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lezapal's review against another edition
2.0
Very disappointed. I didn't like the writing style or feel much for the the characters. The description was the best part of this book.
aristeegan's review against another edition
3.0
Marina Mander is an amazing writer. This story is so well written. The awful sadness of the story and its abrupt ending kept me from rating it higher.
thesarahstory's review against another edition
3.0
In diesem Buch geht es um einen Jungen, der keinen Vater mehr hat und als Halbwaise mit seiner des Lebens müden Mutter zusammenlebt. Eines Tages kommt es dazu, dass die Mutter nicht mehr aufwacht und der Junge verheimlicht ihren Tod, weil er unter gar keinen Umständen in ein Heim will. So lebt er fortan mit seinem Kater Blu zusammen und versucht den Alltag wie ein Erwachsener zu meistern und natürlich ohne die erste große Lüge seines Lebens auffliegen zu lassen.
Das Buch hat mir ganz gut gefallen. Da die Geschichte ziemlich kurz ist und von der Handlung her kaum etwas Interessantes aufweist, hat es für mich nicht für mehr als drei Sterne gereicht, aber dennoch war es ein gutes Buch mit einer spannenden Thematik, die in einer sehr freundlichen Form umgesetzt wurde, denn das Buch ist weder melodramatisch noch deprimierend. Es ist aus der Sicht des Kindes geschrieben, dem die Schnauze gewachsen ist, wie sie eben wächst und das auch so spricht. Schöner Weise ist es aber auch sehr poetisch geschrieben und die Autorin bedarf sich einigen wundervollen Metaphern sowie Vergleichen, die mir gänzlich neu waren und mir somit unglaublich gut gefallen haben.
Insgesamt war es also für mich definitiv der Erzählstil, der mich durch diese Geschichte getragen hat und das ist keinesfalls schlimm. Erzählen kann die Autorin, wenn es auch nicht so richtig spannend ist, so ist es doch relativ poetisch und tiefgründig.
Man hätte durchaus aber auch mehr aus diesem Buch, der Idee und eben dieser Thematik herausholen und machen können. Letztendlich war die Geschichte nett, aber wirklich tief ging sie am Ende leider nicht. Dennoch habe ich den Kleinen, sowie seinen Kater Blu, ziemlich schnell ins Herz geschlossen.
Das Buch hat mir ganz gut gefallen. Da die Geschichte ziemlich kurz ist und von der Handlung her kaum etwas Interessantes aufweist, hat es für mich nicht für mehr als drei Sterne gereicht, aber dennoch war es ein gutes Buch mit einer spannenden Thematik, die in einer sehr freundlichen Form umgesetzt wurde, denn das Buch ist weder melodramatisch noch deprimierend. Es ist aus der Sicht des Kindes geschrieben, dem die Schnauze gewachsen ist, wie sie eben wächst und das auch so spricht. Schöner Weise ist es aber auch sehr poetisch geschrieben und die Autorin bedarf sich einigen wundervollen Metaphern sowie Vergleichen, die mir gänzlich neu waren und mir somit unglaublich gut gefallen haben.
Insgesamt war es also für mich definitiv der Erzählstil, der mich durch diese Geschichte getragen hat und das ist keinesfalls schlimm. Erzählen kann die Autorin, wenn es auch nicht so richtig spannend ist, so ist es doch relativ poetisch und tiefgründig.
Man hätte durchaus aber auch mehr aus diesem Buch, der Idee und eben dieser Thematik herausholen und machen können. Letztendlich war die Geschichte nett, aber wirklich tief ging sie am Ende leider nicht. Dennoch habe ich den Kleinen, sowie seinen Kater Blu, ziemlich schnell ins Herz geschlossen.
threeseagrass's review against another edition
4.0
“If Mama is dead, I can’t tell anyone. If I tell, they’ll take me to the orphanage.”
Imagine you’re ten years old. You have no father, and your mother is alive, but not really there. But, still, she’s all you have. Imagine waking up one morning to find your mother dead, after years of depression and psychological issues. What would be your immediate reaction?
It’s hard to imagine what I would do as this child, but I’m guessing I would call the police first thing. That’s what we’ve been taught to do from a young age. But [b:The First True Lie|16099194|The First True Lie A Novel|Marina Mander|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1364251146s/16099194.jpg|21908587] examines what would happen if this child made a completely different decision, and decided to go on as if nothing ever happened, while his mother rots in her bedroom.
Meet Luca, a young Italian boy living alone with his mother. Luca believes he is a ‘half-orphan’, meaning he has no father (though he has had to deal with a number of ‘dads’ throughout the years). We don’t really know how old he is, but we do know that his mother is still supposed to drop him off at friend’s houses for playdates. But Luca is living a lie. His mother is actually dead in their apartment, and somehow, he continues to go to school every day and live a complete farce.
In my opinion, Luca’s narration of the story was almost believable. We spend the entire story in his head, and for the majority of the time, it’s what I imagine a little kids head to be like. He constantly goes off on tangents when he thinks about how to deal with his mother’s death, and his mind hops from subject to subject with no warning. And yes, I do think that being able to take care of himself with his dead mother in the next room is also realistic, because isn’t that what he’s been doing all along? She was hardly present when she was alive, so it makes sense that he would be able to make some fish sticks for himself. However, the one thing that bothered me was the swearing. I don’t see why or how any young child would think the way Luca does. His mother often chastised him about swearing, and didn’t use the words frequently enough to set a bad example.
I don’t know if this book was supposed to end where it did, or if this was only a preview. If this is, indeed, the original ending, and you are the kind of person who enjoys a happy, concrete ending, then this book isn’t for you. But if you’d like to learn more about how pop culture can really affect children, this is definitely an interesting book. Luca’s reasons for not telling anyone about his mother’s death make sense in his mind, because of what he’s seen on television or because of what he’s heard adults talking about.
Overall, a lovely story. 3.5 stars
Some select quotes that broke my heart:
“There’s only one hope—that she’ll be resurrected, like Jesus. We’ve just begun the second, and who knows if it’s true that Jesus was resurrected.”
“Maybe I wasn’t able to make her stay in my life, to make her live for me at least. Maybe I’m not worth much at all, not for her, not for anyone.”
“Now the storm is here and we’re all about to drown, but Blue and I are still bobbing around.”
“If everything weren’t becoming so complicated, I’d say it’s all the same to me, that in some ways I understand her, that I understand if she was sick of living.”
I received this ARC from NetGalley.
Imagine you’re ten years old. You have no father, and your mother is alive, but not really there. But, still, she’s all you have. Imagine waking up one morning to find your mother dead, after years of depression and psychological issues. What would be your immediate reaction?
It’s hard to imagine what I would do as this child, but I’m guessing I would call the police first thing. That’s what we’ve been taught to do from a young age. But [b:The First True Lie|16099194|The First True Lie A Novel|Marina Mander|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1364251146s/16099194.jpg|21908587] examines what would happen if this child made a completely different decision, and decided to go on as if nothing ever happened, while his mother rots in her bedroom.
Meet Luca, a young Italian boy living alone with his mother. Luca believes he is a ‘half-orphan’, meaning he has no father (though he has had to deal with a number of ‘dads’ throughout the years). We don’t really know how old he is, but we do know that his mother is still supposed to drop him off at friend’s houses for playdates. But Luca is living a lie. His mother is actually dead in their apartment, and somehow, he continues to go to school every day and live a complete farce.
In my opinion, Luca’s narration of the story was almost believable. We spend the entire story in his head, and for the majority of the time, it’s what I imagine a little kids head to be like. He constantly goes off on tangents when he thinks about how to deal with his mother’s death, and his mind hops from subject to subject with no warning. And yes, I do think that being able to take care of himself with his dead mother in the next room is also realistic, because isn’t that what he’s been doing all along? She was hardly present when she was alive, so it makes sense that he would be able to make some fish sticks for himself. However, the one thing that bothered me was the swearing. I don’t see why or how any young child would think the way Luca does. His mother often chastised him about swearing, and didn’t use the words frequently enough to set a bad example.
I don’t know if this book was supposed to end where it did, or if this was only a preview. If this is, indeed, the original ending, and you are the kind of person who enjoys a happy, concrete ending, then this book isn’t for you. But if you’d like to learn more about how pop culture can really affect children, this is definitely an interesting book. Luca’s reasons for not telling anyone about his mother’s death make sense in his mind, because of what he’s seen on television or because of what he’s heard adults talking about.
Overall, a lovely story. 3.5 stars
Some select quotes that broke my heart:
“There’s only one hope—that she’ll be resurrected, like Jesus. We’ve just begun the second, and who knows if it’s true that Jesus was resurrected.”
“Maybe I wasn’t able to make her stay in my life, to make her live for me at least. Maybe I’m not worth much at all, not for her, not for anyone.”
“Now the storm is here and we’re all about to drown, but Blue and I are still bobbing around.”
“If everything weren’t becoming so complicated, I’d say it’s all the same to me, that in some ways I understand her, that I understand if she was sick of living.”
I received this ARC from NetGalley.
alucaflos's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, and Mental illness
shelfimprovement's review against another edition
3.0
The writing is lovely, but the subject matter is just too dark for me to enjoy reading it.
shelleyrae's review
2.0
While the premise of Marina Mander's The First True Lie held interest, in general the execution didn't really work for me.
Australian Release Date June 1st
gabriellaleblanc's review against another edition
5.0
I absolutely loved this piece. The First True Lie is a story of one young, lonely boy who lives with his depressed and detached mother must find a way to make his mother's untimely death go unnoticed because of the deep fear he has of becoming an orphan. His mother's corpse rots in her bedroom at the end of the hall while Luca continues his days as if nothing happened. Luca has one other love beside that of his cat, Blue, and his mother, and that is the love of words. This is a beautifully written, wonderfully descriptive story. Only about 130 pages, this book was a very quick read. Many other reviews mentioned that it felt unfinished, but I think where Mander left off was perfect. She did an amazing job with displaying the thoughts of an eclectic, strong, slightly depressed little boy whose only fear, despite witnessing his mother's dead body on a daily basis, is having to go to an orphanage. Overall, a beautiful story.
tymgabriel's review against another edition
5.0
If an eight-year-old can tell a Catcher in the Rye-ish tale, this is that book. Marina Mander's American debut was phenomenal. She captures the hope and hopelessness of a precocious kid with all the wit and wisdom one might expect from the dazed protagonist.