(no subject)
Jun. 8th, 2010 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI wasn't really planning on reading Justine Larbalestier's Liar - it sounded interesting, but I'd bounced off of her book Magic or Madness when I picked it up before and already had a to-read pile a mile high. But then ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
saramily raved about it, and I picked up the book out of curiosity in the bookstore and read the first chapter or two, and this is what a strong first-person narrative voice does to me, because I went and reserved it from the library right away.
I still don't actually know what I think of it, though! I mean, it was definitely a gripping book - Larbalestier makes great use of an unreliable narrator, and Micah's voice is incredibly strong. You have probably heard the basic description already, thanks to the cover controversy that it may be impossible to talk about the book without mentioning, in which the publishers put a white girl on the cover of a book with an explicitly biracial protagonist with the line of reasoning that "well, it's ambiguous because she's a compulsive liar!" Micah being biracial is not meant to be ambiguous. But she is a compulsive liar, which is a problem since her part-time secret boyfriend Zach has just been murdered. Micah didn't kill him! She absolutely swears. And she has promised to tell the reader the whole truth, absolutely, except for maybe that one thing that she elided over but that wasn't really a lie and maybe that other thing but that was just out of habit but now, now she is telling the whole truth, for real. What, you don't believe her? Yeah, she figured you wouldn't.
I raced through the book (I was spoiled for one of the big things, but I don't think that affected my reading too much) and I didn't really feel disappointed by the ambiguity of the ending because I think there are enough clues to put together several interesting versions of a coherent narrative, but . . . hmmm. I think in the end this is in a lot of ways a story about complete disconnection from other people. So I found it fascinating, and enjoyed reading it, and will probably reread it someday to catch stuff at the beginning in light of the ending, but also I found myself a little disappointed by the emotional connections that came to nothing and therefore in the end I did not love it. I think. Perhaps I will feel differently in a week or so! It is that kind of book.
My optimistic warning note here: MAY BE PLOT SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS. In other words, feel free to discuss away, because I am of course desperately curious what other people thought happened in the book! :D
saramily raved about it, and I picked up the book out of curiosity in the bookstore and read the first chapter or two, and this is what a strong first-person narrative voice does to me, because I went and reserved it from the library right away.I still don't actually know what I think of it, though! I mean, it was definitely a gripping book - Larbalestier makes great use of an unreliable narrator, and Micah's voice is incredibly strong. You have probably heard the basic description already, thanks to the cover controversy that it may be impossible to talk about the book without mentioning, in which the publishers put a white girl on the cover of a book with an explicitly biracial protagonist with the line of reasoning that "well, it's ambiguous because she's a compulsive liar!" Micah being biracial is not meant to be ambiguous. But she is a compulsive liar, which is a problem since her part-time secret boyfriend Zach has just been murdered. Micah didn't kill him! She absolutely swears. And she has promised to tell the reader the whole truth, absolutely, except for maybe that one thing that she elided over but that wasn't really a lie and maybe that other thing but that was just out of habit but now, now she is telling the whole truth, for real. What, you don't believe her? Yeah, she figured you wouldn't.
I raced through the book (I was spoiled for one of the big things, but I don't think that affected my reading too much) and I didn't really feel disappointed by the ambiguity of the ending because I think there are enough clues to put together several interesting versions of a coherent narrative, but . . . hmmm. I think in the end this is in a lot of ways a story about complete disconnection from other people. So I found it fascinating, and enjoyed reading it, and will probably reread it someday to catch stuff at the beginning in light of the ending, but also I found myself a little disappointed by the emotional connections that came to nothing and therefore in the end I did not love it. I think. Perhaps I will feel differently in a week or so! It is that kind of book.
My optimistic warning note here: MAY BE PLOT SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS. In other words, feel free to discuss away, because I am of course desperately curious what other people thought happened in the book! :D
no subject
Date: 2010-06-08 05:54 pm (UTC)I actually really liked the paranormal component, and thought it was decently foreshadowed, but I was spoilered slightly for it going in, so I knew to expect something like that and was watching for clues - and also I am a regular sff reader, so, you know, personal taste. (Of course, YMMV on whether any part of the paranormal element was 'real' within the universe of the story or another elaborate lie, but . . . YMMV on basically anything in the book, so.)
I do remember talking with you about Going Bovine! And from what I you told me about the ending, it seems like it would be even more frustrating than Liar - at least with Liar you can decide to believe whatever you think makes the most interesting story and the most sense for the character, you know? Like a choose-your-own adventure except more
depressingliterary.no subject
Date: 2010-06-08 07:43 pm (UTC)One other thing I really liked about Liar was the narrative structure. Forgot to include that in my earlier tally!
no subject
Date: 2010-06-08 08:00 pm (UTC)Everything about the structure I thought was really cool, I agree! I actually did like the no-really-no-really-no-now-really-seriously of it.