There Will Be Lies

November 10, 2014
Lake returns to the mix of reality and fantasy he used to great success in his Printz-winning In Darkness for this story narrated by Shelby Cooper, a deaf teen whose life is upended when she is struck by an out-of-control Humvee in Scottsdale, Ariz. Shelby’s injuries aren’t life-threatening, but her mother panics, spiriting her away for a Thelma and Louise–style road trip to the Grand Canyon. Heretofore, Shaylene Cooper kept Shelby on a short leash, but Shelby soon learns that their cloistered existence had a darker genesis than maternal overprotectiveness. What Shelby discovers about her past is so unsettling that she retreats into an allegorical landscape known as the Dreaming. In this alternate world, drawn from Native American mythologies, Shelby is befriended by Coyote and told she is on a quest to kill the Crone and save a child whose cries she has heard for years in a recurring nightmare. These fantasy sequences are not as taut or thrilling as the real-world chapters, but Shelby is highly sympathetic, and readers will stick with her as she figures out who she can trust. Ages 14–up. Agent: Caradoc King, United Agents.

November 15, 2014
Over a period of eight days, 17-year-old Shelby's life is forever changed.Home-schooled in Scottsdale, Arizona, the two things Shelby's sure of are that her father is dead and that the world is a dangerous place. Her friend, Mark, tells her that "[t]hings are...starting to happen" right before she's struck by a car, fracturing her foot. As she passes out, a coyote seems to give her a cryptic message about lies and a hard truth. From then on, Shelby's life quickly unravels. Her once-shy mother's behavior becomes erratic as she drives Shelby to Flagstaff and tells her that her father, not dead after all, may be chasing them. When Shelby closes her eyes, she finds herself in the Dreaming, where Mark is the trickster Coyote and where her recurring dream of a crying child in need of rescue takes on urgency. Counting down the days toward a life-altering revelation, Shelby steps in and out of the Dreaming, its fairy-tale castles, crones and changelings blended with the sacred Eagle and Coyote of Navajo legend. Discerning readers might pick up carefully planted indications that Shelby is deaf early on. The suspenseful, complicated story slowly spins out clues to Shelby's life that have been hidden from her for years. A fine exploration of the power of story itself to heal the unconscious from scars physical and emotional. (Fiction. 13-17)

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Starred review from December 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-"I have no words to describe how I am feeling-it's like grief, maybe, but grief for myself. I was living my life, and then something came along and killed me, erased me." Seventeen-year-old Shelby Jane Cooper's world begins to come apart after she is hit by a car in Scottsdale, AZ. Her overprotective mother takes them on the run, and a coyote (who used to be a boy) begins to bring her into the Dreaming, a magical place where Shelby is no longer deaf and the animal inhabitants believe she can save them from an evil witch. What's real, this world or the Dreaming? What are the "two lies" that Coyote warns Shelby about? What is the one truth? Lake's new novel is perplexing and disorienting, full of the rich language and heady epiphanies readers have come to expect from the Printz-award winning author of In Darkness (Bloomsbury, 2012). The plot draws on Native American mythology and the haunting vastness of the Southwest landscape. The battles between elks and wolves, narrow escapes from authorities, and the looming mystery (Who is Shelby?) will make teens want to tear through the pages. Encourage them to temper this impulse lest they miss a single one of Shelby's heartrending revelations that happen on her journey to save the Dreaming and herself.-Chelsey Philpot, Boston University

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