Liar by Justine Larbalestier
Allen and Unwin, 2009. ISBN 9781741758726.
(Ages 14+)Recommended. When Micah hears of Zach's death she
is stunned.
Not for her the tears and running to the toilet block as do the other
girls in
her senior class, but she asks questions of her biology teacher about
how long
bodies take to deteriorate. Her classmates stare at her, fascinated,
wanting
the information themselves but shocked at her callousness. Some take it
further, resorting to the name calling they spat out when she first
arrived.
Back then when word of her lies spread around the school like a cloud,
other
students felt impelled to stare, ask questions and call her names. Now,
the
whispers and looks have come back, as some braver than the rest, mouth
the word
murderer as she passes.
So it is up to Micah to prove she did not
kill Zach. She has seen a white boy hanging out in Central Park where
she and Zack used to run, but fails to find him. She becomes closer to
Sarah and
Tayshawn,
Zach's friends and they go to places where Zach used to hang out in
search of
some greater understanding. But Micah's self is changing and in that
change her
parents question her and attempt to place some controls over her.
School is
worse, with people staring and shunning her, only Sarah and Tayshawn
showing
any interest in her at all. And all the time she is aware of the
suspicions of
the Police, her parents and the teachers.
Divided into three sections, Telling the
truth, Telling the true truth and The Actual real truth,
Larbalestier
keeps the
reader guessing until the last page, and even then, questions will dog
the
reader for some time after. Nothing is solved, no truth is absolute,
nothing is
probably what it seems. Micah reveals what has happened to her to the
reader,
but then derides herself for telling lies, and purports to tell the
reader the
truth , again. So the reader is always on edge, wondering which piece
of the
narrative is true and which a lie. And this is kept up for the whole
story.
Superbly written, tightly plotted, with
believable and sympathetic characters, this book grabs the reader from
the
start. The tactile cover with its blobs falling into letter shapes, the
size of
the book, the lovely print, the short chapters, the chapter headings
bringing
the thought processes into play before the narrative begins, all is
designed
to entice, thrill and seduce the reader. I was hooked before I began to
read.
Then the words held me to the end. And I know the story will stay with
me for a
long while, and be the subject of discussions with others who have had
the
engrossing experience of reading a story by a clever and gifted writer.
Recommended for middle secondary readers who
want a story unlike any other they have read, who are willing to
suspend belief
and take on a different set of values as they go into Micah's world.
Set in New
York, the city is more than a background against which the story is
set, it
invades every scene and inhabits every event which occurs, so that the
reader
will feel they know the city before they finish the book.
Fran Knight.