This Story Is a Lie
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A YA thriller described as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time meets John le Carré, about a teen math prodigy with an extreme anxiety disorder who finds himself caught in a web of lies and conspiracies after an assassination attempt on his mother.
Seventeen-year-old Peter Blankman is a math genius. He also suffers from devastating panic attacks. Pete gets through each day with the help of his mother—a famous scientist—and his beloved twin sister, Bel.
But when his mom is nearly assassinated in front of his eyes and Bel disappears, Pete finds himself on the run. Dragged into a world where state and family secrets intertwine, Pete must use his extraordinary analytical skills to find his missing sister and track down the people who attacked his mother. But his greatest battle will be with the enemy inside: the constant terror that threatens to overwhelm him.
Weaving between Pete’s past and present, This Story Is a Lie is a testimony from a protagonist who is brilliant, broken and trying to be brave.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
No one is as they seem in Pollock's YA debut. Peter, 17, uses his savantlike math abilities to parse his daily experiences and cope with his severe anxiety. After his mother, a scientist, is nearly killed and his twin sister, Bel, goes missing, Peter is kidnapped by his mother's colleagues (or maybe her would-be assassins), and math becomes Peter's lens for deciding whom he can trust. This shape-shifter of a novel explores the tragic cost of family secrets and lies. Its use of math is fresh and fascinating, but Pollock mashes Peter's mental health issues into a spy/serial-killer/action/revenge/family story, which morphs among genres and doubles back to cover Peter's personal backstory of being bullied and his close relationship with Bel. Though flashbacks provide insight into Peter's past, they sap momentum and because characters are constantly lying and changing allegiances, it's challenging to keep everyone (and everything) straight. The story offers a fascinating premise, but the unending action and disjointed narration result in a bumpy reading experience. Ages 14 up.
