Book of Lies by Teri Terry
| Book of Lies by Teri Terry | |
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| Category: Paranormal | |
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Reviewer: Liz Green
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| Summary: Page turner about reunited twins trying to investigate their family background and their supernatural powers. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 352 | Date: March 2016 |
| Publisher: Orchard Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1408334287 | |
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As teenage fiction Book of Lies has all the usual themes -confused sense of identity, relationship troubles, difficult family backgrounds... But it also has another element: the supernatural. The story starts when identical twin girls (the charmingly named Piper and Quinn) are reunited as teenagers, having been separated at birth. We follow their journey as they discover each other and reveal the complexities of their shared family, their terrifying dreams and sinister non-human abilities. As with all good supernatural stories, there are hints of witchcraft, hounds of death and family curses.
Piper and Quinn occupy alternating chapters and the writing is such that the reader's transition from one voice to the other is effortless throughout. And by giving both girls their own voice, the writer makes it hard for the reader to tease out the truth from the girls' individual first person narratives (for those of you who like unreliable narrators: there are, potentially, two in this book). The book as a whole is well-crafted and the writing style engaging. However, by writing about identical twins, Teri Terry does fall prey to a certain cliché: Piper and Quinn are indistinguishable, somehow able to masquerade as each other in front of boyfriends, parents, family, friends and teachers -an authorly liberty that will no doubt have many identical twins tutting in exasperation.
Book of Lies is certainly a page turner, an easy and enjoyable read that you will race through to see what happens. But I did have two gripes. Firstly, I found that I wasn't invested enough in any of the characters to particularly care much about them. This may be because none of the characters, other than Quinn, seemed to have much depth. And secondly, considering the supernatural aspect of this story, Book of Lies just wasn't scary enough. Teri Terry could have ratcheted up the tension tenfold and that would have been about right. If you're going to write a scary book, then make it properly scary.
I read Book of Lies in more or less one sitting, and the ending was surprisingly satisfying, so I can't fault the book for readability. That said, with greater depth of character and a bit more suspense, I think it would be more memorable.
For another teenage book with a supernatural slant, have a look at My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick, a gothic tale of the fight of good versus evil.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Book of Lies by Teri Terry at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Book of Lies by Teri Terry at Amazon.com.
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