Customer Reviews

Liar

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

LIAR is a book about Micah, a girl for whom, and from whom, the truth doesn't easily come. Her family is crazy-odd, and not surprisingly she has problems fitting in at school and even at home.

Told in first person, Micah begins her story by warning us that she's a liar. She promises that while she can't stop lying to everyone in her life, that she intends to tell us the truth. I, personally, thought this untrustworthiness provided an interesting element to the story, and didn't quite find it as annoying as other reviewers have. I thought she was earnest in 'trying' to be truthful, but as is the case with liars you can't really trust them regardless of what the claim, even when they claim they were lying.

Now all of this, the lying, the odd family, might not have become such a problem except Micah's secret boyfriend, Zach, goes missing and then shows up dead. [Secret? You bet. You see Micah's boyfriend was a popular boy who had another, prettier girl, Sarah, who he hung out with at least half the time. But when it came to skipping school or playing hoops, or just on the other days, then he was Micah's friend.]

In any case, the murder happens pretty early on and is the pivotal point around which the rest of the book unfolds. It's how we, and Micah, come to know Zach's other girlfriend, and how we get to know more about the 'family disease'.

Elements:::

"Liar" is a convoluted story with more than one mystery boiling in the pot. It's told in a first person chatty style by a character who admits she's a liar. Justine Larbalestier is more than competent when it comes to being able to do this voice justice, and I look forward to reading more of her work.

That said, I didn't find the characters in this book terribly engrossing. Only Micah is well fleshed out and she's not a very appealing. While the story of her family and the mystery of what happened to Zach is imaginative, for one reason or another Liar never 'snagged' my interest. In fact, as a 'mature' reader, I must say that I found it tedious. I never felt sorry the the travails of the characters, not even poor dead Zach. And of the 384 pages, I thought there was too much time spent on handwringing teenage angst and not enough forward momentum pulling me to the next page. To be honest, if I hadn't been happily lounging by the pool, I would have never finished this book.

Info for parents::: Adult Language, Adult Situations.

When I was holding "Liar" in my hands, so excited to read it (I really like Justine Larbalestier's writing), I realized something: I didn't know how to read "Liar". How do you read a book when you actually know you may not be able to trust the narrator?

I still haven't figured it out. If you try reading it like a normal book, your mind keeps reminding you that the main character is a liar. Micah keeps reminding you that she lies. Except this, she says, is the truth.

But is?

"Liar" is about the aftermath of Micah's secret boyfriend's mysterious and brutal death. Micah swears she didn't kill him, but not everyone believes her, and why should they? Micah's an unpopular outcast, and a liar, and everyone knows it.

So is "Liar" even at all true? Or is it all one big lie?

Yeah. See my confusion?

The stuff I loved about the book?

Larbalestier's writing. I don't really number Larbalestier as one of my favorite authors, but I think that's just because none of her books are among my favorites. But I do love her writing and her ideas. All of her YA novels have stellar concepts. "Liar" is no exception. It's the execution--the plot twists--that I find shaky, but more on that latter. I just have no complaints about how Larbalestier puts a book together, neither the way she constructs her sentences or the way she pieces together the plot.

For example, "Liar" does not unfold linearly. The narrative is broken into short sections: "Before", "After", "Family History", "History of Me", etc. It keeps the story moving at a good pace, and it keeps you intrigued because you don't get the information all at once. Micah holds some important information back; it makes it easy to believe that Micah is actually telling you the story.

Micah...ah, I loved Micah's character. "Liar" is a fascinating study of a liar and a teenage girl. Micah's smart, somewhat defiant, an individual. She's an outcast, and okay with it. She likes being invisible. Despite the way she admits to being a liar, you can't help but want to believe her, to like her, to want her to overcome her lying and succeed in life because you know that she can accomplish great things. As for her lying...you get the impression that Micah lies because...not because she likes to but because she is unable to tell the truth about some fundamental part of her. (If she's to be believed, of course.) And it goes from there...she's just used to hiding herself behind falsehoods.

The other characters...I'm not going to say that they were nuanced. I don't really think that they were, but I'm not going to say they were oppressively flat or stereotypical either. Because I don't think that either. "Liar" is just very much a character study of Micah; as such, the other characters are just there to help tell the story, to explain Micah's situation. They're not really the draw of this novel like Micah is.

So why'd I only give "Liar" three stars?

I'd say that I dropped one star just because the whole unreliable narrator thing. It's hard to really connect with a book when you're always wondering if you're being told the truth.

And the second star? Remember what I said about not liking the plot twists Larbalestier's novels take? Yep. Micah's family has a big secret, and she reveals it. And when she did...the novel sort of fell apart of me. Maybe had I been expecting it, I would have been okay with it, but it seemed like the book changed gears, and I had a much harder time convincing myself to trust Micah. I will say that despite not liking the twist, I did like how Larbalestier handled it.

So basically, I'm not sure what to think about "Liar". I liked it, I did. But how much? Why? What all do I make of it? That I'm not sure.

If I were to write the review for this book the way the book was written it would go something like this:
"I hated this book - it was weird and confusing...No, really I loved this book because it was suspenseful...Okay, actually I liked parts of the book but not others...or did I??"

Confused? Well, that gives you an idea of what it was like to read "Liar". Unlike Micah, however, I will now clarify and give my true opinion.

If I was rating the book just on uniqueness and suspense, I would give it 4 stars because it was interesting and I did want to keep reading to (try to) find out what really happened to Zach. Micah the narrator told her story partly through flashbacks and partly in the present but the sections were marked so you didn't have to guess if you were reading something from the past. This technique did help to keep the story moving.

However, there were some things that I really disliked about the book. It was not clear when Micah was lying and when she was telling the truth, and that made it hard to invest in her story because you never knew when something would turn out to be a lie. I really disliked both the supernatural twist the book took when the "family secret" was revealed and the ambiguous ending. After wading through Micah's lies and possible truths, I had hoped that everything would finally be resolved at the end, but it wasn't.

Overall, I gave the book three stars because even though there were parts that I disliked, it was one of the most unique books I've read and was suspenseful all the way through the book. I was disappointed that the way the book ended, not only was the ending ambiguous, but I wasn't sure of what was truth and what wasn't regarding incidents that occurred throughout the book.

I want to note that although this is categorized as young adult fiction, due to a few instances of strong language and mature situations, I think "Liar" is better suited to older teens and is definitely not recommended for pre-teens.

I really feel like I should start this out with a warning. No matter what I say, my words could not possibly express the depth of my feelings about this book. I'll take a stab at it, but I'm sure to come up short.

The reason I selected this book to read was mainly because it was labeled as a young adult thriller. I don't ever remember reading a thriller in this genre. The main character, Micah, is a pathological liar with a gift of weaving the biggest of tales. She starts out with a promise to tell the truth. The book is in three parts. When I began the last part, I wasn't sure what was truth and what was a lie.

Micah has a boyfriend who readers will get to know in the past tense as he is murdered. The story flips back and forth from past to present tense in such an easy fashion that it doesn't take away the intensity of the story. I really don't want to tell too many details. Not knowing will only add to the excitement. In the end, how he died will be revealed. That is, if you believe Micah's story.

For me, there was no "ah" feeling at the end. I was hyper with excitement, ready to discuss with others how I felt. I also wanted to know if other readers were as gullible. Did they believe she was who she claimed to be? I don't know what I believe. The only thing for sure is Justine Larbalestier is a gifted storyteller.

Liar is an interactive book. You won't realize it until you're halfway through it, but the story isn't just about Micha (a compulsive liar), it is also about you. In the first paragraph Micha informs you that she never tells the truth, but this time (for you) she'll make an exception. As Micha starts to recount the events surrounding the mysterious murder of her boyfriend you are forced to ask yourself which parts are true and which are not. The story oscillates between the real world and the paranormal, only to ground itself in a confession of lies (which of course is not very grounding). And all along you find yourself wondering what to believe. Not only is this book expertly plotted (I am amazed at Larbalestier's ability to weave lies and truth together to fluidly), but LIAR forces you to become an active participant. As the narrative unfolds you find yourself saying: Is that true? No way! Oh maybe that part is real. Oh wait, that make sense taking into account what she said in the second chapter. And so on. When the novel ends you wonder if any of it is true, and if the whole book is a lie. And there in lies the paradox. Because - yes - all of it is a lie. Every book and work of fiction that we read is a lie. None of these stories are true. An perhaps that's part of the point. LIAR masterfully pulls back the veil between reality and fiction and you realize that this story has come alive - because you - here in "the real world" have become a part of the story. And in the end the question isn't - is Micha telling the truth - so much as what do you choose to believe. The book is about you.

I ordered this book from the library after I heard about the controversy over the cover (the original US cover was to have a white girl on it, while the main character is biracial). I'm sure the cover debacle wasn't intended to create buzz, but it did.

The main character and narrator, Micah, is a compulsive liar. That's about the only thing you can be sure of, as Micah repeatedly scoffs at people who take her at her word after she's admitted she's a liar. It leaves her in a bit of a boy-who-cries-wolf situation as she desperately attempts to get the reader to believe her story (one that she admits is hard to believe). By the end of the book, there is no telling what is the truth and what is not.

Thanks to Thanksgiving break (am I not supposed to say that as a working adult?), I was able to sit down and read this in one sitting. I was really enjoying it until halfway through, when Larbalestier threw in a twist that I hadn't anticipated (though I must admit there were clues to it, I just didn't see the signs). It's not the type of twist I would enjoy, but more than that, I didn't really like how it changed the entire character of the book.

So while I thought this was an interesting story to a point and definitely a thinker, I wouldn't necessarily recommend or discourage it. If you're looking for something a bit different, this might be your book.

Note: I also don't think this book is appropriate for teens. Feel free to call me a prude.

I'd like to tell you the truth about how I felt after reading Justine Larbalestier's dynamic new novel, Liar. But the truth is, I can't.

I'm still reeling from this fast-paced mystery that is quickly garnering fame for having the most unreliable narrator on the planet.

Liar is told from the point of view of Micah, a seventeen year-old compulsive liar with a dead (mabye... sort of) boyfriend. Besides the dead guy, there are other mysteries in Micah life, like why does her extended family live like pioneer folks, why does she have such a deep dislike for her brother, and what, oh what, is the "family illness"? (One is tempted to think it is compulsive lying, but in any case...)

The story's pace is lightening fast, almost hard to keep up with -- there are so many twists and turns as Micah keeps revising what she promises is "the truth." I enjoyed this aspect of the story very much.

Yet, I had difficulty connecting with Micah herself. Not because she's an unreliable narrator (I've read, and connected with plenty of these in the past), but because there's so little I share with her. Perhaps, were I seventeen, the case may be different, but I don't think so. I'm not so senile yet that I forgotten the feeling of teenage-hood. Without being able to quantify it well, I'll have to leave it at "Micah and I didn't really connect." Maybe this is because the overwhelming impression I get from Micah isn't that she is talking to me, and trying to convince me of the truth, but more that she is trying to convince herself. I, the reader, am really irrelevant in this scenario.

As for the other characters, well, Micah isn't a very good narrator, in addition to being unreliable. That is to say that none of the rest of the people she describes have any real flesh to them. Not a keen observer of character, that Micah.

Yet, for all this, I probably would have felt better about the whole story, if it weren't for a certain moment I'm going to have to be coy about. Suffice to say that about halfway through the novel, there was a moment between three teens in a cave that I was still trying to digest when the novel started a new section and declared a "truth" that left me going, "Really? No, really?" Yes, really.

I'm not sure if it was clever... a gimmick... a clever gimmick? It was certainly interesting, and added a whole new dimension to the idea of the narrator's credibility, but, oh I can't explain it. You may have to read it for yourself, despite my less-than-glowing review. Otherwise, I'll ruing the whole story. Now *that* is the sort of thing that novel-buzz is made of, n'est-ce pas?

As for the moment in the cave: That led to a sort of dispensable bizarre subplot of dubious veracity that I didn't much enjoy. But I'm coming to discover that I'm something of a literary prude, anyway. Be forewarned that this novel is full of sexual situations, adult language, and a whole lot of violence.

The long and short of it is, my feelings about this book are about as unreliable as Micah, but what can be said for it is this -- Liar will stick with me for a long time to come.

Boys are usually reluctant to read novels with a female protagonist, but I think that they'd really enjoy this one if you can get them past that. A late YA novel for sure, say ages 15-18.

This book actually took my breath away. I had picked it up do to the cover snafu, but I was surprised to see such a riveting and unique plot that leaves you double guessing everything in it.

Other people have mentioned the non-linear story line and THE plot twist as detractors. I have to disagree with the former; I have always been a fan of Tarantino's films that utilize the out of sequence story telling. The second... I give some credit to, but the author is able to skillfully take such a surprise twist in genre and have you go with it.

The fact that most of this could be the imagination of a seventeen year-old girl is always there, and that was one thing I loved about the book. I don't understand exactly who so many people had trouble with the half-fake/half-true way that it was told, you don't have to know for sure, half the fun is in not being sure what to assume to be true. Have none of you ever watched a David Lynch work, where most of the entertainment value is trying to explain what exactly is happening? I guess it's my love for that genre that prevented me from having trouble reading the story.

Micah is a teenage girl who has an absolutely unique life, but one we can all relate to: We all tell lies and spin tales, we all feel like outsiders sometimes, we've all issues with out parents, we've all had the teenage sexual exploration, and we are all at least somewhat uncomfortable in our own skin.

The book was a quick read, it hooks you in and you find yourself having to keep reading. Start it in a day when you have nothing much to do, and prepare to watch those hours be devoured.

I had very mixed emotions about this book. I feel the author has a wonderful, descriptive writing style, and that style kept me reading to see what was going to happen to certain characters.

On the other hand, the storyline itself was very confusing. It is not that it is complex, but just a bit all over the place, or at least I think it would be for target audience of young adults. Even though the author clearly marked the book, so you knew when narration was occurring in the past or present, the tale just seemed to never fully woven together.

I think the author's concept for the story is excellent and of interest - a pathological liar, the lies they tell the impact on their life. But the idea just doesn't seem to fully evolve into a cohesive story.

Again, due to the author's writing style, well-paced development, and introduction of information, I did enjoy reading the book, but overall the story was disappointing, as was the conclusion. The story bounced around so much with Micah's lies (and truths?) that the book would have been best served by closure and a strong ending.

NOTE: I would caution that this book is best suited for an older teen/young adult. There are a few mature situations and sexual content that make it unsuitable for even a mature "tween".

LIAR has some interesting if quite unpleasant elements. The plot is hard to describe without giving away spoilers. Micah who tells the story is definitely an unreliable narrator as she admits to her readers she is a liar on the first page. The story is not at all linear but the author is skilled enough to come up with a comprehensible story through short passages with titles such as "Before", "After", "Family History" and so on.

The setting of the story is present day Manhattan. If we are to believe Micah, when the story begins she is a high school senior living with her biracial parents in a tiny apartment in the Lower East Side. Again according to Micah she attends a school founded by Quakers which was formerly a prison which accounts for the bars on the windows. Micah tells us her "secret" boyfriend Zach has been found mysteriously killed after several days of being missing. Zach's fate and Micah's involvement in it form the central plot. Micah tells us many other things, some involving the supernatural, and we are never sure exactly what to believe is real even in the context of the story.

I found the book quite manipulative in some places and I would have appreciated a less ambiguous ending. Obviously the book is aimed at a young adult audience which makes it somewhat difficult for an adult reviewer to fairly judge. The book is quite original (at least to me) and I can see it appealing to readers who like their teenage angst mixed with some horror.