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    Liar
    Liar
    Liar
    Audiobook9 hours

    Liar

    Written by Justine Larbalestier

    Narrated by Channie Waites

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The ultimate unreliable narrator takes readers on a thrill ride in this highly acclaimed novel. Prepare to grasp for truth until the very last page.

    Micah is a liar. That's the one thing she won't lie about. Over the years, she's duped her classmates, her teachers, and even her parents. But when her boyfriend Zach dies under brutal circumstances, Micah sets out to tell the truth. At first the truth comes easily. Other truths are so unbelievable, so outside the realm of normal, they must be a lie. And the honest truth is buried so deep in Micah's mind even she doesn't know if it's real.

    "Readers will get chills . . . [and] be guessing and theorizing long after they've finished this gripping story." -Publishers Weekly, starred review

    "[Micah's] suspenseful, supernatural tale is engrossing. . . . The chilling story she spins will have readers' hearts racing." -School Library Journal, starred review

    "An engrossing story of teenage life on the margins." -Kirkus Reviews, starred review

    An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
    A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
    A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of 2009

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateSep 29, 2009
    ISBN9781441802040
    Author

    Justine Larbalestier

    JUSTINE LARBALESTIER is the author of the award-winning Magic or Madness trilogy. She wishes she had a clothes shopping fairy instead of the procrastination fairy she battles with almost every day. She is married to author Scott Westerfeld and divides her time between Sydney and New York City.

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    Reviews for Liar

    3.5/5

    287 ratings91 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This was both brilliantly confusing and annoyingly all over the place. Perils of an unreliable narrator I guess. I was a little disappointed that the 'explanation' to the mystery was supernatural in origin, I wanted the lies to be less outlandish, more real, so that it was out of the realms of fantasy and into the fantasy of the real. So to speak.
    • 5/5
      Micah is a freak and a compulsive liar - that much you can trust. When her boyfriend dies under suspicious circumstances, she starts to lose it. Suddenly there is more focus on her at school than ever - Nobody knew Micah was dating popular basketball player, Zach. His real girlfriend, Sarah, has a lot of questions, and so do the police. Home life isn't any better, which isn't a surprise, since that's where Micah learned the trade of lying so well. Not to mention she is cursed by a "family gene" that she can't control. But what is it about this gene that makes Micah so different? Or is it just something else she made up? This book is 100% riveting, and it's a thrill you won't soon forget.
    • 3/5
      Started off brilliantly but as soon as the werewolf fantasy makes an appearance the book begins to unravel. The idea that the chief protagonist is unbelievable is the hook that had me engaged, but in fantasy anything is possible, so my interest waned at this point.
    • 4/5
      Summary: Micah Wilkins lies. All the time. About everything. She spent the first two days of freshman year pretending she was a boy, and most of the school believes that her father is an arms dealer. Her classmates alternate between distrust, scorn, and ignoring her, which is fine - that's how she likes it. However, when her sort-of-but-not-really boyfriend Zach is found dead, the whispers start: Liar. Freak. Slut. Killer. But when she's been lying for so long, how can she possibly hope to convince anyone of the truth... if she's even capable of telling it.Review: This might possibly be the hardest book review I've ever written. I can't give a proper summary of more than the first few chapters without giving something crucial away. I can't talk in any specifics about what I liked and didn't like about the book, because so much of the fun of it is unraveling the various layers for yourself. I can, however, say that I read the entire 376 pages in one afternoon, almost in one straight shot. I was enjoying the book from the beginning, and when we got to the point where the first lie - the first big lie, anyways - was revealed, even though part of me was thinking "...really??", it was a good enough hook to suck me straight into the pages, compulsively turning pages, determined to find out where it all was going. And the thing was, I say it was from the time the first big lie was revealed, but even that's blurring the truth a little... since we're never 100% sure if that was when the first big lie was revealed, or when it was created.That's the fascinating thing this book pulls off, the constant wrong-footing of the reader, the constant second- and third-guessing of everything single thing that's said. I've read a few unreliable narrator books before, but never one in which the narrator is so honest about her dishonesty. (Heh.) Liar does a lot of other things well, too: Micah's voice, whether or not she's lying to us, was perfectly pitched to the rhythms and thought patterns of a 17-year-old girl. It also deals with issues of death and grief and loss in a way that felt painfully authentic. There were a few things it didn't do so well, too; there were some elements that were brought up but never fully fleshed out, a few revelations weren't given quite long enough to sink in before they were yanked away again, and the ending felt a little bit rushed. Plus I never quite shook the feeling of "...really??"; although, in the final analysis, that might have worked to the book's advantage. But all in all, it was a very compelling and thoroughly unique read. 4 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: Gah. I can't even do a recommendation without having to dance around spoilers. Okay, here's the thing: if you even think you might like this book, stop reading this, don't read another thing, do NOT look at the tag cloud, don't pay too much attention to the Amazon page, just go get it and read it. I feel like this book would lose a lot of its impact by knowing what's coming ahead of time, so if YA novels and/or unreliable narrators are your thing, or if you just think it looks intriguing, I'd recommend sooner rather than later.
    • 4/5
      Seventeen-year-old androgynous, mixed-race Micah Wilkins is a pathological liar and perhaps worse. As the narrator of this story, she struggles to tell the unidentified listener the truth about the death of her boyfriend, Zach Rubin.Micah attends a small, progressive high school but doesn’t fit in; the other students consider her a “freak.” As a new student, she tried passing for a boy. More lies followed. Other students started to avoid her, but not Zach, a popular boy with an “official” girlfriend Sarah. After Zach’s death, it came out that he also spent time with Micah. Thus she comes under suspicion for Zach’s death, since no one likes her anyway, and as a known liar, her alibi is assailable. As Micah admits:"I am often in trouble. Mostly for things I have not done. I can’t expect to be believed. I am the girl who cried wolf.” [This is a remark that will come back to haunt you later in the book.]Micah divides her story into sections, most of which are titled Before or After, meaning before and after Zach’s death. One of the “After” chapters reads:"This is how it feels now.Blankness.Numbness.Nothing.Without Zach I’m nothing. I’m not even half of anything, not even the in between I was before. Not girl, not boy, not black, not white.It’s all gone. I’m gone."But who is it that is gone? Micah changes her story many times. Which Micah, underneath all the lies, is the real one? The reader can try to put together the clues, but to a large extent the conclusion the reader draws will be based upon what insight and background the reader brings to the book. Evaluation: This book is not so easy to review; there is too much that might be considered “spoilery.” But it is perfect for book clubs; there is endless material in here for discussion. It’s a book that could be considered sad, or scary, or even exhiliarating, depending on your interpretation. It seems to me to be a masterful look at pathology, and definitely thought-provoking. Micah is a character not easily forgotten.Those observations aside, did I like it? That's a tough one. I found the author to be very clever, and the book presents an intriguing puzzle for readers to solve. But did I come away enriched or enlightened? Not really. On the other hand, I wouldn't hesitate to say to a book club, pick this book!
    • 2/5
      Teen fiction. Strange cross between realistic mystery (with unreliable narrator) and science-fiction (supernatural creatures). It might have been better if it were written as one or the other, not both.
    • 4/5
      This book is so weird! It started out as a normal story, about a girl who tells lies so much, she can't stop, who looses her boyfriend who was murdered. But then in the second part, it turns all weird and stupid, it turns out she's a werewolf. It's so random, and gives a little too much details when it's not needed, and not enough when it is. Sometimes it's confusing too...you can't really tell what's going on.
    • 5/5
      If you haven't read it, I highly recommend that you do.I'm not sure what to say because I really don't want to spoil anyone. This book would be no fun otherwise. Well, a little fun, but it wouldn't be the same. I am weirdly a fan of unreliable narrator books which is funny because they are no fun in real life. But I digress. Micah is a piece of work. I felt so sorry for her, but at the same time, I almost couldn't stand her. Larbalestier did a brilliant job of writing an almost sympathetic unreliable narrator. She did a brilliant job of making me believe multiple things at once and of convincing me each and every time that she was telling the truth. A-maz-ing.The Little Bookworm
    • 5/5
      A great story, especially for those of us who are compulsive and pathological liar's ourselves. With the truth, or what we percieve to be the truth, changing so often it is hard to grasp the truth in this book. It is a good book, in the end I am still unsure of what is lies and what is fact, but as Micah tells us early on..."fragments of the truth can often be found in lies."
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book, I liked the characters, and I had a low level feeling of horror the entire way through, especially about Micah's brother. but I felt deflated by the ending, it seemed a bit of a cop out.I listened to the audiobook recording of this.
    • 4/5
      Micah has a secret and she tells lies. Her family has a curse, but only she inherited it. This was a fun book and has several surprises.
    • 5/5
      Oh I loved this book SO MUCH. I thought I would like it, but I just wasn't expecting to LOVE IT this much. I'm the best kind of excited about it!
    • 5/5
      Liar by Justine Larbalestier is an unusual novel. Told in first person, Larbalestier's creative approach includes short chapters that move forward and backward through time. In addition, these short chapters provide a backstory about the main character's family. Micah is a high school student who admits to being a compulsive liar. As the story unfolds, Micah changes the facts (or are they lies?) claiming that she's telling the true. Soon the reader isn't sure what to believe. The mystery shifts from an strange school story to an engaging supernatural thriller.The short chapters, easy-to-read text, and first person approach easily drew me into the story. With section headings such as "Telling the True Truth" and "The Actual Real Truth," I kept wondering what would happen next. I was surprised and hooked by the shift mid-book into the supernatural realm. The ending was remarkably satisfying considering the constantly shifting reality.The layers of lies, issues related to the death of a friend, and tension among students would be great for YA book discussions. While I'm unlikely to remember other books that deal with school situations or teen wolves, I'll remember this one.
    • 3/5
      Children's Books Too Cool for SchoolI'd like to tell you the truth about how I felt after reading Justine Larbalestier's dynamic new novel, Liar. But the truth is, I can't. I'm still reeling from this fast-paced mystery that is quickly garnering fame for having the most unreliable narrator on the planet. Liar is told from the point of view of Micah, a seventeen year-old compulsive liar with a dead (mabye... sort of) boyfriend. Besides the dead guy, there are other mysteries in Micah life, like why does her extended family live like pioneer folks, why does she have such a deep dislike for her brother, and what, oh what, is the "family illness"? (One is tempted to think it is compulsive lying, but in any case...)The story's pace is lightening fast, almost hard to keep up with, there are so many twists and turns as Micah keeps revising what she promises is "the truth." I enjoyed this aspect of the story very much.Yet, I had difficulty connecting with Micah herself. Not because she's the unreliable narrator (I've read, and connected with plenty of these in the past), but because there's so little I share with her. Perhaps, were I seventeen, the case may be different, but I don't think so. I'm not so senile yet that I forgotten the feeling of teenage-hood. Without being able to quantify it well, I'll have to leave it at "Micah and I didn't really connect."As for the other characters, well, Micah isn't a very good narrator, in addition to being unreliable. That is to say that none of the rest of them had any real flesh to them. Not a keen observer of character, that Micah.Yet, for all this, I probably would have felt better about the whole story, if it weren't for a certain moment I'm going to have to be coy about. Suffice to say that about halfway through the novel, there was a moment between three teens in a cave that I was still trying to digest when the novel started a new section and declared a "truth" that left me going, "Really? No, really?"I'm not sure if it was clever... a gimmick, a clever gimmick? It was certainly interesting, and added a whole new dimension to the idea of the narrator's credibility, but, oh I can't explain it. You may have to read it for yourself, despite my less-than-glowing review.As for the moment in the cave. That led to a sort of dispensable bizarre subplot of dubious veracity that I didn't much enjoy. But I'm coming to discover that I'm something of a literary prude, anyway. The long and short of it is, my feelings about this book are about as unreliable as Micah, but what can be said for it is this -- Liar will stick with me for a long time to come.
    • 4/5
      Crazy-odd book written by Micah, the protagonist, who is a pathological liar. There are curveballs all the way to the end. Where is Micah now? What is she doing? Depends on who you believe. This is a fun read with lots of twists and turns. If you think you can spot a liar - or when a friend or your child is lying - give this book a read; it will shatter your confidence. The story dragged for me in the beginning to where I put it down. When I resumed reading this liar's tale it became a page-turner.I recommend this for teens and adults. Good fun.
    • 3/5
      I liked what the author did with the concept of "werewolves." Her story and her characters were interesting, although I didn't find any of them likable. However, it was yet ANOTHER teen book suffering from an air of doom and gloom. I am so weary of this quality and find that it is all too common. We need more balanced stories about teenagers and their experience of the world.
    • 5/5
      The premise: ganked from BN.com: Micah will freely admit she’s a compulsive liar, but that may be the one honest thing she’ll ever tell you. Over the years she’s fooled everyone: her classmates, her teachers, 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 easily as breathing? Taking listeners 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 listeners seesawing between truths and lies right up to the end. Honestly.My RatingKeeper Shelf: there are very, very, VERY few books that I want to keep around to re-read over and over and over, but this is definitely one of them. The book engaged me on so many levels that I can't wait to read it again and see how the story changes. And because of the book's deliberate yet delightful ambiguity, this is a book I can enjoy over and over and come away with a different interpretation every time. If you're a reader who absolutely MUST HAVE a DEFINITE ENDING with DEFINITE ANSWERS, you may want to shy away from this one. But oh, that'd be a shame. This book is so well-crafted that you'd be missing out on a really great story. Like I said, whether you read YA or not, if you only ever read ONE novel in your life that's targeted to YA, you should read this one. Because it transcends age. It transcends genre. It's a memorable book that I won't soon forget, and once you read it, you won't either.Review style: short and sweet and ABSOLUTELY NO SPOILERS. You will RUIN this book if you spoil it for yourself, even if you spoil yourself a little bit. The full review just lists five reasons why you should give this book a shot, so if you're interested, feel free to click the link below to my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)REVIEW: Justine Larbalestier's LIARHappy Reading! :)
    • 3/5
      This is such an unusual book. An unreliable narrator starts the tale which becomes a murder mystery and then a supernatural story. It works!
    • 3/5
      This was an interesting read, since you never quite knew what the truth was. The story was revisited many times, with different facts. I totally didn't see the werewolf thing coming, and was wondering the whole time if that was a lie. A bit long though, in my opinion. Part mystery, part thriller, give this to readers who like both.
    • 3/5
      I read ‘Liar’ during my holidays, and though it is a highly original book with an interesting premise, it just didn’t appeal to me all that much. The book centers around Micah, who openly admits right from the start that she is a compulsive liar. And that, my friends, is really the crux of the book. You cannot believe anything she tells you, and it leaves you constantly second guessing your way throughout the book. And Micah really does wrap you up in her neat bundle of lies – I admit, I believed her for at least the whole first section of the novel, which is divided into three parts, each promising you that it is ‘truer than the last’. Many of the ‘lies’ – and I put this in inverted commas because most of Micah’s lies are so imperceptible that you really can’t tell fact from fiction – are believable, though some a little far-fetched. That’s the beauty of it all. Everyone will have their own take on the events of the book because you really are forced to draw your own conclusion from the only perspective you are given. I enjoyed trying to figure out the truth, even though I knew that should the person next to me pick up the book and read it, it’s quite likely they would derive a thouroughly different turn of events. Micah was a well-rounded, believable (haha, get the pun? Ok, so that was a little sad…moving on) narrator and protagonist, and I enjoyed her take on events, even if it wasn’t true half the time. She projected the world through idealized rose coloured glasses, and this, to me, showed just how screwed up Micah’s life was. However, that is about as far as my enjoyment level went. There was nothing wrong with this book, at least, nothing that I spotted. It just didn’t appeal to me. It does seem to have appealed to many other people though, so I guess it’s just a matter of opinion. The cover of the book was also subject to much controversy regarding the issue of ‘whitewashing’ covers. If you haven’t heard of whitewashing, it basically means portraying the characters of books who are of colour as white on the cover. I really hadn’t heard of this at all until I read a few reviews of Liar, prior to my decision to read the book. several people had been ranting about how Micah, who is part black, was depicted as a blonde, white girl on the other cover. I would fully agree with many of the people who disagree with whitewashing, and although I hadn’t noticed it before, most of the books I pick up have, if they have people on them, white people on the cover. I had really never thought about it before, but now that I have I think it’s a pretty serious issue. I mean, when someone is described as being of black descent in a book, I expect the cover to reflect that description. Why would putting a white model on the cover of a book make anyone want to read it more? It’s pretty unjust if you ask me! Anyway, back to the book, the original cover was scrapped and never mass marketed and the other paperback cover ended up looking much more like the description of Micah in the book. Which is better looking anyway, if you ask me. So, overall, it was an interesting idea and ‘Liar’ especially made me think. It also gave me an insight into the world of a compulsive liar, which is something I really hadn’t known much about before. The book was filled with several huge revelations which did make me put the book down and just think about them for a moment, but ‘Liar’ just wasn’t my sort of book. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a young adult novel that is as unusual as it is contemplative. You do have to think about what you’re reading! Also, for anyone planning to read the book, I have deliberately not said much about what its about because it really would spoil the effect of the book if you knew it’s secrets. Don’t read any spoilers, it will ruin it completely (and I don’t mind spoilers most of the time, so that is saying something).
    • 4/5
      I'm really glad I read this book, but I'm also glad I borrowed it instead of buying. I might read it one more time but not anytime soon.I spent so much of it totally pissed off. Usually, this spells doom for a book, but in this case it worked for me. Inciting anger is way better than indifference or even tepid enjoyment.I actually liked the fact that nothing really gets resolved. I can toss my theories around in my head forever now, and nothing can come along and absolutely spoil them.
    • 4/5
      Usually an unreliable narrator creeps up on you. You notice an inconsistency here and there, something about the story doesn’t feel quite right, you start to get suspicious. It’s almost a game – you look for the clues that prove you’re being lied to. But Justine Larbalestier changes the rules of the game. It’s right there on the cover, staring at you in capital letters: LIAR. There’s no need to look for the proof – it’s admitted from the first time you see the book. But there’s a different game being played here. It’s a game of teasing admissions and sly winks. When Micah admits that something she said earlier in the novel was a lie, what do you believe? The title puts the reader on notice – you’re on your toes looking for the truth from the very first sentence. It makes for a frustrating reading experience in many ways. But it’s that delicious, thought-provoking kind of frustration that I love.Micah is a compulsive liar, just like her dad. When she started at her school, she had everyone convinced that she was a boy for several days. No one believes much of anything that she says anymore, if they pay her any attention at all. But when Zach, a popular boy from Micah’s class, is found dead in a suspected murder, the eyes of the school are suddenly back on Micah. Micah was Zach’s “after-hours” girlfriend – which comes as a shock to the unbelieving student body and Zach’s other girlfriend, Sarah. From these basics, Larbalestier leads us down some unexpected twists and turns.Now, of course, any kind of plot description is not something you can take at face value. Is any of what I just said true? No idea. Go ahead and dive in – see if you can separate fact from fiction. And if you figure it out, let me know. There’s also the question of why Micah lies. She’s got her version: “Really, according to the shrinks, I am angry at everyone. Especially them. I am all anger and resentment all the time. Not one of them has ever suggested that maybe I lie because the world is better the way I tell it.” (pg. 266. Quoted from ARC – text may change.)It’s an interesting question, and there are a lot of possible answers hinted at in the text. But if the world really is better the way Micah tells it, I would hate to live in her world – this is a dark book. Many of her lies stem directly from Zach’s death – this is not just a story about lying, but also a story about grief. The reader is privy to Micah’s extreme reactions to Zach’s sudden death, and also gets glimpses of how his girlfriend Sarah and his best friend Tayshawn deal with the loss of a friend. Their reactions are appropriately complex, often touching, and occasionally kind of creepy.My favorite thing about this book is Micah’s uneasy relationship with her lying. At times, I was absolutely convinced that she desperately wants to be able to tell the truth. Sometime she believes her own lies, especially those lies that really do make her world easier for her to live in. At other times her lies are manipulative, and sometimes they are just because she doesn’t feel like telling the truth. She uses frank admissions about her previous lies as a way to throw the reader off balance, or as an attempt to gain trust. It’s fascinating to watch, especially later in the book when she has dug deep into many half-truths and flat-out lies. She begins keeping a tally of lies to the reader that she has admitted to: “How many lies is that now? I’m losing track. But surely it’s not so big a lie, really? I don’t think I’ll include it in the official tally. It was just to Sarah and Tayshawn. And you. Now I’m telling the truth.” (pg. 284, reviewed from ARC)Micah’s mind games are as internal as they are external. Her machinations and her complex relationship with truth and lies made this book compulsively readable.One more thing: this cover is gorgeous, no? I love it on it’s own. I love it a lot less after reading the book. It’s a whole lot more playful looking than the book actually is, for one thing. But also, it looks nothing at all like Micah – her very short hair and ability to pass as a boy are mentioned several times in the novel. Unless Micah was lying about that, too… One more thing to think about, I guess.
    • 4/5
      I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did but it came heartily recommended. I was not disappointed.Cleverly written in spare, efficient prose, this book offers twist and turns inside the life and mind of Michah, a 17 year old attending a private school. Teachers are called by their first names and one class she takes is "Dangerous Words". Each chapter holds your interest and pulls you in deeper and deeper as she slowly reveals details about her family, her relatives, her home life, her past, her behavior. And then she tells you the truth. Or she tells you a lie. You are being manipulated and it's a fun, brisk ride. Why is there a cage in her bedroom? Why won't she open her DNA results? Why did her father marry a french woman? Why is her Great Uncle dead? Who is "the white boy"? Where is Erin? I guessed the major twist ahead of time but this won't dampen one's appreciation of this little gem. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      First of all, I found the story to be very fascinating. I think the writing was very fitting for Micah, and I like how we got the story out of order. I think the book was extremely well written and well thought out. I went into it expecting to not know what was actually the truth until the very end, and was very disappointed that I never got that truth. I love a good mystery, but I definitely want to know the truth at the end of the day. So while I loved it, I didn't. I didn't ever really connect with Micah because I felt that I couldn't trust her. Overall, the book just didn't give me enough. I really want to know what really happened to everyone, and I never will. And for that I totally resent "Liar".
    • 3/5
      generally well-written but I tired of it before it ended
    • 5/5
      Very good. As they say 'keeps you guessing'? But in this case, it really does! The unreliable narrator seems to get more unreliable as time goes on, even though it's less. Well, probably less. At the end, I didn't know what to believe. Fortunately the author will let us believe whatever we want.I'll be seeking out more of Larbalestier's books.
    • 1/5
      This is so not my kind of book. I dislike the unreliable narrator. I dislike the breathless writing style. I really, really hate the secret at the heart of it all. Or is it a secret at all? No, maybe it's the unreliable narrator again! Who can tell? I dislike the unresolved nature of everything about this book. Not to mention the sheer goofiness of the pivotal plot point. A lot of people love this book with all their hearts, judging from all the 5 star reviews. I'm not one of them, and that is the truth.
    • 3/5
      Micah Wilkens, a senior at a "hippie" high school, narrates Justine Larbalestier's book, Liar. Micah, as suggested by the book's title, is a pathological liar. She begins her story by promising to tell the reader the truth about her life. She weaves what seems to be an incredibly unbelievable story and explains that she lies because of the horrible truth of her life. During the course of this story, Micah is battling with the fact she has the "family illness." At the same time, she is trying to grieve the death of her secret lover, Zach, who was found murdered in Central Park. Micah's peers suspect she is involved in Zach's death. They know she's spun wild lies before, and there are rumors she and Zach had a "special" relationship. Readers must decide whether Micah is telling the truth and if she is to blame for Zach's violent murder.
    • 4/5
      Micah is a pathological liar - this is the only reliable aspect about the book. She is such an unreliable narrator, that I was uncomfortable all the way through wondering if she was telling me the truth or not. Even now, although I've finished the book, I'm still not sure what the exact truth is. An interesting psychological thriller.
    • 5/5
      A liar whom Shelby didn't even know; her husband lied to her about everything, wanting a child, loving her. Then when he died in an accident she found he had owed millions. An absorbing read, a story told as Nora Roberts does so well. Intrigue, relationships, family and love. I enjoyed this story very much.