The Liars of Mariposa Island is a book that is difficult to put down once you pick up. Between the intricate character development of the main characters and the interesting plot, this book is not one you'll want to miss. I found the family dynamics especially intriguing. The way that Elena protects her mother even after years of abuse is heartbreaking. Finally weaving through all of the lies at the end was very satisfying. I enjoyed the way that the story switched back and forth between Caridad, Joaquin, and Elena. I think that part was very well done and it added a lot of perspective to all of the characters.

A sad book about a sad family. Truly shows how childhood trauma impacts the type of parent someone becomes.

This book worked for me in that I adore dual timeline stories, and I loved seeing Caridad's childhood in Cuba as opposed to her and her children's lives in Texas. This story was definitely difficult to read at times, especially in regards to the familial relationships/abuse, and the romantic relationship that Elena has. However, I did enjoy this read because Jennifer Mathieu's writing is something special, and is really great at developing her characters.
I will admit that I didn't quite like this book as much as I liked "Moxie" but I'm excited to see what Mathieu writes in the future.

I feel really bad for this late review! But I finally got to this review copy and I read this in one day on Christmas. This is an important story about two siblings in the 1980's in a small town with their mother, who had fled Cuba as a child. This has dark themes about abuse and how awful families can be, along with their secrets. The revelations that came made me really emotionally react. Their mother is a horrible person, who never mentally left the spoiled child in Cuba and the manipulation and abuse she pushes on her two kids is so awful. I never felt sorry for the mother but for the two kids, especially Joaquin. I really respect how hard Joaquin worked up to make a decision and while I wanted to know about Elena's fate in the end, you can guess how it turns out for her. While I do feel like the story was hard to get into and the writing felt a bit emotionally distant at times, this is a mature YA books that mature audiences could enjoy. It might not work for everyone but I applaud the author for showing a sad reality. This wasn't amazing but I respect the themes and own voices background.

I love Jennifer Mathieu's work! Another great book and despite Liar being in the title, I was shocked by the lies uncovered!

*I was given an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.*

I just want to start off by saying that originally I thought this was going to be somewhat like We Were Liars. It was not. It actually took a while for me to even get in to the book. Normally I like the different POVs, but I didn't like the way it was done here. I didn't mind hearing snippets of Caridad's POV so that we could understand what happened to her, but I didn't like how half the book was told in Elena's POV and then the other half was in Joaquin's. I felt like I was just starting to get to like Elena and all of a sudden her story was abandoned for her brother's.

I'm honestly not sure if the author was trying to make Caridad a sympathetic character by telling us about her background and what she went through, but frankly I couldn't be bothered to like her character at all. Yeah, you had a rough life, but that doesn't give you the right to look down on the people who are only trying to help you. She seemed nonredeemable to me, and I wanted more from the ending as well. It seemed very abrupt and we didn't really get much closure for the characters, or at least that's how it felt to me.

I have read a few of the author's other books, and they were much better. This one just fell flat.

I really enjoyed a great many things about this book. Characters were fleshed out and the plot was well spaced. Some of the secondary storylines could've used a bit more page space but all in all an enjoyable read!

This was a great edge of your seat book! This book kept me captivated the whole time! I could not put it done!

Elena must conform to her mother's unrealistic rules, or she must death with her mother's wrath. Unlike her older brother, Elena is expected to cook, clean, and be a proper lady. She is not allowed to go out with friends or do anything that might even look like impropriety. Elena looks forward to the summers, when the rich Callahan family returns and she can get a break from her mother by babysitting the Callahan children. This summer is different because Elena has met a guy. While he may not be the best and not who you would consider to be her type, Elena begins to use the Callahans as an excuse more and more. Elena's older brother Joaquin worries about his sister, but he would never call her out because he doesn't want to alert their abusive and alcoholic mother. Joaquin doesn't want to be a part of the drama or abuse, instead he wants to start his adult life far away. Joaquin wants to find their long lost father and build connections with other parts of his family. This summer is one of tension and change, will the family be able to make it through the summer unscathed.

There was alot of story in this novel, though not alot of action. Elena, Joaquin, and their mother sift through their personal histories as a way to understand what their futures are going to be. While the narrative provides the mother's perspective, I never found myself connecting with her or rooting for her. She started pretty awful and stayed that way. The mother did have a challenging life, since she was sent from her home in Cuba to live with strangers in America. Instead of rising in the face of adversity, she twisted and became something nasty. Elena seemed to (almost) follow the same path and process. By the end of the book, I think the only person I really cared for or wanted to see in the future was Joaquin. I think this was a dense emotional story that some readers will respond to, but it was a challenge for me to read.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Heartbreaking novel about a dysfunctional family, the lies that are told, and the choices that they make. Very realistic, but disappointing ending.

The book would make a great book club choice--lots of great thought provoking discussions.

I enjoyed this read and it was interesting to see Mathieu do something so different from her previous book Moxie, which I really enjoyed. I think I still liked Moxie better, but this was a solid read. I think that the multiple perspectives were effective, although I was wishing for a present-day perspective from the mother character. This was a pretty quiet and understated book, some might say a little underwhelming in terms of action, but it was well written and I thought that the characters were realistic and well-written.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

The Liars of Mariposa Island follows the trials and tribulations of siblings Elena and Joaquin as they navigate one summer under the control of their volatile mother, a woman who fled Cuba during the revolution and never adapted to her more modest lifestyle in the United States and has become an embittered alcoholic.

Liars is a quiet, slow novel, but also one with a powerful message about destructive love, how lies can separate us from the ones we love, and the lengths people will go to in order to obtain some semblance of freedom.

The tone of Liars is sad and there’s a wistful sort of beauty to it. Fans of character driven novels that explore the psychology of relationships and self-determination will appreciate this new entry by Mathieu which leans towards teen literary fiction.

Elena and her brother Joaquin do everything they can to avoid angering their alcoholic mother. Elena spends her summer babysitting the Callahans (a family that visits the island every summer) and trying to meet up with her new crush J.C. Joaquin works at a restaurant and tries to find time to spend with his girlfriend Amy. Their mother manipulates their every move and the siblings spend more and more time creating elaborate lies to escape her, and discover that she has been lying to them too.

I usually like Jennifer Mathieu's work, but this one just seemed very boring to me. I couldn't get into the plot, not even the mystery elements, and I didn't really care about the characters. The mother's excerpts, although important to developing her character, didn't make me sympathetic to her. Not one that many students will enjoy.

The Liars of Mariposa Island is one of those books that makes you examine the power of words. It is an emotional story that asks us what we are willing to sacrifice for our family, and when is enough, enough? The Liars of Mariposa Island is a story about summer, freedom, parties and boys. Narrated from the perspective of a girl and her older brother, The Liars of Mariposa Island is a story that revolves around family. It features a relationship between the main character, who is 16, and an older teen, 19 years of age. A book that is stewing with secrets, lies, and proving there's a bit of a liar in us all. We are asked what we will do to continue our lies, to protect ourselves, and our family.

But what drew me to The Liars of Mariposa Island were the exploration of truth and lies, the memories of Elena's mother as a refugee from Cuba, and the question of whether we have the strength to break free of our family's hold. Throughout the book we witness scenes of Elena's mother as she flees Cuba, assimilates to life in the US, and her own vulnerabilities, fears, and lies. Every character in this book is a liar. Whether that be a white lie, Mathieu explores their motivations and fears.

Unfortunately, a place where The Liars of Mariposa Island fell short for me was in the ending. I appreciated that half of the book is narrated from Elena's perspective and the other half Joaquin's (besides the chapters from their mother), but I didn't feel much resolution from the ending. I wasn't expecting there to be a very happy ending, because the book is a full of family drama and tension, but I was looking for more closure.

I somewhat enjoyed the story but felt the ending was left open ended without a definitive resolution. I was hoping the son and daughter would approach their mom about her lies but it didn’t work out that way.

Elena’s mother keeps a very tight rein on her during the school year, but when summer comes, so do the Callahans and the freedom that comes with babysitting their children. It is the summer of 1986, the summer before her junior year of high school and the summer she meets J.C. Joaquin is Elena’s brother and he has all the freedom he could want, except he wants to leave Mariposa Island. He is now a high school graduate and is thinking of going to California to find their father.

The Liars of Mariposa Island is a stand-alone novel that chronicles the summer of these two siblings with flashbacks to the teen years of their mother and her experiences in Cuba and moving to the United States. Mathieu has taken a family with many secrets and even more liars and has crafted a story for the masses. Whether readers are looking for a coming of age story, a summer romance story or a fun book with just a little bit of history, they will be happy with these pages. Although I enjoyed this book, it isn’t as good as Moxie. We readers need to make sure we don’t judge one book based on other books by the same author. This is a totally different type of novel and must be enjoyed on its own merits.

Jennifer Mathieu is one of my favorite authors and I knew as soon as I heard the premise of this book I was going to read it. Told in the perspective of Elena and Joaquin, siblings both trying to deal with small town life and an unstable mother in 1986 and we also get their mother’s POV starting from 1957 in Cuba. I loved the way the author merged these stories and we really get to see why the mom is the way she was.

There were a lot of elements to the story that I was not expecting at all. It kept my interest the whole time. In true Mathiue fashion, the writing was absolutely beautiful. She just has such a way words.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and I can’t wait for Mathiues next release!

Book Review
The Liars of Mariposa Island
by Jennifer Mathieu
Publication Date 17 Sep 2019
Read courtesy of NetGalley.com

I have to be honest; I forgot what the title of this book was while I was reading it. Now that I see it has the word "Liars" in it, the book makes more sense. It's about liars. I like the book a 1/2 star better than I did before remembering the title.

The story is about a dysfunctional family fooling itself at every turn. Each family member lies to him/herself and, in turn, to each other. And it's not the kind of lying that's obvious; it's a self-preservation technique, yet it crumbles rather than coheres the family. On the other hand, some of the lying is so obvious that it's hard to believe its believed.

I enjoyed the point in the book when the reader is finally let in on the biggest lie perpetuated by the two teen children in the family. Once it is revealed, the mother's self-denial becomes more apparent and more dysfunctional.

The mother's lie to her children comes to light later in the story; however, it's revealed in too obvious a manner. It felt the plot point that allowed this lie to emerge lacked narrative creativity (been there, done that).

The story includes sex, and drugs, and boozy beach parties. These feel gratuitously included to "appeal" to teen readers.

Finally, the ending was abrupt. The only truth to the story is that no one wins in the end, including the reader.

Jennifer Mathieu has done it again! I loved this book and she is definitely an autobuy author for me ever since Moxie came out!