Liar by Justine Larbalestier
When I was 6 years old I convinced my classmates that I was an Aboriginal princess. I can't remember how long I managed to get away with the lie, but I enjoyed the attention for a while. I also pretended to be a boy when I was 11, while at a holiday club. I did get away with that lie until my gender was betrayed by my own father, and I attracted too many stares swimming in board shorts!
Children lie. Adults lie. Teenagers lie.
Liar has won many awards in the US and Australia and is shortlisted for The Children's Book Council of Australia awards. Justine Larbalestier is a Sydney girl who also spends a lot of time in New York. She wrote How to Ditch Your Fairy, and some other fantasy and science fiction works, but most reviewers agree that this is her most substantial contribution to date.
As the title suggests, this is a book written from the perspective of an extremely unreliable narrator. Micah is 17, black and living in New York, and her friend has just been discovered murdered in Central Park. She freely admits she is a liar. She pretended to be a boy for a while, then a hermaphrodite. As the plot deepens it is harder and harder to tell whether what she is describing actually happened.
In the end it is much easier to go with the flow.
It appears that she was the "girl on the side" for the boy, Zach Rubin, who was murdered. It is hard to work out how serious their relationship was, and how closely she is implicated in his disappearance and death.
What is canvassed through the book are all the usual issues of teenagers: looks, identity, image, security, esteem, friendship, family, romantic relationships, hopes, struggles with authority, suffering and wisdom.
It also examines from many angles the implication of lies, white lies, untruths and all their consequences.
This is a thriller that grips from the beginning, beautifully and artfully written. It has attracted a lot of attention both here and overseas.
While attempting NOT to spoil the plot, I do want to warn that this book has paranormal themes.
More disturbing for me was that there is a scene where a boy and two girls are kissing each other. This book is labelled young adult, but I can't remember another book for this age group featuring a threesome. It is not an explicit scene, and of course, there is a question mark about whether it ever happened, since Micah lies… but it suggests this is a book for older teens.
In a society full of storylines with drug-taking, casual sex, abuse, violence, suicide and homosexual relationships, I am not sure that younger teens needs to be thinking about another possibility. I was interested that no teens referred to that scene in the 30 reviews I went through preparing for this blog. Perhaps it is less startling for them than I found it.
Notwithstanding that, the quality of the writing in this book, and the potential for hearty discussions makes this book earn its place on my bookshelf; and suggests that Larbalestier is an author to watch.
If nothing else this story makes you yearn for truth, something reliable, something sure, strict boundaries, absolutes.
