Review Detail

Sadie Kingston is a high school student who has survived the car accident that killed one of her best friends. She has physical and mental scars from the crash, and she has removed herself from almost everything and everyone she found important before the accident.

Let me start by saying that it's pretty rare for me to give a book a five star rating. It's even more rare for me to give two books by the same author five stars. Therefore, it's pretty astonishing to find myself saying that I rank THE LIES ABOUT TRUTH by Courtney Stevens as one of the top five contemporary YA books I've ever read--with her first book, FAKING NORMAL, being another of those 5.

As in the first book by Stevens, THE LIES ABOUT TRUTH is about teens who are broken by some of life's greatest challenges. Stevens's characters confront a dark and heavy issue with strength and wisdom. That said, they aren't freakishly strong nor unnaturally wise. They're just teenagers who are making mistakes and then trying to undo those mistakes as best they can. As I read, I embraced their weaknesses as much as their strength.

Stevens has some beautiful sentences enmeshed in the difficult subject matter and she shows amazing talent for writing. She also proves to be an apt teacher because THE LIES ABOUT TRUTH gives the reader lessons on grieving, loving, friendship, and forgiveness--and she does so without relying on stereotypes and formulas. For that, I am incredibly grateful.

With this book, Courtney Stevens has taken a place on my short list of authors whose books I will buy the instant they hit the shelves.