What I Saw and How I Lied

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4 reviews with 5 stars

9 reviews

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44%

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11%

1 star

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3.8

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3.8(9)

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An Amazingly Vivid Picture of an Era

February 27, 2010 (Updated: June 10, 2026)

Overall rating

5.0

Plot

5.0

Characters

N/A

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Reader reviewed by Super Reader Girl

Judy
Blundell is an extremely talented author. She paints an amazingly vivid
picture of an era - the styles, the people, the setting, the feel - and
makes you fell almost as if you lived it. I wondered at first if maybe
she had. She did her research well.

The story consists of the painfully honest and startlingly clear
recollections of a 15-year-old girl's experiences during one season of
her life. It tells of how greed, want, love, and especially war can
influence people to do things they normally would not.

The first chapter takes place near the end of the narrator's story,
giving us a foreshadowing of unpleasant things to come. Then she delves
into what has happened to her up to this point, beginning shortly after
the end of World War II. We see what she saw and experienced from her
then mostly naive point of view, only with our own new shared knowledge
that something is not right. We can see what she missed the first time
around only too clearly. We keep wanting for it not to be true and find
ourselves almost wishing for the naivete with which Evie originally
experienced the story.

I thought the story was very well written. It was definitely a
"page-turner" and I finished it in one sitting, staying up until almost
2am. :) I, however, do not know that I would recommend it to most of my
friends. It contains some sex, as well as murder and a lot of deceit,
so it cannot be categorized a "clean read". I did like the picture
painted of the era and the way the main character tried to bring
something good away from something truly bad.

(Super Reader Girl Reviews: http://superreadergirlreviews.blogspot.com/)

Guest

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Jaw-dropping!

July 29, 2009 (Updated: June 10, 2026)

Overall rating

5.0

Plot

5.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

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Reader reviewed by Amy Ward

The cover of this book was enought to sell me. I see why it's a National Book Award Winner. The character of Evie is so wonderful. She's a girl you would want to know, be friends with. And Peter. What girl wouldn't fall in love with him? I really can't say enough about this book. I could tell you how much I loved it, how it sucked me right in. But to truly understand, you have to read it yourself. The plot is so artistically woven together. And Evie grows so much over the course of the book. She even outgrows her parents, which is a good thing in this instance. I can't recommend this book enough! One of the best books I have read so far!

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A awesome book

May 25, 2009 (Updated: June 10, 2026)

Overall rating

5.0

Plot

5.0

Characters

N/A

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Reader reviewed by Lianne

Evie is fifteen years old and lives with her parents in Queens during the 1940s right after the war ended. Everything is going to be perfect now that her Step Dad Joe has come back from the war. But, when Joe begins to get phone calls from people he knew during the war, he decides to take Evie and her Mother down to Florida. At first everything in Florida is great, people are nice and the hotel that they are staying at is comfortable and fancy. But, then Evie meets Peter Coleridge, who knew Joe during the war. Evie soon finds herself falling in love with Peter but, soon things get out of control and Peter ends up dead. Now Evie's parents are the main suspects in the case and it is up to Evie to help but, who does she owe more to her parents or her first love?

THOUGHTS

Wow, this book was amazing. Throughout the book I was constantly guessing and I loved it like crazy! Evie was a strong independent narrator and I loved reading the story from her prospective! I loved the ending of the book too. I didn't really have any major things that I did not like about the book, for the most part I really enjoyed it!
"Reprinted with author's permission"

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Evie, Bev and Blackmail

February 10, 2009 (Updated: June 10, 2026)

Overall rating

5.0

Plot

5.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

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Reader reviewed by Alicia Kaiah Mason

What I saw and how I lied, was a phenomonel book. It had the perfect amount of mystery and romance, and a twist you would never come to happen. All in a simple book.

This book takes place in the 1940's and tells a tradgic tale of Evie Spooner, a fifteen-year-old girl living in Queens, a small yet nice town. A child of Bevery Spooner, and a man she never really met, her life was never full...antil now. Previous to WW II, Evie's mother had married a charming man, named Joe Spooner, quite a catch fo him, Bev's a dish. Well, Joe's moping lands the happy family in Palm Beach, Floida...in the off season. They had landed in a ghost town, and this is already a bad start. It's amazing how you can go from being not bored at all, to bored out of your mind in the time it takes to tie your shoe.

But soon, Evie meets a "hunk", an ex G-I named Peter Coleridge. He's gorgeous, loaded, and older. Soon though, there's an awful happening, and Evie is surrounded by lies. Someone has to be redeamed, someone betrayed...but who?

What I Saw and How I Lied is a real page-turner, and will have young readers reading through the night. It has a great theme, though I found it too short. I would have liked about 300 pages more, but, it's not my choice. All I can say is, I loved this book, and it kept me reading for endless moments, and with dashes of almost all genres, is sure to keep anyone interested. The ending is a knockout, a surprise...and to find out, I guess you'll just have to read What I saw and How I Lied and see what I mean.