Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Liar, Dreamer, Thief

This book was absolutely INSANE but in an incredibly good way!! This is the second book I’ve read this month that was way out my comfort zone and I am once again happy that I decided to take the leap! The first part of this book will have you thinking you know who Katrina is and how this book is going to play out, but by the second half, you’re starting to be just as confused as her and I truly think that’s the best part of the book. If this was a movie, I’d have to compare to Gone Girl not because it’s about the same things but because the theme and feel of the book reminds me of it.
The next thing I want to say is the portrayal of Katrina’s mental illness and how it was weaver into the story was actually incredible, I genuinely can’t explain it without giving spoilers but please read this book to find out. It’s the type of book that makes you want to reread it when you get to the end just so you can find all the clues that you missed in the beginning! Overall 10/10

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

This was so amazingly written and constructed.

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pisces1_1318's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

What did I just read? I don't know how I feel about this book. I agree with the other reviews on the first part of the book being slow. Once you get past the slow part it seems to go from 0 to 100 very quickly.

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tenderbench's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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morethanmylupus's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book was so good. It’s billed as a thriller and it does have a thriller plot-line. However, what made me love this book was less about the plot and more about how Dong wrote Katrina’s character. Katrina shows elements of OCD as well as potentially some additional mental illnesses. I’m not a psychologist but this felt beautifully done to me. I loved reading her versions of the other world she sees overlaid over what’s around her.

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whenjessreads's review against another edition

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dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It was initially difficult to tell what genre Liar, Dreamer, Thief fit into - was it literary fiction? Magical realism? A thriller? Some sort of contemporary take on the difficulties of trying to live an average life when your mind is anything but average? Maybe all of the above.

I’ll give you a super brief run down: the MC is a queer Korean-American train-wreck of a human being, who is lightly stalking someone she works with… until she watches him jump off a bridge (while blaming it on her), and has to put aside her rituals and obsessions that keep her safe in order to figure out just what the f*** is going on. Oh, and also attempt to keep her head in the real world, instead of the children’s-book-Korean-fantasy-land that she occasionally lives in. Yup.

I adore books that blur the line between reality and fantasy, and I love that this book did so through the lens of mental illness and an unreliable narrator. Not knowing whether the mystery was real or imagined was something that definitely kept me going.

I also really enjoy reading first person narration when the MC has a psyche like a bowl of noodles. (Maybe it just feels more familiar 😂)

One personal issue - I just think I’ve read a few too many books over the past few years with the formula “average girl sees something bad happen and automatically becomes a questionably amateur detective”, otherwise I might have rated this one higher. I also think the pacing was off in places, and the bad guy was a little one-dimensional.

Honestly though, the MC was so messy and complex that I enjoyed this book anyway - and probably would have enjoyed it even without the mystery aspect.

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