"Secret campus societies, anti-Asian racism, conflicted romance and the detective determination of a young student, this YA chiller has emotional and social bite"
Like the author’s previous novel, How We Fall Apart, Katie Zhao's The Lies We Tell is a thought-provoking chiller set in the world of elite American academia, though this time the gripping action plays out during college freshman year rather than high school.
Anna Xu is a top student embarking on her first year at a prestigious local university, where she’s set on maintaining her grades and becoming less of a loner. She’s also set on solving the mystery of who killed her former babysitter, a young woman who was murdered on the same campus six years ago.
At the same time, Anna is contending with unrest of a personal nature, with her family’s bakery struggling to compete with a comparable business on the same street. Further complicating matters, the rival bakery is owned by the family of Chris Lu, a fellow student who also happens to be Anna’s academic rival. Then, as Anna’s murder investigation uncovers links to a supposedly dead college society, and as she’s the target of creepy catfishing, Chris’ bakery is vandalised by racists, and the two find a way to work together, with a truly edge-of-your-seat finale.
Anna’s earnest nature and admirable courage are portrayed with tremendous empathy, and the author’s representation of anti-Asian hate crime and racism is stirringly powerful, all of which means this YA thriller packs mighty punch.
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All Anna Xu wants to do as she starts freshman year at the local prestigious Brookings University is keep up her stellar academic performance, break out of her shell, be more social and investigate the unsolved on-campus murder of her former babysitter six years ago. And if that wasn't difficult enough, it seems that Chris Lu, whose family are the Xu's business rivals, is attending Brookings too. There's no way they can be friends.
Until a vandal attacks the Lu's bakery and Anna puts the perpetrator's call sign together with a clue from her investigation into the cold-case murder. When a very specific threat is made to Anna, she is forced to team up with Chris to undertake a dangerous search into the hate crimes happening around campus.
Can they root out the current threat or will the town's ugly history take them down?
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed The Lies We Tell and determined it is suitable for children aged 13-18 years old
The Lies We Tell features in the following genres: Featured Books for 13+ readers, Recommendations, PSHE: Multiculturalism, Diversity and Inclusion, Personal Social Health Economic (PSHE), Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Romance / Relationship Stories, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Thrillers, Adventure Stories, Featured Books for Young Adults
The Lies We Tell is available in Paperback
The Lies We Tell was written by Katie Zhao and published by Bloomsbury YA an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
The Lies We Tell has 287 pages
£7.19
