thank you to bloomsbury for an arc!

look, this book was enjoyable, I LOVED the plot. but i also predicted it, and there were a few other things that were lacking! what i did love the most was how social issues were portrayed throughout the novel. it was unsettling to read about anti asian hate crimes, but as disturbing it was— it was true, IT IS TRUE and it is important for readers to understand that, especially white ones. i enjoyed the pairing of anna xu & chris lu, i would have liked to seen them as a more developed pair though!!— them teaming up is vital in this book and honestly reading those parts were amazing, but sometimes the writing made the reader think that the "working together part" and the romance was rushed at times.

The Lies We Tell is one of my most anticipated thrillers of 2022, especially after Katie Zhao's exhilarating release, How We Fall Apart, last year. Unfortunately, this novel didn't live up 100% for me. There were a few areas of improvement that I would hope would happen from How We Fell Apart to The Lies We Tell in terms of character development and storytelling, but I didn't really see those improvements happen.

That being said, there were some aspects of the novel that I liked. The theme and general message of the novel is definitely important. The book discusses hate crimes against East Asians and fetishization of East Asians. I think the kinks of the mystery were also more well thought-out compared to How We Fell Apart.

One of the reasons I didn't enjoy this novel as much was because the plot felt so simple and cliche. There were many times that I felt like I was watching a Lifetime movie. There's a secret society in the novel called "The Order of the Alpha" and this organization acted as a mysterious threat to the student body. However, we barely got any information about the Order so I lost the mysterious feeling I got hearing about the Order. I also easily guessed who the "bad guy" was the minute they appeared on page. I would have loved to have more pages in this novel to allow the mystery to ruminate and build up because the story was so fast-paced (an issue I also had with How We Fell Apart). This is also marketed as academic rivals-to-lovers, but the rivals barely had any scenes together. Most of the novel, we see the MC by herself rather than interacting with the love interest. Thus, their relationship felt rushed and under-developed.

Overall, I definitely see so much potential in Katie Zhao's thrillers. I just wish there was more complexity and nuance to the plot.

How we fall apart was one of my top reads and recommendations last year, especially to fellow POC/Asians. I had high hopes for this newest one and I wasn’t disappointed. I really enjoyed the characters as well as the real life way their cultures influenced their day to day lives. It was a fast paced mystery read with quite a few suprisies.

Anna is finally in college ready to spread her wings from her family, even if the college is just across town. She’s ready to investigate the death of her former babysitter and stumbles across an old family rival, Chris. After some racist attacks against Asians she believes that it could be connected to her babysitters death. With feelings building between them, they set out to figure out what happened to her and root out the hate crimes that are happening around town. The social aspects of the book and what the current climate is like for many tied in very well and the themes touched on resonated with me. This social activism tied in with a mystery book was excellent.

Highly recommend.

The Lies We Tell by Katie Zhao is a 4.5 out of 5 stars, terrifying & unputdownable dark academia young adult mystery novel. It revolves around college freshman Anna Xu attending Brookings University & learning to balance college life, grueling academics & also trying to solve the cold case murder of her childhood babysitter, Melissa Hong, from seven years ago. As the year progresses, there’s a horrifying appearance of hate crimes & racism coupled with the mounting tension of weird occurrences happening in Anna’s life. I would highly recommend reading The Lies We Tell if you’re in the mood for a dark academia thriller! Please check trigger warnings!
This book also has a slowburn childhood academic rivals to the most adorable budding romance. They just made my heart happy. I could totally see this becoming a fantastic movie.
I have currently read two books by Katie Zhao & thoroughly enjoyed both of them. I’m such a fan of her eloquent writing style. Her stories scarily & perfectly mount the stress & tension of the thriller throughout, similar to the tunes of escalating horror movie music. She writes dark academia so well that I hope to keep happily reading them. I did predict the ending to this, but I still reveled in hearing how it all came together.
Finally, I think it realistically portrays the horrors that come from just being & existing as a person of color in America along with the racism, bullying, name calling, actual violence & more that exist when people don’t accept those that are unlike them. It shows the worst of humanity. Thankfully, then it also showcases the optimistic hopefulness at the act of everyone coming together & celebrating each other’s differences & the necessity of fighting against racism for a better tomorrow for all. Katie Zhao is a brilliant thriller writer & I hope everyone else enjoys this as much as me!
The Lies We Tell by Katie Zhao comes out August 9, 2022!

Massive thanks to NetGalley & Bloomsbury USA Children's Books for giving me the opportunity to read an arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warnings: This book mentions &/or contains racism, hate crimes, xenophobia, violence, murder,

I will post this on my Instagram & Goodreads once it gets less than one month before release. I will add links once I do post.

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

The Lies We Tell by Katie Zhao was a book I was most interested in especially since I really loved Katie Zhao's previous work, with How We Fall Apart a little disappointing but it was okay. I was a little reserved about this novel, but I really enjoyed this one a lot especially since I was not expecting the tadbit of enemies to lovers in it, and that Anna's parents rivals is the Lus who's that exactly who Anna's boyfriend is: the son of the Lus.

I really loved the discussion of Asian hate crimes in America and how it makes Asian and Asian American feel unsafe, even while at school. And that type of thing needs to stop, along with other hate crimes.

I loved the fact that this is set on college campus! There's so few books with characters in college and I really want more of that, especially since at times, I don't want to read new adult books with it being on college campus. YA is sometimes better for that!

This is a pretty solid YA mystery on it's own. However, I finished How We Fall Apart earlier this month, and this is listed as book #2 in the series. In How We Fall Apart, there is an unanswered secret that a lot of people are going to expect answered when picking this book up. Also, none of the characters overlap, and the setting is different. The only thing tying the books together is the theme/genre of "social activism/we all belong here anthem crossed with a thriller". I really like Katie Zhao's writing style, but I was wrongly expecting something else from this book.

3.5 /5

I’m really struggling with how to review this book because I wanted to love everything. I really wish it would have been longer. It had so many great parts and the plot was good but it almost felt like it was trying to achieve so much that it missed the mark for me. Personally I think this could have been a duology. The mystery and plot felt like it happened a bit too fast. At 325 pages I found my self thinking there wasn't enough time to grasp the gravity of the events and the details we were being given. When the threats and mystery finally started to unfold the book was basically over. The mystery to me was predictable and the ending almost felt a bit anticlimactic. The romance was okay but I did appreciate how it tried to brighten up a darker story.

I struggled with the mashup of contemporary social activism/ thriller. As an Asian American I appreciated the inclusion of real life and current events. I definitely think it’s important to readers but some how I felt like this story tried to throw so many layers at us it almost lost its poignancy.

I don’t want to deter people from reading this with my review. I think this is a good book but it is trying to tackle so much. At it’s core it’s relatable. It’s about growing up and growing into oneself all while dealing with hateful stereotypes and racism. It’s also about family and being flawed and trying to find a place in this world. If you like fast paced contemporary thrillers then maybe give this a shot.

Thank you Bloomsbury USA Children's Books and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A pretty good mystery with a solid coming of age story line with just a tiny hint of romance. Well done and kept me turning the pages.