There Will Be Lies

This book was written by Nick Lake.
I read this book in March of  2015.
Overall I probably wouldn't tell someone about this book. On the other hand, If someone came to me and asked if they should read it I would probably say yes, but to be prepared for something totally different.


My thoughts on this book can be summed up in two phrases: (1) WHAT!!!??? (2) Plot Twist!
The blurb on the book does not really explain what this book is about FYI, Although the title gives you a hint not to believe anything.

****SPOILER ALERT****
I loved the way this book was written. E.g.
"And... it seems that in girl books there's always some description of the girl so you know what she looks like. I mean, I have seen myself in mirrors, obviously. But okay, you tell me what you look like.
Not so easy, is it?
But, fine, to get it out of the way: I have brown hair. I have eyes. I have a nose, and a mouth. My mom says I'm beautiful, the most beautiful girl in the world, but she would say that, wouldn't she? I guess it's possible I'm pretty. I'm five-five. One hundred and fifteen pounds. Athletic, you could say.
Okay?
Moving on." (pg. 12, 13)
See what I mean? She doesn't bother to tell us that she is deaf until page 84, which I thought would have been helpful to know. It helps explain why her mom is so worried about her watching for cars and why the subtitles are always on the TV, etc.

This book has a dream world and a real world, and for the longest time I absolutely could not figure out what they had to do with each other. The main character is Shelby.
In the dream world there is a crying little girl that Shelby has to rescue. I figured out the little girl was Shelby as soon as we found out that Shelby was taken from a hospital when she was three (pg. 250), not when this happens:
"But PLOT TWIST:
The child was me." (pg. 425)

I knew there was something up with her "mom" when she suggested they ride in a car with a complete stranger. Finally the author reveals that Shelby's "mom" stole her from a hospital.
"This is my mind right now:



That's it. Just blank. Just white, like snow" (pg. 250, 251)
And that is exactly what happened to me. It was like a bomb went off in my head. I literally had to stop reading, a book has never done that to me before. I stopped for at least 10 minutes and had to think back through the whole book and think about all the subtle hints.