue anything that could jeopardize that friendship… Over the years, Marín has been dating Coco’s friend Aroa (Lucía de la Fuente); and Coco has been involved with a Malasaña poet (Ricardo Gómez). Both couples are now apart, but they remain friends, and in a life increasingly marked by adult responsibilities, another friend, Blanca (Clara Sans), is getting married, and along with the person who links them all, Loren (Brays Efe), they organize a budget-friendly bachelorette party: a vintage caravan trip to a campsite in Murcia.
On the trip, Coco and Marín let themselves be carried away by their real feelings; a secret romance within the group surfaces, and all that truth behind their lies, as the title promises, comes to light. The transformation of friendships, the adaptation to adult life and its responsibilities—growing up—is once again the central theme of a Benavent story that, unlike the others adapted for the screen, is the first not so urban.
