Liar- by justine larbalestier | Teen Ink

Liar- by justine larbalestier

March 17, 2010
By Kassie Mangano BRONZE, Waxhaw, North Carolina
Kassie Mangano BRONZE, Waxhaw, North Carolina
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Liar is a book with very unsuspected twist and turns, throughout the entire story. Liar takes place in New York, New York, when a young girl named Micah has a problem with not telling the whole truth.
I personally thought Liar was not a good book. Yes, Liar had many twists and turns and kept its reader’s on their toes, but it was dreadfully long. It lost my attention multiple times throughout the story, and I had to push myself to finish the book.
The main character of Liar is a girl named Micah. Some things that you should know about Micah are, Micah lies, a lot. Her whole life is a lie. In the very beginning of the book Micah tells the reader this, “I will tell you my story and I will tell it straight. No lies, no omissions.” (5) When Micah tries to start telling the truth, the truth sometimes comes out by itself and when nobody expects it. Often Micah finds herself caught between a rock and a hard place. Another thing that you must know about Micah is she is a very unusual girl. Micah tells us that, “When I was born, I was born with a light covering fur.” (1) Micah also tells us that, “I take birth control to get rid of my fur, acne, and excessive bleeding.” (56)
Micah was dating a boy named Zach, but so was a girl named Sarah. Both Sarah and Micah were dating Zach, at the same time. When Zach suddenly dies, the police, Micah, Sarah, and all of their classmates start asking a lot of questions. Some answers that they come across were that Micah was secretly dating Zach, which nobody knew about. Sarah was Zach’s “at school” girlfriend and Micah was his “out of school” girlfriend. When people found out that Micah was secretly dating Zach, everyone started to question Micah about Zach’s unsuspected and sudden death. Since Micah was a very unusual child, some people thought that she murdered Zach. Micah said that, “When I herd that Zach had died, that was the worst day of my life.” (18)
Some other characters that Liar includes are Yayeko. Yayeko is Micah’s biology teacher. At Micah’s school the teachers only allow their students to call them by their first names. They hope that this will help them be more comfortable in school and learn more in a friendly type of environment.(8) Another character is Brandon. Brandon was one of Zach’s best friends, he is an amazing athlete, and one of the most popular guys in school. Other characters from Liar include Micah’s classmates, her parents, and many more of her teachers.
The major theme of Liar in my opinion was honesty. For Micah she had to get used to telling the whole truth and becoming completely honest with everyone. The genre of Liar was realistic fiction/mystery.
Justine Larbalestier wrote Liar in an african-american’s point of view. Since Justine Larbalestier is Caucasian some people were concerned that Liar wasn’t going to be a well written book. Justine had a very big challenge to accomplish. Some people, im sure, thought this book was excellent! Sadly, I thought this book was not as “excellent” as in some individual’s opinion. Although, I thought Justine Larbalestier had no trouble writing in an afican-american’s point of view. I just did not like her story and story line. It did not hold my interest as well as I would have liked it to have, and as I stated before, it was a very long read.
If I had to recommend this book to anyone, I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a long read. Liar drags on and on which may seem like forever to some readers, including me.


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on Jan. 21 2011 at 12:17 am
half of what you wrote was wrong! Brandon was an enemy, Tayshawn was his best friend! not Brandon!