Book Review: There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake

Title: There Will Be Lies
Author: Nick Lake
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release Date: 6th January 2014
Synopsis: 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. 

Review: If you read one book this month , let it be this one! I have just finished it as I type and I can still feel the adrenaline rush that I've gotten from it. It was intense and dramatic and there was twist after twist!

This is one of those times where I want to talk about sooo many things, but I don't want to give spoilers so I won't.

 The construction of the book was fantastic, from the typographic decisions to the way the pages were laid out...they added to the feeling of the narrative, and what a narrative it was. I LOVVVVED Shelby's voice. It was like she was having a conversation with me. The voice was strong, believable, personal, it was completely her and I had such a strong realisation of her as I was reading. The way it slipped in and out of focus between the conversations and her opinions mean you got everything she was thinking and that was fantastic, because it added that extra dimension to what was going on.

And like I said, it was like BAM twist, BAM twist....from the opening page the plot was well paced, kept fresh, kept me gripped and I was constantly thinking about what was going to happen next. Then the story split, and existed on two plains...the reality and the Dreaming. It almost felt like it could have been two separate stories that I would have equally enjoyed by themselves, but the interweaving  of these two spectrum's was great. It gave me all kind of His Dark Materials vibes. I felt like I got a lots of drawn inspiration pulled into this book, I was getting Dark Material vibes, Misery vibes from Shelby's mum, even Macbeth vibes when she was holing the knife...

Then there was the actual myth of the Dreaming. I love mythology, and I love when mythology is used well in fiction as it as been here. It was cool to learn about Navajo mythology  used here, because there was a beautiful human nature to it, and the coyote was/is a very interesting character to be able to play with. The ideas of balance and the different mythological figures representing the different balances that keep the world going isn't necessarily a new concept, but here it was written in such a beautiful way that its resonance was stronger.

Alongside this, the book dealt with some deep issues, around family and relationships, and in the way that The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, used disability as a part of that character, not as a big look what I'm writing about tool, here the issue was addressed beautifully. Elements of trust, truth and family are something we can all relate too, maybe not on Shelby's level (least I hope not) and the fact this books also got me thinking, got me relating (no one should ever wear pajama jeans out!) made my enjoyment greater.

This book was nothing like I expected it to be, it was so much more, and I can easily see it being one of my favourite books this year! This is one that I really want to hear everyone's opinions of, so tweet us or comment below and let us know what you thought!