Overall, I enjoyed this book. I'd give it 3.5 stars. The voice of the narrator was fantastic, and it carried me through some of the more annoying and unbelievable parts of the plot. Chelsea Sedoti really got inside the mind of a teenage girl. I liked that Hawthorn wasn't always likeable, but I was still rooting for her to get some sort of happy ending. I'd recommend it if you're looking for a fun, quick read.

SUMMARY

The perfect blue-eyed blonde 21-year-old Lizzie Lovett has disappeared from a campsite during the night, leaving her boyfriend, Lorenzo behind. Lizzie had been the most popular and talented girl at Griffin Mills High School. Hawthorn Creely, a quirky, imaginative teen, was never a member of the Lizzie Lovett fan club. But despite not liking Lizzie, Hawthorn thought that Lizzie was perfect, Lizzie had everything, and Lizzie was everything. Hawthorn couldn't believe that something like this could happen to a girl like Lizzie. Things like this never ever happened in Griffin Mills. Hawthorn really needed to uncover the truth behind Lizzie's disappearance. She has her own crazy theory of what happened that night. Hawthorn applies for Lizzie's waitressing job at the Sunshine Cafe, and befriends Lizzie boyfriend when his comes into the diner. Hawthorn tries just about everything to figure out what happen to Lizzie.


REVIEW

Like Hawthorn, this book is very imaginative and yet a little quirky. The book is about Hawthorn, and yet the title, The 100 Lies of Lizzie Lovett might lead you to believe something else. Not until you step back after finishing the book do you really get the reason for the title.

Many of the characters in the book are very unique. Hawthorn's dad was obsessed with Edward IV, and her vegan mom's name is Sparrow, a take-away from her hippie days at Kent State. Coincidently, Sparrow's gypsy friends show up one day, in a caravan led by an old purple school bus, and camped in Hawthorn's backyard for the duration of the book. Very quirky! Sundog, the gypsy leader, surprisingly becomes Hawthorn's most-trusted confidant. He is the only person who could make her feel good about herself.

There's a huge cast of characters in the book, yet each of them is well-developed and memorable. The author, Chelsea Sedoti's writing is very easy to read and the dialogue is very natural. It's perfect for the characters in this book. The 100 Lies of Lizzie Lovett is funny and emotional, but Hawthorn's unrelenting insecurity is a little frustrating at times.

This book contains so many stellar one liners! "The thing about high school is that you have to pretend you don't care what people think, even though that's all you care about." was one of my favorites. "Happiness is living in the moment and not thinking about the future at all." is another. However, "When something starts out perfect, it usually lets me down." fits Hawthorn's character perfectly.

It's a good first book for Chelsea Sedoti. The ending of The 100 Lies of Lizzie Lovett makes this unique book worthwhile.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebook Fire for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this is a great story. I was pulled into it from the very beginning. It is a pretty complex story and the characters are really fleshed out.

Deep and emotional, this beautiful novel was thought provoking and character driven. This book dealt with emotions in a raw and gripping way, drawing me in while reading and holding me there for the duration of the story.

I’m going to preface this by saying I think that this book was just not for me. I think it might be a preference issue. This is where reviewing books gets a little murky for me. When we write a review we express our opinion of the book and our overall enjoyment (or lack of enjoyment). If you did not enjoy a book, a low rating is fair (that’s your opinion and your take on it). However, I’d rather give a book a low rating due to an uninteresting plot, it was poorly written, flat characters, boring….it makes me feel a little meh when I don’t think the book suffered those things necessarily and it was really a me issue—a matter of me and the story just not gelling.

Our MC is pretty well developed and complex, and she had a distinct voice but I didn’t connect. I don’t have to like a character necessarily to connect with them or relate to them and I still just didn’t connect with Hawthorne. I had some sympathy…she felt non existent and completely insignificant in her world but that was about the extent of my feelings for her.

While the storyline sounded interesting to me in the synopsis it just didn’t grab me. I just really didn’t care what the outcome was and that is a problem if you are reading a mystery. I think part of this was due to Hawthorn’s outlandish theories (as in zombies and werewolves)….just lost me there.

I know I said that I think this was a “me not the book” thing and then I proceeded to list some specific problems I had, BUT I honestly think plenty of readers will find this book quite enjoyable and entertaining. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

I received a free digital copy of this title via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influences my review. Thanks Sourcebooks Fire and Netgelly for the review copy!

I’d recommend this for older YA readers. It was a quick read as I was drawn into the story, but it holds at heart one of the key truths of life: how much do we ever really know a person? Well-written and well-paced, it is one I will be recommending.

Thank you for my review copy!

Put this on your YA shelf. Sedoti has neatly captured the voices in my teenage head and I suspect in a lot of other peoples as well. Hawthorn is a terrific character who I found completely realistic. Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC. I didn't realize it was a YA when I requested it but I'm very glad I did. It's well written and thoughtful-it spoke to me as an adult and reminded me of my youth.

Hawthorn Creely is a high school senior who has struggled to find her place. She feels that she doesn't fit in and really doesn't make an effort to find out who she is and what she can offer - until Lizzie Lovett goes missing. Lizzie has been out of high school for a few years but she made an impression on hawthorn. Lizzie was the effortlessly popular girl - the one who seemed to have it all. Hawthorn wants to find out what happened - how could a girl like Lizzie go missing. As Hawthorn moves closer into Lizzie's life - finding a job at the cafe where Lizzie worked and befriending her boyfriend, Lizzie starts to discover who she really is.

This book was full of teenage angst - the not-so-popular girl idealizing the lives of the popular kids in school. The self-consciousness and self-absorption in your own life that you forget that others has their own issues as well. The relationship between Hawthorn and her best friend and brother really shows this. Hawthorn is so involved in her issues that she doesn't work on the relationships that she does have. Through her obsession with Lizzie, she starts to discover more about herself. This is less a book about what happened to Lizzie and more about Hawthorn's journey.

High school senior Hawthorn Creely has it pretty rough. She's an outcast with a jock for a big brother and a hippie for a mom. She has no idea what she wants to do after graduation, even though her professor dad keeps pressuring her to pick a college. As if her life isn't embarrassing enough, a caravan of her mom's free-spirited friends has taken up residence in the Creelys' backyard.

But Hawthorn's biggest concern is that the ultra-popular Lizzie Lovett - a girl she loved to hate and hated to love before Lizzie graduated three years ago - has gone missing.

Hawthorn becomes swept up in the investigation of Lizzie's disappearance. She concocts her own theory of what happened, is hired to Lizzie's old job, and even starts hanging out with Lizzie's boyfriend. Long after the residents of her small town and the police department have given up hope of finding answers, Hawthorn is still looking for the girl she couldn't stand. And she comes to the realization that maybe no one knew the real Lizzie ...

This was my first YA read, and I was not disappointed. The dialogue and the storytelling are definitely targeted toward a high school audience but feel realistic enough that any adult could enjoy it.

"The thing about high school is that you have to pretend you don't care what people think, even though that's all you care about." So much yes.

I found myself identifying strongly with Hawthorn when it comes to her interactions with her peers - I was a bit of a loner myself. Plus, she doesn't have much of a filter - neither did I at that age! - and that tends to get her into quite a few scrapes.

The whole book is narrated by Hawthorn, so the reader gets a very personal take on her thoughts about high school, her family, etc. I was definitely laughing out loud sometimes at her dark sense of humor and how she wishes bad, but not harmful, things on people who irritate her. (Example: " ... I wished someone would replace Mychelle's fancy shampoo with a drugstore brand. I wished she would suddenly forget the name of her five favorite songs. I wished every time she microwaved a frozen burrito, the center would stay cold.") Let's be honest, haven't we all had those kinds of thoughts from time to time?

It's interesting to see how quickly Hawthorn goes from not caring (or pretending not to care) that the beautiful, blond, "perfect" Lizzie has vanished without a trace, to letting it consume her life to the point where she further alienates herself from the world around her.

I really struggled to understand Enzo, Lizzie's boyfriend, who was the last person to see Lizzie before she went missing. He is definitely essential to the story, but the author seems to leave his character mostly undeveloped - maybe on purpose ... ?

I didn't find this book to be predictable at all. Maybe other readers will have the ending pegged, but I certainly did not. I really appreciate the overarching message, which is for all ages, and wish I'd read something like this when I was Hawthorn's age (although, who knows, I might have brushed it off by saying, "Yeah, well, it's just a book"). We might think we have someone all figured out, but I'd venture a guess that almost everyone carries some kind of secret heartache that they'll never let the world see, whether they're ostracized or universally loved.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have to agree with what others have said before me. This book is fast-paced and very easy to read. There’s no doubt that the writing style is enjoyable. That being said, my concern lies with the annoying characters and the lackluster plot.

Hawthorn is aptly-named. She is like a thorn in my side. She’s morbid, sarcastic, and has a strong disdain for high school. She’s basically me, except I hope to God that I was never this annoying when I was her age. It’s normally easy for me to identify with outcasts and misfits. I’ve never quite felt like I belonged anywhere, and like Hawthorn, I’ve always felt like I see the world differently than others do. Unfortunately (or fortunately), that’s where our similarities end. I just couldn’t get behind her character. She was extremely self-involved, insensitive–and for lack of a better word–annoying.

When Hawthorn first discovers that Lizzie is missing, the way she speaks about it is really weird. I felt uncomfortable with her reactions and that discomfort never wavered until the end of the story. She went from theorizing about Lizzie, to hating her, to idolizing her, and eventually trying to find her. I mean, guys, she took Lizzie’s old job and started dating her boyfriend! Weird. Too weird. I can’t wrap my head around it. It was too much. I can’t even tell you how many times I cringed. Let’s not even talk about the fact that Hawthorn is a shitty friend, an angsty daughter, and a bratty sister. I guess she wasn’t as annoying at the end of the novel, but by that time, I was already so over the story and everyone in it. The character development didn’t even matter anymore. Except maybe Connor. Connor still mattered.

And don’t get me started on Lorenzo. Enzo. Gross. I’m not even going to elaborate on him.

On another note, the mystery wasn’t very mysterious to me. There was some supernatural talk that I hoped would be dismissed early on, but apparently the search for werewolves was a serious thing. Werewolves? Okay. Not what I expected, but okay.

The synopsis had me immediately hooked but I suppose my expectations set me up for disappointment. This wasn’t a bad book at all… it was just nothing like it expected it to be. Despite all of this, I still sped through the book at a miraculous pace. I started reading it on the bus ride home from school and I even got on the wrong train because I was so swept up in it. I could say that I finished it in “one sitting”, except that it was a sitting that took place in four different settings: two buses, a train, and a library chair, to be exact. My point is that I couldn’t put the book down, so obviously I was entertained.

I feel like this would have been a lot more enjoyable if I went into it knowing nothing about it. And maybe if someone warned me beforehand that the main character was annoying as heck! Yeah, I think that would have been a good warning. In any case, I feel like younger readers will really enjoy reading this!

*3.5 stars

I really enjoyed this book as not only is it an interesting read, with the main character trying to find out what has happened to the girl who used to be the most popular girl in school, it also shows how different some people can be from their public selves.

There are many interesting characters in the story, especially Hawthorn, the main character, and Lizzie, the missing girl.

I would highly recommend this to teens as it shows that popularity in high school does not make your life perfect, and that those who look like they have everything often don't.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.
Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to read and review The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett! Hawthorn's personality makes the story comical, despite the dreary undertone. She's blunt and practical and sometimes she can't understand people's reactions and the circumstances. Other times, Hawthorn feels like people are just ridiculous when all she is trying to do is understand the situation. Hawthorn loves to analyze logically and that is how she looks at the world. Hawthorn matures as the story unfolds and she has many different experiences and meets and gets acquainted with new people. The story has an overall depressing feeling, but as the reader I am supposed to learn from it. I did learn to not make assumptions and to keep my chin up because today doesn't mean the end. I give this very unique book a 4 star rating!

Hawthorn Creely is a misfit in high school. After committing the sin of tattling her freshman year, she has one real friend and little motivation to do much else besides mock what she deems the regular high school experience. For me, Hawthorn was not a likable character. There were times that I loved her writing voice and other times that I wanted to shake her shoulders and make her see how ridiculous she was being. That didn't bother me too much, though. The biggest issue I had with this was that it didn't have much of a plot. She tries to figure out the case of this missing girl, with whom she has two interactions she can remember, and everything just kinda lags along, and there were just a lot of disconnects across the board.

I have mixed feelings after completing this book. I knew Hawthorn lived in her imagination a lot. That was evident in the very beginning when she described her distraught brother as infected with an illness that turned him into a zombie. She quickly dropped it when he started talking, so I kept reading. When she started talking about werewolves, I thought it would be another fleeting fantasy. Until it wasn't. I was convinced through halfway through that the book should have been described as a YA Fantasy until something shifted. Hawthorn started living more in the real world.

I appreciate Hawthorn for her non-conforming, awkward and weird ways. She's not afraid to be herself. That's not true - she is, but she works through the fear to try to find herself. The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett is about not being normal in high school. And as much as it feels wrong to not fit in, it feels just as wrong to fit in.

Although the themes of the story were a bit long winded for me, I did feel the rawness through a teenager's eye. The emotions were real. Experiences and relationships were pulled from real life. There is a lesson learned here and an important reminder that high school is just a chapter in life.

This book is a smart, timely, and delicious version of our fascination with stories about privileged teens.

A special thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hawthorn, an awkward teenager, becomes obsessed with solving the disappearance of Lizzie Lovett, a girl who mysteriously vanished while on a camping trip with her boyfriend. Her overactive imagination invents a crazy theory about what happened to Lizzie and in order to prove it, Hawthorn inserts into Lizzie's life, including taking Lizzie's job and boyfriend.

Sedoti walks a fine line with such an unreliable narrator in Hawthorn. This coming-of-age story could come off as campy, but she pulls it off by giving Hawthorn some redeeming qualities that flesh out as the story progresses. It would be easy for the reader to assume that she is immature for her age, but in fact, it is simply lack of life experience given that she only has one friend and is therefore stunted when it comes to forming relationships.

Without giving away the ending, the writing is raw and encapsulates what it is like to be a misfit teenager, or anyone really who is trying to find their place in the world. Sedoti captures Hawthorn's angst and emotion through her solid writing. Her character is multi-faceted from her sarcastic wit to her vulnerable interior and this is why the story can move on from Hawthorn's juvenile theory into a moving story.

THE HUNDRED LIES OF LIZZIE LOVETT is hard to review story, mostly because there are things I liked and disliked about it. It took me a long time to read this book.

Hawthorne, aka Thorny, is a 17 year old girl in high school. She has only one friend named Emily. She is made fun of a lot in school, mostly for her crazy ideas. Thorny’s brother, Rush, was really popular in high school and is now graduated. He used to date a girl named Lizzie Lovett, who was the most popular girl in school before she graduated and moved to a town near by. Thorny had an encounter with Lizzie and then ended up hating Lizzie for how it made her feel.

Years later, Lizzie has gone missing. Everyone in town is talking about what might have happened to her. Everyone in town thinks Enzo, Lizzie’s boyfriend, is the one who killed her. Thorny takes on Lizzie’s old job and starts hanging out with Enzo, getting the whole town talking about her. Anyone can see why Enzo would want to know what happened to Lizzie, but what is Thorny’s obsession with her. Thorny can’t get Lizzie out of her mind and Thorny thinks she knows what happened, so she pairs up with Lizzie’s Enzo to discover the truth.

The protagonist in this story is a very strange girl. She doesn’t conform to normal standards. Yea, her family is a bit strange, but Thorny takes that strangeness to a new level. She gets this idea in her head about what happened to Lizzie and it is nothing short of absurd. She is convinced her theory is right and studies all about it. I found this a little unbelievable. Thorny is suppose to be 17, but she thinks and acts much younger. I thought for a while there that she had a mental illness.

The thing that really struck me is that Thorny didn’t even like Lizzie. She couldn’t stand anyone to even talk about her, but then she goes and inserts herself into Lizzie’s old life. Getting the job she used to have is a little weird, but then hanging out with her boyfriend just goes overboard. Enzo is another strange character. Their relationship is just so aberrant, I just couldn’t ship this. She is 17 and he is 25, which isn’t even their only issue. Enzo is so boring. He has no car, no direction in his life, and does nothing for Thorny. There was nothing to like about him. Their relationship was so awkward.

The one thing I admit that I loved about Thorny is the way she thought about people when they tried to hurt her feelings.

“That’s when I started to think bad thoughts. Like how I wished someone would replace Mychelle’s fancy shampoo with a drugstore brand. I wish she would suddenly forget the name of her five favorite songs. I wished every time she microwaved a frozen burrito, the center would stay cold.”

This is just such a fun way to channel anger at someone. It was really entertaining. I found myself hoping she would do it all the time. I liked how she reasoned her anger out in her head.

The only things carrying this story for me was Lizzie’s disappearance. I didn’t relate to Thorny on any level. I just wanted to find out what happened to Lizzie. By the last few chapters I was a little curious to see what happened to Thorny. Thorny has so many people around her rooting for her, but then she treats everyone poorly because they don’t believe in her insane idea about what happened to Lizzie. Thorny had some redeeming qualities but that was not the point of this story. I wouldn’t recommend this book unless you are really into quirky characters in odd relationships.

Alright, where do I start with this amazing book? Hmm...okay, so this book is about an outcast name Hawthorn who decides to go on the hunt for a missing, super popular girl from her town, but this story is SOO much more than just a mystery.

Like, as soon as I started this book I was hooked. I finished reading it at 5 A.M. after only 2 days of reading and it left me a complete and total emotional wreck and I love every minute of it. Even though this is only my second read of 2017 I am confident that this will be a Top Read of mine for the year. IT WAS THAT GOOD!

Why was it that good? Well, first of all the title is complete work of genius. The title implies that Lizzie Lovett told a bunch of lies and the main character is uncovering them in her search for her. Well, guess what? Yeah, the title is more of a play on the hundreds of lies people are coming up with surrounding Lizzie's disappearance and the lies our main character comes up with herself. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let me backpedal a bit.

This beautiful story is told from the point of view of Hawthorn Creely, a high school senior who sees the world in shades of magic and mystery. She is a complete outcast, the younger sister of a star football player, out spoken, curious and she reminds me of myself, which is why I love her so much. See, I think because she reminds me of myself, especially how I was in high school, it makes me love this book even more. I love how curious she is, how she isn't afraid to speak her mind, how she kind of sort of doesn't understand how to react in social situations and how she's just a bit morbid.


This story has hippies, high school mean girls, mystery, love and just the reality that growing up doesn't mean you have to actually grow up. I usually read books that have a lot of magic/paranormal going on in the plot, but this one really stole my heart because even though it was completely realistic, it had mentions of magic in the sense that only those who see the hidden magic in the world can showcase. This beautiful tale shows readers how hard it is to be the outcast, especially in a small town, how being weird is actually kind of wonderful, how there are different forms of love and relationships, and how if one looks hard enough they can find adventure.

While this story gives the reader the impression that it is about Hawthorn looking for Lizzie, the reality of it is so much deeper than that. This story is about refusing to give in to what one's parents and society wants, it's about trying to use magic to explain the normal because it's easier to accept reality that way. This story is about finding love with the wrong person because sometimes we build them up in our heads to be so much more than they are. This is the magical story that says even though you're growing up and graduating, it doesn't mean you have to give up your sense of wonder and adventure. This story is about how first impressions can be deceiving, how family may embarrass us but how they will also always be there to pick us up when we fall.

I think my favorite part of this story is the ending, which is crazy since the ending is also what really nailed in the final nail in my emotional trauma coffin. Why did I love it? Well, I don't want to spoil it for anyone so I'll just say that it really shows how those who are really hurting inside will put on a facade to hide it from the outside world. It shows how people feel grief, how some people can make a huge impact on your life even if they haven't been in it very long, and the ending was just beautiful because even though it was super open to interpretation, it was magical in it's simplicity.

To put it plainly: I love this book. I did not expect to love it, I didn't expect for it to leave me changed, I didn't expect it to make me cry, but all of that happened and I love it. I hope this book is experienced by everyone because it's one of those books that NEEDS to be read. This book left me feeling the way The Fault In Our Stars left me feeling, which I thought would never happen again.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me this book to experience and thank you Chelsea Sedoti for writing such an amazing story.

Rating: Definitely a 5 out of 5 star book that I highly recommend.

I think this book is going to appeal to a lot of people, but I personally had a hard time getting into it. I just couldn't connect to Hawthorn at all. I found her to be whiny and annoying, and I just did NOT care about her. I also thought she was completely delusional. I mean, she spends this entire book convinced that Lizzie Lovett, a girl who recently went missing, is a FREAKING WEREWOLF and is living in the woods having a grand ol' werewolf time. It's crazy.

This book was not for me. Thanks for letting me read it - I'm sorry I didn't enjoy it, but I do think many will!

Mystery
15-21
When the beautiful Lizzie Lovett disappears after a reportedly happy evening of camping with her boyfriend, Hawthorn Creely’s high school is buzzing with excitement. Not much happens in Griffin Mills, and Hawthorn is quick to join the locals in speculating on the cause of Lizzie’s disappearance, even while the search parties are frantically combing the woods around the campsite where she was last seen. Hawthorn’s older brother Rush, who dated Lizzie when they were seniors in high school, is apparently devastated, which strikes Hawthorn as odd since they haven’t spoken in years. Now a senior herself, Hawthorn recalls the kindness Lizzie once showed her, followed by a mortifying snub that still hurts. She finds a morbid delight in musing about Lizzie’s whereabouts, confident that nothing bad could happen to such a golden girl. But the more she learns about Lizzie, the more she realises how difficult it is to reconcile other’s conflicting stories who this young woman is. Is she kind, or a bully? Is she enjoying her life as a single woman or longing to return to her peak popularity in high school? Hawthorn decides to find out more, and ends up inserting herself into Lizzie’s life, hoping to uncover the truth of what happened that fateful night of camping. I love Hawthorn! Sedoti has perfectly captured the complexity of being a teen – naive innocence and jaded worldliness mixed with dread and excitement of what the future holds. I can only describe her as mercurial. She snaps and snipes at her brother, desperately holds on to her belief in magic, and yet remains fearful that the future will bring only disappointment. She is a prickly soul who wants to be loved as she struggles to accept she is perhaps, with effort, lovable, despite accepting the fact she is one weird teen. Piss her off and she’ll wish three or four vengeful outcomes, what she calls “bad thoughts,” that will leave you cheering her on: “I wished Mychelle and her stupid jock buddy would win the lottery and lose the ticket. I wished they would only ever be able to take cold showers. I wished every glass of lemonade they drank for the rest of their lives would be just a little too sour.” High school bullying occurs throughout the book, and Hawthorn’s best (only?) friend Emily wisely reminds Hawthorn that all things will pass. But even Emily loses her patience when Hawthorn, having taken a job at the diner where Lizzie worked, starts hanging out with the very boyfriend who woke up alone in the tent when Lizzie disappeared. Hawthorn’s certain he’s innocent, but she still doesn’t know why Lizzie left, or where she is. Is Lizzie even alive? While the cast is rather white bread (no discussion of race or sexuality other than hetero) this mystery is at heart an encouraging message for those struggling with difference during the high school years. With realistic situations and authentic dialogue, this coming of age novel is one I’m recommending, and look forward to more from this young writer. My thanks to publisher Sourcebooks Fire for the advance reading copy, provided through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
More discussion and reviews of this novel: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25546710