Hot take: this is a better version of "Liar, Liar". Although it lacks the antics of Jim Carrey in all his mid-90s glory, The Girl Who Couldn't Lie takes the concept and dives into the underlying reasons why lying can become such an easy thing to do. Priya's life appears perfect on the outside. She's a good student, she has great friends, she's got supportive parents, and she's on track to make the Teen Olympic Gymnastics team. However, as hard as she tries to pretend that everything is fine, she can't sleep at night because her parents are constantly arguing, and she keeps falling asleep in math, and she has been stressing about making sure her routines are perfect for regionals, and that means she almost never gets to see her friends. Things have just been so difficult since she lost her grandmother last year and Priya doesn't know how to tell anyone. When she ends up with her grandmother's bangle stuck on her wrist, she is unable to continue telling everyone that things are fine. In fact, she is unable to tell anyone anything except the cold hard truth.

This toed the line between humor and deep emotion so well, Radhika Sanghani handles topics of cultural and generational expectations in a way that readers from many backgrounds can find a connection to. She is able to weave themes of loneliness and isolation that occurs when children are expected to protect their family's secrets into the importance of knowing when a truth is or is not yours to share. There is a lot to love about Sanghani's novel. It's a text that would be a strong addition to a middle school curriculum. There are a lot of topics that can provide interesting discussion and writing prompts, several universal themes and character development. Students will also find Priya as well as the other characters and events deeply relatable.

A really cute story I enjoyed! I love the twist on tropes and I think kid readers will find a lot to relate with in the main character.

I enjoyed this story of a middle school student who has always told little white lies to those around her in order to make their lives easier. She was raised to not air dirty laundry in public. A magical bangle bracelet ends up causing her to always tell the truth. She eventually learns that it’s okay to not be okay and sharing your truth with those who care about you helps so much. There are some bumps along the way, as you can imagine. Overall, a great message for kids.

It was a good book. Fairly ordinary but well written, with well developed characters. The story follows Priya, a 12 year-old girl, who lies almost constantly. The thing is, she doesn’t do it for personal gain or to be devious, but really to spaer people she loves from being hurt or disappointed. The anxiety associated with this behavior is starting to wear where down and she really misses her grandmother, the only person she never lied to,. A father putting on a bracelet that her grandmother left her she finds that she cannot lie, and she cannot get the bracelet off. After some fairly painful truths are spoken, her best friends Sami and Mei help Priya learn to tell the truth in a thoughtful way, not just blurting it out, and wounding people in the progress. Things start to go really well until they suddenly don’t and Priya is faced with losing everything she has gained by telling the truth.
The story was enjoyable and the characters likable. I liked how much things got worse and left you wondering what, if anything, could be resolved and saved.. It is nice to read a book for this age group that isn’t a gimmick or overdone trope.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC in return for a fair and honest review.

Priya has been living for everyone else, stuffing all her own feelings inside to keep things calm. How many of us have done that in so many areas of our lives? I like the idea of a magical bangle forcing her to finally tell everyone how she really feels, and the happy consequences of that. Obviously, there has to be a downside to all the honesty, and some personal accountability as well, which is less fun. :-) But Priya's discovery of not only herself but also all her friends is a fun journey. The only quibble I have is the family's celebration about getting a divorce. I get that the fighting is a problem, but I think that there would still be quite a lot of angst from kids and parents about divorcing..

I really liked the journal reviews on this and wanted to read it right away. It’s cute, but reads very young. I would give this to 8-10 year olds even though the main characters are in 8th grade. Actual 6th-8th graders (even my young ones) are going to think it’s cheesy.

I think Priya will be helpful to those kids that are constantly trying to make others happy and will learn from her journey with the truth bangle. The story at its core has been told numerous times before and ends with the grand gesture that miraculously fixes everything - a trope I have never liked except in the movies - and even then it’s just such an unrealistic outcome.

I think some of the voices in the book are what brought it down for me. It’s just not stuff real teens would say, but it is stuff that adults TEACH teens to say.

What a great story! Priya leans so much about being honest, but not too honest! I love stories with amazing friendships, and this book definitely has that. I think kids will highly relate to Priya's story!

It was such a lovely read, best enjoyed with a cup of hot beverage in a cosy setting. The plot was immaculately written and addressed. It was so relatable and the message was beautifully placed. I could already imagine it to be on big screens scripted as top grossing teen movie.

Wonderfully gentle handling of what can be quite a painful topic, and set in a world specifically designed to get Priya to take (and enjoy the fruits of taking) her Ba's advice. Adults may find this to be extremely confronting, with themes relating to how far you'll go to people-please and why, Some may also find this to be incredibly relatable (and triggering), especially those of us who are struggling to tell the truth and commit to actions in line with our truth. To them (and me), I'd say the best way to get through it - is to get through it. And, don't worry, Sanghani has our back, and, at times, it feels like she holds our hand and guides us step-by-step to the other side.

Multiple moving parts in Priya's life push her more and more to be a truth-teller and enjoy the consequences that come with it. Could be treated as proof for why honesty works. Perfect for guided journaling and meditations, reading on a crowded bus, and on a rainy day.

Engaging middle grade reader. Sure to be popular. I am looking for more Asian author juv titles. We are getting it.

Priya Shah is going through a lot. She’s stressed about gymnastics, her math teacher is a tyrant, and her parents are constantly arguing. Priya tends to lie in order to keep the peace, but when she puts on a bangle that belonged to her late grandmother, she finds she is physically unable to lie. The bangle forces her to state the truth at all times, which ends up causing a lot of problems at home and at school.

Priya is a flawed, yet relatable protagonist. She wishes her bickering parents would just get a divorce, something that is simply not done in their Indian American community. Her grandmother, Ba, was the one person Priya could be honest with, and Priya feels lost without her guidance. Priya’s younger sister Pinkie has ADHD; sometimes Priya gets frustrated with her inattentiveness, even though she knows it’s not Pinkie’s fault. Unfortunately, talking about neurodiversity is another taboo in their community.

Priya’s best friends, Sami and Mei, are extremely supportive when she tells them about the magic. With their help, Priya tries to remove the bangle, but nothing works. When the bangle gets Priya in trouble with her evil math teacher she’s sentenced to a week of detention with her bully, a rich girl named Katie Wong.

I really appreciated that Katie wasn’t the stereotypical mean girl you see everywhere. During their week in detention, she opens up to Priya about her own family’s struggles and the girls begin a tentative friendship. Things backfire when Katie reverts to her mean-girl ways, though she does redeem herself in the end. I was glad to see that Katie got another chance and that she wasn't portrayed as a one-note bully.

A few things I could have done without were the gymnastics and crush drama. The only other gripe I have is that everything wrapped up a little too neatly in the end. A lot of side issues were resolved too conveniently, like with the math teacher. Other than that, I really enjoyed this book! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC.

Priya wants everyone to be calm, and collected. She has chaos in her life, as her parents are always fighting, but she has been told to not let anyone know. It makes them miserable and makes her miserable. Plus, her Ba (grandmother) died a year ago, and she misses her sooo much, but everytime she tries to talk about it to her parents they change the subject.

Before her Ba died, she gave Priya a bracelet, and said it would help her make friends. She is so upset that she puts it on, and finds she can’t lie anymore. Every word from her mouth must be the truth. Not necessarily the whole truth, if she figures out how, but if she takes to long the bracelet will force her to speak the harshest truth.

I like how she learns how the bracelet works, and how she can make it so that she can let people know what she wants, and needs. And how she turns the truth into speaking her heart.

Very enjoyable read, as she tries to figure out the best way to tell the truth without losing all her friends.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out the 4th of February 2025.

I recieved a free eARC of this book. Thank you for the opportunity to read it.

Priya's parents fight. A lot. She feels pushed and pulled in many directions, by her parents, at school, at gymnastics, by the bully who makes her do her homework, by her sister who's ADHD makes her hard to handle, by her friends, and most of all by her parent's rules that you don't share any struggles outside family. And her one family confidante, her grandmother, died last year. So, Priya lies. A lot.


All this changes when she puts on her grandmother's final gift to her, a bangle said to be enchanted-and it won't come off. Now, Priya can't lie. Not to the teacher who hates her. Not to her bully. Not to her friends. Not to her parents. Not to her coach. And that doesn't always go well.

Everyone who feels trapped will relate to Priya's story, both the ups and downs. This is an excellent middle grade book that will have a wide appeal to many students. It deserves a place in libraries and classrooms.

Priya Shah has a lot going on in her life, but she has to make sure that she doesn't let anyone know that there are a lot of things that are unpleasant, because her parents think that "not airing one's dirty laundry in public" is very important. Her parents fight so much that Priya doesn't get much sleep at night, so is often tired for gymnastic practice in the morning, and has even fallen asleep in Mrs. Lufthausen's math class! Her best friends Mei and Sami help her out when they can. When things get bad, Priya thinks about the one person who helped her, her recently deceased grandmother, Ba. Ba had given Priya a gold bracelet just before she died, but Priya has never worn it because it was broken. Her grandmother had told her that it was lovely when you can't tell people the truth. Upset and clutching the bracelet one night, Priya hears it click open and puts it on. The next morning, she tells her father that she doesn't much care for the eggs he cooks, and finds as the morning progresses that she tells the truth every time someone asks her a direct question! This becomes a big problem. She takes her lunch to eat in the bathroom because she's afraid of offending Mei and Sami, and is approached by the mean and popular Angela and Katie. WHen Katie, who has been shaking down Priya to do her homework for half the year, asks about the assignment, Priya tells her she doesn't want to do it, but will. At gymnastics, she tells Coach Olaf that she doesn't want to work with Dan Zhang because she has a crush on him. Coach Olaf makes her work with him anyway, and Dan is a little put off when Priya won't tell him why she doesn't want to work with him. She finally has to tell her best friends about her parents fighting, and they come clean with truths of their own, including Mei's news that she is a lesbian. It's hard to spend the entire day telling the truth, and Priya eventually comes clean to Dan about her feelings for him, and he reciprocates. It's a little more difficult for her friends to believe that her bracelet is magic, and this leads to some troubles. She also runs afoul of Mrs. Lufthausen, and ends up spending a week in detention... with Katie. The two bond over a number of things, and become friends. When Priya tells her coach that she's not that interested in gymnastics, he kicks her off the team ahead of a big competition. This will enable her to go to Sami's Bat Mitvah, which is a big deal, but when the team needs one more person, Priya finds herself drawn back in. Being honest with her parents leads to some interesting conversations, but she finds her little sister Pinkie to be a big help in navigating the difficult juggling of the competition and celebration. Will Priya be able to figure out how to get the bracelet off, or will she spend the rest of her life being bluntly honest?
Strengths: Middle school can be hard, but imagine how hard it would be if you had to tell the truth all of the time! Priya never really lies; she just does what most people do, and puts a good face on things. She doesn't tell Dan how she feels because it's scary, and she does homework for Katie because it's easier than fighting about it. I particularly liked her somewhat conflicted feelings about gymnastics, especially in light of her perception that her parents were having financial difficulties and needed prize money that she could win. This is on trend with the current philosophy that you should tell your friends the truth or they will feel disconnected from you, but also throws in that even if you have problems, you still need to check in on your friends, because they have problems, too. The way the magic unfolds makes sense, and it's nice to think of Priya's grandmother caring for her from beyond the grave. My favorite part was probably Pinkie stepping up to save the day, when Priya has previously dismissed her as unhelpful. When Priya's parents finally announce their divorce, she is fairly happy, and this will resonate with readers who have been in a similar situation.
Weaknesses: It's not only an Indian desire to keep family issues under wraps, so I had a lot of sympathy for the elder Shahs, even though their fighting was bothering Priya so much! This was a bit on the long side; it was interesting to see all of the ways that telling the truth got Priya in trouble, but at a certain point, I wanted the story to move on.
What I really think: This is an interesting magical realism title that will be popular with fans of Mlynowski's Best Wishes series or Kelkar's equally magical and somewhat goofy That Thing About Bollywood.