The Lies We Tell is another stimulating and socially conscious YA thriller from Katie Zhao that balances dark academia, a thrilling plot, and considerate character work.
It is no secret that How We Fall Apart was one of my favourite reads last year and Zhao continues that winning streak here once more with a completely immersive and gripping mystery. She has this innate quality to her writing that draws you into her web of deception, secrets, and lies. This is an immaculately plotted story with plenty of twists, turns, and red herrings thrown in. Every time I thought I had it all pieced together, another twist threw everything off-balance once more. The tension and pacing was spot-on, continuing to rise higher and higher as the stakes became ever more deadly.
This book really delves into anti-Asian hate crimes and structural racism, deconstructing the outdated traditional expectations of dark academia. The increased Sinophobia in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic is a sickening reality and Zhao mirrors it in this story in some incredibly painful moments of sheer hatred. There’s explorations of white supremacy, the model minority myth, and the increased expectations that can be placed on the children of immigrants. The weight of the sacrifices made to get them there and how that impacts their mental health is explored in a really nuanced and intriguing way. Zhao also delves deep into the fetishisation of Asian women, culture, and the appropriation of cultural symbols. There are these horrific racist stereotypes that directly lead to harm and abuse, which is explored in the book. That being said, this story is heart-breakingly honest in its depiction of these issues, but they do not define our characters. They are struggles they must face and the impact of a culture trenched in white supremacist ideology, which are necessary to acknowledge. However, Zhao ensures that these characters are more than their associated issues, creating three-dimensional and incredibly lovable protagonists.
Anna is a brilliant protagonist. She is fiercely determined to discover the truth, but also deeply passionate and considerate. Her life is torn between home and school and added into that is this desire to uncover the truth behind the murder of her babysitter. She is mirrored really well with Chris, who shares that drive to succeed and a caring heart. I loved their dynamic and any scene they shared together stole my heart. That flirty banter is wonderful, though Anna spends much of the story oblivious to the fantastic academic enemies to lovers dynamic they have brewing. I loved the whole competing family businesses dynamic as well and particularly how many food descriptions we got as a whole. Food is such a nostalgic and emotive presence, bringing us together and allowing us to share our heritage through culinary delights. In this story, food is inexplicably linked to that diasporic culture and a way of Chris and Anna reconnecting with their families. Also, it hugely helps that their supporting cast of characters were all incredibly interesting as well. Of course, you never truly open your heart to some of them, as there is always an element of suspicion. Those you do decide to trust though are so damn lovable and have a real sensitivity to them. As always with Zhao though, I can never fully allow myself to relax until the final page, as I know there will be a final sting at the end of the tale.
The Lies We Tell is another firecracker of a book from a voice that I have utterly fallen in love with in the genre. Katie Zhao is an author that should be an auto buy for you.
The Lies We Tell is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of November 15th 2022.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Anna Xu moving out of her parent’s home and into the dorms across town as she starts freshman year at the local, prestigious Brookings University. But her parents and their struggling Chinese bakery, Sweetea, aren’t far from campus or from mind, either.
At Brookings, Anna wants to keep up her stellar academic performance and to investigate the unsolved campus murder of her childhood babysitter. While there she also finds a familiar face – her middle-school rival, Chris Lu. The Lus also happen to be the Xu family’s business rivals since they opened Sunny’s, a trendy new bakery on Sweetea’s block. Chris is cute but still someone to be wary of – until a vandal hits Sunny’s and Anna matches the racist tag with a clue from her investigation.
Anna grew up in this town, but more and more she feels like maybe she isn’t fully at home here — or maybe it’s that there are people here who think she doesn’t belong. When a very specific threat is made to Anna, she seeks out help from the only person she can. Anna and Chris team up to find out who is stalking her and take on a dangerous search into the hate crimes happening around campus. Can they root out the ugly history and take on the current threat?
The Lies We Tell is a social activism/we all belong here anthem crossed with a thriller and with a rivals-to-romance relationship set on a college campus.
