Liar by Justine Larbalestier

From Amazon:
Micah will freely admit that she’s a compulsive liar, but that may be the one honest thing she’ll ever tell you. Over the years she’s duped her classmates, her teachers, and even her parents, and she’s always managed to stay one step ahead of her lies. That is, until her boyfriend dies under brutal circumstances and her dishonesty begins to catch up with her. But is it possible to tell the truth when lying comes as naturally as breathing? Taking readers deep into the psyche of a young woman who will say just about anything to convince them—and herself—that she’s finally come clean, Liar is a bone-chilling thriller that will have readers see-sawing between truths and lies right up to the end. Honestly.


Way back in the summer, one of the hot stories around the blogs was the story of Liar, a book with a black protagonist but a cover shot of a white girl. There was quite an uproar over this, and the cover was later changed to something different, although still problematic. The controversy was one of the reasons why I put the book on my ‘to read’ list, but aside from that I didn’t know anything else about it. Which I think turned out to be a good thing, because Liar had twists that I never saw coming. Even now I think I’ve said too much. Maybe I’ll just use the catalogue blurb: Compulsive liar Micah promises to tell the truth after revealing that her boyfriend has been murdered. So that’s it, and it isn’t it. He’s not really her boyfriend…or is he? He wasn’t murdered…was he? Does she really promise to tell the truth? And if she does, does she actually tell the truth? The book is a mind-bender and the nature of what really happens in this book is heavily debated. (And thinking about the cover after you’ve read the book just changes things even more). If you are thinking of reading it, don’t read about it. Maybe I should have put that at the beginning….

I got this book: from the library