The Best Liars in Riverview
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Sometime in the last day or so, ever since Joel Gallagher disappeared, I became a liar.
Aubrey and Joel are like two tomato vines growing along the same crooked fence—weird, yet the same kind of weird. Then Joel disappears. Vanishes. Poof. And Aubrey was the last person to see him.
The whole town is looking for Joel, but Aubrey realises they might be the only one who knows how to find him. As Aubrey, their sister, Teagan, and another friend, Mari, search along the river, will they find themselves along the way?
From Lin Thompson comes a powerful debut that will invite readers to unearth the truth beneath all the lies.
Lin Thompson (they/them) grew up playing pretend games in the backyard and basement of their home in Kentucky. Now they get to write pretend stories in the backyard and basement of their home in Iowa, where they live with their wife and cat. Lin is a Lambda Literary Fellow of 2018, and The Best Liars in Riverview is their debut novel.
‘A vital story of friendship, adventure and finding yourself. This stunning book deserves to be read by anyone who is figuring out who they are and where they belong.’ Alison Evans
‘A beautiful adventure about friendship, identity and the ways in which we see ourselves and others. Full of action from the very beginning, The Best Liars in Riverview kept me on the edge of my seat for the whole read.’ Nevo Zisin
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After a miserable sixth-grade year, white Kentuckian Aubrey feels most comfortable in the woods, playing the Running-Away Game with their best friend Joel, who's biracial (Black/white) and "the same kind of weird" as Aubrey—interested in make-believe and the natural world. When Joel disappears one night, having experienced regular bullying at school, Aubrey has an idea about what happened to him but doesn't tell anyone, even the police and Joel's distraught parents, whom Aubrey says don't "deserve to know the parts of the story I'm leaving out." Secretly, Aubrey—accompanied by two trusted companions, schoolmate Mari and older sister Teagan—sets out on a trek into the woods to find Joel. In a sensitively written first novel, Thompson addresses issues of gender identity, privilege, and prejudice through a candid first-person narrative, filled with flashbacks and ruminations, that offers a window into Aubrey's and Joel's evolving relationship and internal conflicts. Set in a conservative, predominantly white Catholic town in which the community doesn't always warmly receive those it considers outliers, this heartfelt story shows rather than tells how friendship can lead to understanding. Ages 8–12.
