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A review by maggiemaggio
Liars, Inc. by Paula Stokes
3.0
After being impressed with The Art of Lainey I was excited to give Liars, Inc. I try. Not only do a love thrillers, but I wanted to see what Paula Stokes did with a male POV and a story that felt very different than Lainey. Like Lainey Liars, Inc. started out kind of slow for me, but unlike Lainey it never really took off.
Going into the story I expected the Liars, Inc. business that Max and his friends start to forge permissions slips, help kids get better grades, and generally do things their parents don't want them doing, was going to be a really big part of the story. But even at the beginning it wasn't that big of a part. The story was much more about Max's relationship with his girlfriend Parvati (whose parents don't want her dating Max), the difference in Max's socio-economic status than most of his classmates, and Max's distrust of authority figures and his issues with his adopted parents. Liars, Inc. was kind of a side business Max, Parvati, and their friend Preston (son of a senator and from the wealthy DeWitt family) started, but it never felt like a focus.
It is however the setup for Preston to go missing, but Max pretending to go camping with Preston while Preston snuck off to Vegas to meet a girl from the Internet could have easily been setup without the whole Liars, Inc. thing. As the story went on into the mystery surrounding Preston and the FBI thinking Max hurt him the whole Liars, Inc. business stayed in the background and really dragged the story down. Everytime it was mentioned it just seemed really unnecessary.
I read an ARC of this book and since the ARC there have been a bunch of changes (not uncommon), but so many in this case that Paula Stokes felt the need to create a Word doc reviewers can request to see the changes that were made. I emailed her and got that Word doc and while I think most of the changes are good and make the story a better book overall, they still didn't fix the whole Liars, Inc. business and they didn't (at least reading them after the fact) make the story less predictable.
More than the Liars, Inc. business my biggest issue with the story was how predictable it was. I suspected pretty early on what happened to Preston and the secret that the DeWitt family is hiding about Preston. I obviously didn't guess the specifics of how to all came to be, but I was definitely bummed to have figured it out so early and I suspect many other people will figure it out as well.
I've been going back and forth between giving this book 2.5 stars and 3 stars for a while it's one where I'm really conflicted. Yes, I was bothered by the Liars, Inc. business and the predictability of the story, but there were also good things. This story is filled with diversity. Max is white, but was a foster child before being adopted by his parents; his girlfriend is half-Indian; his middle sister suffers from cystic fibrosis, and his two younger sisters are Asian-American. And it wasn't like any of those people were the token minority or token disabled people, they just were Asian or disabled, but it wasn't their entire identity. Also, besides how predictable it was, I still liked the writing, the characters Stokes created, and the backstories she built for the different characters. While it all might be a little far fetched it was interesting and if anything I wish she would have explored Max's background, his parents' motivations for adopting him and his sisters, and the DeWitt family's decision to do what they did even more.
Bottom Line: I used to call books "plane or beach reads" a lot, something I kind of hate, but sometimes it does a good job of summing up a story. I read this book flying from Detroit to New York (via Baltimore) last weekend and it was really the perfect place to read. The story has its issues, but it's easy enough to read and interesting enough to keep you entertained on a flight. If you're looking for better mystery look elsewhere (Tessa Sharpe's Far From You is my go-to YA thiller rec), but if you want an entertaining book filled with diversity and thrills even though it's predictable I wouldn't talk you out of reading Liars, Inc..
I received an electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss (thank you!). All opinions are my own.
This review first appeared on my blog.
Going into the story I expected the Liars, Inc. business that Max and his friends start to forge permissions slips, help kids get better grades, and generally do things their parents don't want them doing, was going to be a really big part of the story. But even at the beginning it wasn't that big of a part. The story was much more about Max's relationship with his girlfriend Parvati (whose parents don't want her dating Max), the difference in Max's socio-economic status than most of his classmates, and Max's distrust of authority figures and his issues with his adopted parents. Liars, Inc. was kind of a side business Max, Parvati, and their friend Preston (son of a senator and from the wealthy DeWitt family) started, but it never felt like a focus.
It is however the setup for Preston to go missing, but Max pretending to go camping with Preston while Preston snuck off to Vegas to meet a girl from the Internet could have easily been setup without the whole Liars, Inc. thing. As the story went on into the mystery surrounding Preston and the FBI thinking Max hurt him the whole Liars, Inc. business stayed in the background and really dragged the story down. Everytime it was mentioned it just seemed really unnecessary.
I read an ARC of this book and since the ARC there have been a bunch of changes (not uncommon), but so many in this case that Paula Stokes felt the need to create a Word doc reviewers can request to see the changes that were made. I emailed her and got that Word doc and while I think most of the changes are good and make the story a better book overall, they still didn't fix the whole Liars, Inc. business and they didn't (at least reading them after the fact) make the story less predictable.
More than the Liars, Inc. business my biggest issue with the story was how predictable it was. I suspected pretty early on what happened to Preston and the secret that the DeWitt family is hiding about Preston. I obviously didn't guess the specifics of how to all came to be, but I was definitely bummed to have figured it out so early and I suspect many other people will figure it out as well.
I've been going back and forth between giving this book 2.5 stars and 3 stars for a while it's one where I'm really conflicted. Yes, I was bothered by the Liars, Inc. business and the predictability of the story, but there were also good things. This story is filled with diversity. Max is white, but was a foster child before being adopted by his parents; his girlfriend is half-Indian; his middle sister suffers from cystic fibrosis, and his two younger sisters are Asian-American. And it wasn't like any of those people were the token minority or token disabled people, they just were Asian or disabled, but it wasn't their entire identity. Also, besides how predictable it was, I still liked the writing, the characters Stokes created, and the backstories she built for the different characters. While it all might be a little far fetched it was interesting and if anything I wish she would have explored Max's background, his parents' motivations for adopting him and his sisters, and the DeWitt family's decision to do what they did even more.
Bottom Line: I used to call books "plane or beach reads" a lot, something I kind of hate, but sometimes it does a good job of summing up a story. I read this book flying from Detroit to New York (via Baltimore) last weekend and it was really the perfect place to read. The story has its issues, but it's easy enough to read and interesting enough to keep you entertained on a flight. If you're looking for better mystery look elsewhere (Tessa Sharpe's Far From You is my go-to YA thiller rec), but if you want an entertaining book filled with diversity and thrills even though it's predictable I wouldn't talk you out of reading Liars, Inc..
I received an electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss (thank you!). All opinions are my own.
This review first appeared on my blog.