Liar (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 9 Up—Biracial Micah Wilkins, 17, is the quintessential unreliable narrator. On the first page, she readily admits she's a liar though now she wants to tell her story straight. She attends a progressive private high school in New York City. She's a bit peculiar, with extra-human speed and sense of smell, and has few friends. After another student, a popular senior named Zach, is found brutally murdered, it comes to light that he and Micah had a relationship outside of school. Now she is considered a suspect. Her suspenseful, supernatural tale is engrossing and readers will be tempted to fly through it, though the wise will be wary of her spin and read carefully for subtle slipups and foreshadowing. The chilling story that she spins will have readers' hearts racing as in three sections she goes from "Telling the Truth," to "Telling the True Truth," to "Telling the Actual Real Truth," uncovering previous lies and revealing bizarre occurrences in the process. Micah's narrative is convincing, and in the end readers will delve into the psyche of a troubled teen and decide for themselves the truths and lies. This one is sure to generate discussion.—Patricia N. McClune, Conestoga Valley High School, Lancaster, PA END

Review

«“Readers will get chills paging through Larbalestier’s suspenseful novel about a compulsive liar who becomes a suspect in her boyfriend’s murder. Micah admits it is hard to believe a girl who has pretended “she’s a boy, a hermaphrodite, or that her daddy’s an arms dealer,” but when Zach, the popular boy who was secretly seeing her “after hours,” is found dead, Micah claims innocence, promising to tell readers her story with “No lies, no omissions.” But the supernatural tale she tells may be her wildest yet. Micah composes her story in short sections labeled “Before” and “After” (the murder), as well as “History of Me,” “Family History” and other categories. This is a well-paced novel with a masterfully constructed unreliable narrator, confessing to lies she has told readers along the way (“You buy everything, don’t you? You make it too easy”) and explaining how she makes lies believable. Could Micah really be innocent, or is she a confused girl who killed out of jealousy? Is she even human? Readers will be guessing and theorizing long after they’ve finished this gripping story.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review

 

«“Micah declares herself a liar and calls her own reliability as a narrator into question on the first page of this dark, gripping page-turner. When Zach, the boy with whom she might or might not be romantically involved, goes missing, Micah tries to tell the story of her tortured relationships with Zach and her classmates, teachers and family. Is Micah a killer? Quite possibly yes, but she weaves lies and truths together so artfully that even as she admits her deceptions, she becomes an increasingly compelling and sympathetic character. Micah’s fractured first-person narrative skips around chronologically, further deepening the confusion about what has really happened in her life. The constant reversals keep readers guessing, a plot device that threatens to wear thin by the halfway point of the novel, but Larbalestier moves the plot nimbly past this moment, creating such an engrossing story of teenage life on the margins that even readers familiar with her Magic or Madness trilogy might not see the supernatural twist (or not) coming. In the end, it calls to mind I Am the Cheese with its hermetic wiliness.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

«“Biracial Micah Wilkins, 17, is the quintessential unreliable narrator. On the first page, she readily admits she’s a liar though now she wants to tell her story straight. She attends a progressive private high school in New York City. She’s a bit peculiar, with extra-human speed and sense of smell, and has few friends. After another student, a popular senior named Zach, is found brutally murdered, it comes to light that he and Micah had a relationship outside of school. Now she is considered a suspect. Her suspenseful, supernatural tale is engrossing and readers will be tempted to fly through it, though the wise will be wary of her spin and read carefully for subtle slipups and foreshadowing. The chilling story that she spins will have readers’ hearts racing as in three sections she goes from "Telling the Truth," to "Telling the True Truth," to "Telling the Actual Real Truth," uncovering previous lies and revealing bizarre occurrences in the process. Micah’s narrative is convincing, and in the end readers will delve into the psyche of a troubled teen and decide for themselves the truths and lies. This one is sure to generate discussion.”–School Library Journal, starred review

 

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books (September 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599903059
• ISBN-13: 978-1599903057
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #17,687 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best YA novels of 2009!, November 25, 2009

By	J. Kaye - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

(What's this?)

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.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Oh what a web we weave...When first we practise to deceive!, July 28, 2009

By	Pam Tee "Harmless" - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

(What's this?)

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.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It was...interesting., July 3, 2009

By	Anidori-Isilee (The Asylum) - See all my reviews

(What's this?)

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.