There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake

Title:There Will Be Lies
Author: Nick Lake
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release Date:January 6th 2015
Source: ARC from Publisher

Summary from Goodreads:
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.

Review

There Will Be Lies blends two worlds in a wild mysterious story about self-reflection. The summary and beginning of the book immediately intrigued me, I am always down for a good thriller. The first 100 or so pages had me rather lost, I did not quite understand what The Dreaming was nor did I realize the main character is deaf. The book is written in first person with Shelby as the narrator; when she did could not read another character’s lips the words that she did not get are left out of the sentence. Once I understood why this was happening it did not bother me but before I had an explanation for the missing words I was SO confused.

The Dreaming is a world where Shelby has to battle her inner demons and come to terms with secrets from her past. Conceptually, I really like the idea of the Dreaming yet without a strong introduction to it I felt disconnect from the idea and felt that it interrupted the fast pace thriller plot line. The main reason that I could not give There Will Be Lies a higher rating was due to the confusion in the beginning and overall ambivalence towards the parts of the story that took place in the Dreaming.

I did enjoy the thriller and mystery aspects of Shelby’s real life. There are some twists in the story that took me by complete surprise (in a good way)! I do not want to say much about the twists as to not give it away but I will say that I really appreciated the way the story ended.  Reflecting on the book, I think the constant turns and bends in Shelby’s real life journey really kept me on my toes, kept me flipping through the pages and were my favorite aspect of the book.

There Will Be Lies is a unique book that incorporates folklore with a crazy mystery story to bring you a story so different from others. I had the pleasure of meeting Nick Lake and listening to him read from his book! He was awesome and signed a copy of There Will Be Lies for me to give away today! (Thanks Bloomsbury for providing the giveaway copy!!)