The Big Lie

Starred review from October 2, 2017
Mayhew (Red Ink) imagines a present-day Britain under Nazi rule in the story of Jessika, a perfect daughter of both the Reich and her Reich minister father, who ends up becoming someone the state will not tolerate. Jessika moves around in time as she narrates: she’s 17, about to graduate and go off to skate camp when the book starts; she’s seven when she meets new neighbor Clementine, who becomes her best friend. Clementine has always been different, outspoken, and unconvinced of the regime’s claims, which worries Jessika. She knows her parents and the Reich are right, but she loves Clementine, both as a friend and as something more, which is a problem since homosexuality is illegal in her homeland. Mayhew manages two feats, both crucial: she creates a believable modern-day Nazi society built on rules, silence, and surveillance, and a compelling depiction of a girl caught between what she has always been taught and what she is coming to suspect is true. As Jessika discovers, the truth is both dangerous and liberating. Ages 14–up. Agent: Louise Lamont, LBA.

Starred review from October 1, 2017

Gr 10 Up-Imagine a world in which the iron fist of the Third Reich clamped over England and never let go. Jess enjoys her strict routine-classes, ice-skating, classes again, and home to her government-favored father. Only when her neighbor and friend Clementine begins to show uncomfortable signs of sedition does Jess begin to question things. Why does their house get raided in the middle of the night? Why is it acceptable for some people to have better goods and services if they are all supposed to be equal? In this alt-history novel, Mayhew explores the very unnerving scenario of a world in which the Nazi regime is still in power and thriving-and why. Aside from normal teenage issues, Mayhew grapples with how homosexuality is presented and dealt with in this fictional-but frighteningly factual-story. When Clementine gives a hard sacrifice to attain freedom, Jess's rose-colored glasses finally break. How can she reconcile her entire upbringing with what she saw and the aftermath? Terrifying and eerily timely, this is a difficult read-emotionally-for mature readers. VERDICT An excellent choice for most YA shelves.-Amanda C. Buschmann, Carroll Elementary School, Houston

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2017
Jessika is an upstanding schoolgirl in the English countryside of the Greater German Reich.It's been almost 75 years since Germany invaded--that is, since Operation Seelowe liberated England from the filthy refugees on Britain's shores. Jess focuses on ice-skating, youth group, and enjoying the next few years before she settles down with a husband. It's awkward that she wants to kiss her best friend, Clementine, but she can fix that, somehow. But why does Clementine make everything difficult, saying disruptive things about freedom and showing off her illegal CD player? Still, it must be a mistake when Clementine has a scheduled sterilization; isn't that operation just for "proper idiot girls...deaf ones too, the deformed ones"? Jess chooses naivete, revealing her world through the negative space of what she doesn't say. Through a jumping timeline, Jess details the events building up to a concert and its tragic aftermath: brutal medical treatment for the "blip" in her affections, black triangle badges, a re-education camp. ("I was here to work, and that work would set me free.") The setting, with its brainwashing, personality cults, and information seclusion from the rest of the world, evokes contemporary North Korea. Readers who know their World War II history and enjoy extremely unreliable narrators will find great satisfaction in puzzling out the truth behind the horrors Jess leaves unspoken. (Alternate history. 15-adult)

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October 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 Mayhew has imagined a 2013 Nazi England in an alternative history where Hitler conquered England. It's a doozy of a concept, well-realized through plausible details about everyday life seen through the first-person narrative of Jessika Keller, brilliant figure skater and obedient daughter of a high-level Nazi official. In her last year of school, Jess realizes she has more in common than she thought with her rebellious best friend and neighbor Clementine Hart, who questions authority and breaks rules. Jess is also recognizing her strong feelings for Clem, in a society where homosexuality is forbidden. An outstanding feature is Mayhew's refusal to offer easy answers and pigeonhole characters; she respects the reader's ability to handle ambiguity. Mayhew's careful research and richly detailed plot create a frighteningly real world, and her thoughtful afterword explicitly spells out questions about our right and responsibility to create change through revolution. A bibliography of further reading includes Anne Frank but goes far beyond the diary to include other primary source documents as well as academic and historical works.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)