In four hours, Shelby Jane Cooper will be struck by a car.
Shortly after, she and her mother will leave the hospital and set out on a winding journey toward the Grand Canyon.
All Shelby knows is that they're running from dangers only her mother understands. And the further they travel, the more Shelby questions everything about her past-and her current reality. Forced to take advantage of the kindness of unsuspecting travelers, Shelby grapples with what's real, what isn't, and who she can trust . . . if anybody.
Award-winning author Nick Lake proves his skills as a master storyteller in this heart-pounding new novel. This emotionally charged thrill ride leads to a shocking ending that will have readers flipping back to the beginning.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Unexpected mesh of multiple genres
By Sarah
This was an interesting mesh of YA contemporary, mystery, and North American fantasy. The mythology and fantasy part was completely unexpected, and I found myself wishing it wasn’t there, so I could concentrate on the contemporary mystery.The mystery portion is all about Shelby, and who she is, and what is going on with her mother. I liked the way this plotline unraveled. There were multiple twists and turns, and was very exciting. I found that I didn’t even try to guess what was coming next because I was too busy enjoying the story.In contrast, the fantasy-based part of the story moved very slowly for the first three quarters of the book. It really picked up once Shelby was most of the way through a journey, but I found it a little too late to really redeem that element.Overall, this was an unexpected mesh of genres, and while it worked overall, I would have preferred this book without the fantasy element (you won’t hear me say that often). The contemporary mystery element was done so well that it didn’t need anything else.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.There Will Be Lies
By Kindred
Interesting choice for a British man to write a story from an American teenage girl’s point of view and Nick Lake almost gets away with it. Granted, he has some of the annoying turns of a phrase down and Shelby, the teenage girl does tend to exaggerate all of her emotional responses to her troubles like a teenager, but she comes across as too wise and too proficient in jumping to adult conclusions to quite be organic.We meet Shelby as a series of events turn her world upside down. Told in two concurrent plots, she has herself an old fashioned vision quest paralleling her real life crisis caused by an accident where she is hit by a truck while on a sidewalk outside of the library where an employee, Mark has befriended her as she tries to overlook the admonitions of her mother that men are nothing but dangerous. When a coyote suddenly appears to Shelby as she lay on the sidewalk he warns her that there will be two lies before she knows the truth. Why do apparitions always speak in riddles? Anyway, thus starts the vision quest. She begins to find herself in a separate reality known as The Dreaming and learns more about her world and her purpose. Yes, there are plenty of unlikely moments and some silly events here, but it’s meant to be more of a fairy tale than a realistic modern tale so it’s easy to move past it.So, the story weaves back and forth fairly smoothly and bought the idea that Shelby is a normal teenager until she mentions treacle. Unless she is a pedantic Harry Potter fanatic, she wouldn’t know treacle from shinola. Just a small thing but it bugged me. There are a few more examples of breaking character but seriously, I doubt the kids reading this will care. And I do consider this an older kids book because it’s too simplistic and derivative for the average reading adult but will probably be a new viewpoint to a younger person, and I mean that in a good way. There isn’t any sex, very little profanity and only necessary violence. Most of the alternative story is based on Navajo and other Native American folklore and spirituality and it’s always good to learn about other cultures.On both sides of the story there are enough surprises, plot shifts and new discoveries to keep the reader interested though I would have edited maybe 50 pages out of it to reduce some of the repetitiveness and slow spots. Otherwise, a good yarn for younger readers and a great introduction to the question of identity and how much our loved ones shape who we are and how the choices of others affect us even if we aren't aware of them.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Quite A Mash Up
By C. Irish
I read There Will Be Lies in one day. I think Nick Lake can write a good story. I am not 14 or 15 but if I were, I think I would really enjoy this book. I am a more mature reader and I have read a lot of books and I have watched a lot of movies, hence this book was very predictable for me. But, if I look toward the perspective of being a teen, it would probably be a great read. I've read some YA books that would make your hair curl with the language, drug use, sex, etc. This book was clean with a few curse words thrown in, other than that, nothing too offensive is offered up.This is an interesting story with the narrator being a deaf girl whose overprotective mother rarely lets her out of her sight though she is 17. The book just seems to get odder as you go along. She does get hit by a car and after that begins a whirlwind of change for Shelby. I found that there are several different and familiar stories here that are kind of thrown into a blender and this book is what comes out, but that said, I have read a lot of books-being a teen, it may be a different experience.I read this quickly and found it moved forward at a fairly fast pace. The narrative follows two stories and one is the present while the other is when Shelby is asleep and on a mission. The dreaming section is like Grimm's Fairy Tales meets Native American Lore-one or the other probably would have been better for me, but the two stories intertwine. I felt the present story had more pull for me than the dreaming story. Nick Lake is a talented writer which kept me turning the pages. Like I said, I felt the book was very predictable but fresh, young eyes may find this quite a good adventure tale of a girl who has a lot of challenges to face.
