There Will Be Lies

There Will Be Lies
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!

In four hours Shelby will be hit by a car, and from that moment on, everything is going to change, there will be two lies and one truth, and as Shelby and her mother flee the hospital where she's treated, and set out on a journey heading for the Grand Canyon, Shelby knows they're running from something, but she can't help but wonder if her mother's lying to her, and if she is, what about? What's true and what's false?

As they travel further and further, and her mother's behaviour gets odder and odder, the more Shelby questions everything, and has no idea who she can trust. Simultaneously a boy who doesn't really exist, is sucking her in to the Dreaming every time she sleeps, where she's on a strange quest to save a Child from a Crone, but is there more to this quest than meets the eye?

I got some SERIOUS Thelma and Louise vibes from certain parts of this with Shelby and her mother, so I was so glad she mentions it in her narrative! This book is so fantastically different, and having been sent this as kind of a surprise, I had no idea what to expect, but I found myself enjoying every page. The count down going on at intervals, the way the pages are used and the writing to show what she means, I mean there's gaps, blank pages and everything, I'll spoil it if I say what the deal with them is, but it was a little touch that I really liked and made the book stand out!

I loved Shelby's narrative, it was entertaining and engaging, and I love how she referenced books and their character descriptions, then almost reluctantly describes herself, but leaves little details out, so there's a little reveal. The reveal about Shelby being deaf surprised me, because clearly I'm an idiot who couldn't work it out from how speech was written and the clues, but then things clicked in to place and I was like "oh" and it was intense, and unique to read from a hearing impaired characters point of view, Shelby is kind of amazing to be honest!

I was sucked in from the beginning because the first page just makes you want to keep reading, to know what happens next, and the pace and the writing and the mystery keeps you intrigued and keeps you reading. I was trying to work out what was real and what wasn't, like Shelby, and I just was in the exact same place as her, believing the wrong thing and having no clue what was really true.

The great thing about this book is that you're in the same boat as Shelby, you're just blindly going along for the ride with no idea who to believe or who to trust, and you have no idea what's going to happen next, and the truth, was for me, impossible to guess, I had no idea at what it could be, and I was hesitant to guess because I knew I was going to be wrong anyway! It's a book full of surprises and shocks.

I loved all of the Navajo mythology and legend woven in to the book, I was truly fascinated and I'm now in a position where I want to know more, I want to know about other myths and legends as well as the Coyote and so on, so it's going to be off to the library with me to have a look for a book on the subject! I loved the whole concept of the Dreaming, but I loved how it was side by side with the main story, and something would be going on in the Dreaming, and it's all danger and tension and  then.........someone wakes her up and it's back to the present world. It was incredibly well done, and I love how it subtly connected to her life in her world, with the Crone's identity and so on.

There Will Be Lies is beautifully written, and created vivid images in your mind's eye of what places and people would look like. I feel like I've been on the road trip myself and have been to these places, when I've never actually been to the part of the US! There are so many things woven in to it to create a plot that keeps you guessing, keeps you reading and makes you really question everything the character is questioning. And I totally ate the ice cream that came with the proof while I was reading and it was DELICIOUS!