Review: Liar by Justine Larbalestier
It was pretty much impossible not to hear about Liar by Justine Larbalestier last year. First there was the controversy in which Bloomsbury, its U.S. publisher, decided to put a white girl on the cover when the book’s heroine is, in fact, biracial. Then the reviews started trickling in, and the book received a lot of praise. So I added it to my TBR pile, and finally, finally got around to reading it.
I should point out that I am not really a fan of unreliable narrators. Generally, I like to cruise along trusting the narrator of the book I’m reading to tell me the story. I guess it boils down to the fact that I really don’t want to have to think about what I’m reading, especially since so much of what I do have to read outside of leisure time requires intense thought.
To that end, it took me a while to get enmeshed in Liar. I knew that Micah was a liar. She says so on the first page. And knowing that I couldn’t trust her made it hard to get involved, at least at first. Then something happened–I’m not sure what, exactly–and I got sucked in anyway. I needed to know what was true and what wasn’t. And when I reached the second part of the book and the plot twist that I’ve seen other reviewers mention, well, from there I just didn’t stop.
In the end, the novel worked for me. I still wasn’t sure that I liked Micah, but she is a character that will linger in my mind. For days after I read about her, I would wake up with questions and theories that I couldn’t tell anyone about, because this is not a book that should be spoiled. And, ultimately, I think that’s the best compliment an author can receive. Liar still makes me think. I still want to talk about it, and I definitely recommend it. An A for sure.
Other Opinions
There are zillions of reviews of this book. You can find oodles of them here.
P.S. I listened to this one on Audio. The narration was neither brilliant nor horrible, though they did cast the narrator well, since she had an appropriately young-sounding voice.
I am glad you liked this book. I didn’t like it quite as much as other people, but I still enjoyed it.