The Third Lie's the Charm [a book review of sorts]
The Third Lie's the Charm (The Liar Society, #3)by Lisa & Laura Roecker
Katie Lowry knows she could've stopped Alistair from doing something stupid if only she'd picked up the phone. Now she has to live with the guilt. She's sick of the lies, sick of the secret societies that rule life at Pemberly Brown Academy. But there's only one way to take them down: from the inside... (goodreads.com)
Ok, so maybe it's been three years since I read the first two books in this series. And maybe I spent a good chunk of that time checking to see if my local library had this third, and final book. (It never did.) And maybe, just maybe, I had zero recollection that I had BOUGHT this book on my Kobo at some point in time. And maybe, hypothetically speaking of course, I discovered I had this book on my Kobo after about a year of not even knowing where my Kobo was, or having it charged. And finally, maybe I noticed I had this book on my Kobo when I was trying to load some library books onto it before a flight out East to visit my cousin, and those library books didn't actually work on my Kobo but I had this here Liar Society book all loaded up on there and ready to read.And maybe (yeah, I lied about the finally part) even though I read this book at the end of September, I am still thinking about it enough to blog about it.This is all possible. Not saying it isn't.I went back and re-read my blog posts about books one and two (linked below) and sure enough, I was as enthusiastic about the novels as I thought I had been. I'm rather bummed I'd forgotten about having bought the final book (allegedly). Then again, my life changed a lot a few months after I'd read the other books. I haven't been reading much at all. And I do not like reading e-books. It bugs me so much reading on a screen. Even with e-ink. Bleh.I'm not really going to review the book much though, even though it was awesome, and I did love it. (Check out this series if you haven't. GREAT mysteries! Secret Societies! Woo! Scandal!) I need to talk about something else in the book that's been sticking with me for over a month since I finished it.Katie's loss of her friend, and the sort of frantic, anxious, paranoid, lung-crushing emotions she has throughout the novel are so, so spot on. People tell her she's in shock, and experiencing symptoms of a trauma (the murder of her friend, and well, others) and she's certain she's not crazy though everyone tells her she is. She gets sent to a therapist, and has even her closest friends question her sanity about even more conspiracies and secret societal shenanigans. And all I could think while reading this was: woah. The authors GET IT. They captured on page (er, screen?), in words, what it feels like to spiral out of control over the loss of something, someone, in a traumatic way. You don't know if you're up, or down. Coming, or going. You spend your time trying to focus and breathe, and you're scared, angry, sad, confused, lost.And Katie was all of those things as she tried to get to the bottom of the latest mystery at Pemberly Brown Academy. Her struggle was almost palatable to me. My heart raced, but not in a trigger sort of way, but in total empathy for the character. I understood. I could have been her (if I were 15+ years younger).In reading my original blog posts about the first two books, I see that I was all about the authors' grasp of the teenage voice, and point of view. They got it. And they still do, but they also got that out-of-control feeling that Katie was experiencing and they expressed it so well in this book. The mystery, the suspense, the sarcastic humour and quips, they were all wonderful as well, but what truly stood out to me was the way Katie's emotional crisis was portrayed.I love well-written, and engaging novels. I love being able to recommend a series like this to young readers because I know it will be appreciated and enjoyed. I don't think you can lend e-books (I'm old, I don't get the technology of the youth) but I might just toss my Kobo at my niece (and sister) and tell them to read this series. It's not very salty or risqué, and my 10-year old niece has a pretty high reading level (if she can get through The Hunger Games this series might seem like Sesame Street to her). And I said it before, but there aren't too many mystery novels in the YA field that aren't paranormal in some way. At least not that I have found. That makes The Liar Society a delightfully refreshing series to devour.The Liar Society