Author: Nick Lake
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, Magical Realism
Source: Bloomsbury Australia
Goodreads
In four hours, Shelby Jane Cooper will be struck by a car.Review by Nara
Shortly after, she and her mother will leave the hospital and set out on a winding journey toward the Grand Canyon.
All Shelby knows is that they’re running from dangers only her mother understands. And the further they travel, the more Shelby questions everything about her past—and her current reality. Forced to take advantage of the kindness of unsuspecting travelers, Shelby grapples with what’s real, what isn’t, and who she can trust . . . if anybody.
Award-winning author Nick Lake proves his skills as a master storyteller in this heart-pounding new novel. This emotionally charged thrill ride leads to a shocking ending that will have readers flipping back to the beginning.
The best way I can describe There Will Be Lies is a tornado of what the freaking hell is going on. So much confusion for quite a lot of the book, especially because I kept thinking about to how the book is titled "There Will Be Lies" and I basically couldn't trust anything any of the characters said or did. Things did straighten out towards the end, but really, it was much too late for me to gain a high level of enjoyment from the book overall.
I honestly don't know whether or not I like the writing style. It's certainly an interesting, different style, but at the same time, it did have a bit of a waffliness to it that made it really easy to get lost in what was happening. It was just extremely strange. The author also really likes using a technique I like to call "blatant foreshadowing". Basically, he tells you what is going to happen next, without telling you the details, so you're left going, wait what? And forces you to keep reading to find out how exactly that event occurs.
The plot twists were all ridiculously obvious. There was this one twist where it literally says in the book "PLOT TWIST: __" and honestly, that was the most obvious twist of them all. Stating that it was a plot twist just made the moment more sigh worthy. I honestly felt like a lot of the book didn't really have much sense of direction- we'd skip back and forth between "real life" and "Dreaming", and I feel like I never really grasped the concept of Dreaming fully. Is it her subconsciousness, is it her dreams, is it an alternate reality- who knows.
Apart from maybe the writing, the one saving aspect of the book was the character cast. Not that any of them were particularly likeable, but they were certainly all interesting- ranging from strangely intriguing to captivatingly insane. I can honestly say that I didn't connect to any of them, but they were still pretty dang interesting to read about.
All in all, would I recommend? Not sure. If you're looking for a very "different" sort of contemporary mystery/thriller with a hint of magical realism- maybe.
It was okay
Ratings
Overall: 4/10
Plot: 2/5
Writing: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Cover: 1/5
