A review by gyeranbbang
The Liar of Red Valley by Walter Goodwater

5.0

In Red Valley, you can make any lie become 'true enough' as long as you pay the Liar's price. When Sadie's mother dies, she inherits the role of the Liar of Red Valley and she becomes involved in the war between the King and the law as they fight for the town's control.
And while this dispute is going on and Red Valley wilts and succumbs to other paranormal threats, the town people are kept in place with three simple rules:
Don't trust the Liar
Don't go in the River
Don't cross the King

I have to say this book took me forever to finish because 1) PhDing is hard and 2) reading slumps are not great. But I decided to wake up at 4AM today to finish it and I did it in one sitting (me is currently sad, this was so much fun).

The Liar of Red Valley is fast paced, fun, creepy, and really well written. Non-spoilery list what is good/I loved:
- The characters and Sadie: dang I loved all of them. The King was creepy as hell, yet very likable? The re's a time traveling gay couple that I would die for. And Sadie is just charismatic, sarcastic, and just fun - one of the best main characters I've encountered in ages.
- The atmosphere: this is a contemporary gothic horror tale set in a small town surrounded by a river (or should I say, The River?).
- The twist(s).
- The ending: dang this was a good ending. I am here pleading to Walter Goodwater to continue the story because I just need more Red Valley.
- How it all made sense. I was scared of reading this book because I was not sure I udnerstood what the Liar was supposed to do from the synopsis and the book did a perfect job at explaining the role. World-building was perfect in the sense that everything is kept secret and all the creepyness came of not knowing which threats were approaching or their names (or their shapes!), it really felt like you were one of the towns people somehow and sort of being "well the King better solve this because I don't even know what this is or if this is a thing, thank you".

Anyways, 100000% recommend this book to everyone who's into darker themes and wants to read something fun.

PS. Dear Mr Goodwater, you're not reading this, but if you do, pease write a sequel. Or a prequel. Or whatever. Thank you in advance and have a good life.

*I received this book for free from NetGalley. This did not affect my opinion at all, this book is just this good and deserves more stars than GR lets me give.