BOOK REVIEW: THE LIES WE TELL BY JAMIE HOLLAND

The Lies We Tell

by Jamie Holland

Paperback edition, 154 pages

Published September 23th 2015

MY GOODREADS RATING 3-4/5 STARS

(Thanks to Amazon and NetGalley, I received an ebook copy of this book for free to review.)

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:

“It's 1974 in suburban Maryland, and Martie Wheeler is consumed by anxiety. Her father has just dropped dead from a heart attack, two girls have disappeared from the local mall, and President Nixon has turned out to be the liar of the century.

When her mother moves the family to Milwaukee, Martie becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to the missing girls while her depressed older sister, Blaire, befriends a strange artist known as "the witch."

While trying to survive her new life on the shores of moody Lake Michigan, Martie learns of a dark family secret that threatens to upend her world altogether.”

Martie, our main character is plagued with anxiety that is very similar to the type I deal with on an everyday basis. Right from the beginning I could relate to her on a very personal level.Her anxieties where clearly brought about by the sudden death of her father, from a heart attack. She seems to have obsessive thoughts about bad things happening out of the blue and death. I thought the scenes where Martie was having extreme anxiety were depicted really accurately, an example being her racing thoughts. I’m drawn towards books that talk about mental illness, but I especially like that this one took place in 1974.

Her older sister Blaire seems to dealing with the death of her dad much differently and openly. Her mom tries to shelter her from bad things going on in the news and I understand why but I felt like it just made it harder for Martie to handle difficult situations. Martin keeps reaching out asking if she can see a psychiatrist, but her mom refuses to hear her. What really got me was she wanted her other daughter to see one but wouldn’t listen when her youngest daughter outright asked.

The one downside I saw to this book was it seemed a bit jumpy at first, one sentence would be a specific scene then the next would be an entirely different day, which made it a bit confusing to follow. For example the move to Wisconsin was so abrupt it felt rushed, and made the story feel choppy. Throughout the book the scene jumping seemed to just get more and more noticeable, almost annoyingly so. Other times it would jump so quickly to a flashback I would be so confused as to if I was reading about a part before her father died or after. The only time I liked the jumpiness of the story is when Martie is having obsessive thoughts, because that’s what does happen with anxiety.

       Overall I really enjoyed this book and would definitely read another book by Jamie Holland. You can tell she has done a lot of research and is very knowledgable about what she writes about.