And she’s always managed to stay one step ahead of her lies. Over the years she’s fooled everyone: her classmates, her teachers, even her parents. The premise: ganked from BN.com: Micah will freely admit she’s a compulsive liar, but that may be the one honest thing she’ll ever tell you. When I put it down, I already had a list of people I want to recommend it to.
I realise this doesn't tell you much about how I, personally, felt about this book: I read it within the space of an afternoon, and kept stopping myself after every fifty pages so I could drag it out more and enjoy it for that bit longer. (It irks me that there are likely people reading this review thinking, 'I'd better not give this to my teenage daughter.' There's nothing in this that would have damaged my fragile fourteen year old psyche. There's totally non-explicit sexual references, there's an understanding of teenagers feeling and dealing with desire, and I didn't get a 'sex is bad, hush, we don't talk about sex' vibe from it.
#DREAMFALL CHAPTERS QUEENIE GIFT PLUS#
The other thing that pleased me was the fact that the book has non-white characters - chiefly non-white characters, in fact - and LGBT content, plus a generally sex-positive attitude. If you can, and this book sounds interesting to you, then try to go into it knowing as little as possible - just knowing that Micah is a liar (not a spoiler: it's in the title). It wasn't wholly unpredictable, but I have been spoiled a little by reading other people's reviews. It's a delicate balance to walk, but Larbalestier does, in my opinion, walk it well. The thing with this book is that there are at least two ways of reading it. It doesn't stay like that, though: if you're not a fan of fantastical elements, you probably want to step back now.
Micah is as unreliable as you can get, and the whole book peels back - or layers on - more of her lies.įor the first part of the book, it could be the story of a normal teenager - one who has had bad things happen to her, and who is a loner, yes, but one who is essentially like those around her. If you don't enjoy unreliable narrators, step away right now. Cue me getting it in the mail yesterday, and being almost unable to resist the lure of the first page, which starts with the hook, "I was born with a light covering of fur." I was reminded of it recently when friends started to talk about it again - through having read it, now - and put it on my last minute Christmas list. I filed it away in the back of my mind, thinking of picking the book up when it came out. I first heard of Liar when everyone was talking about the controversy surrounding the original cover.