If I Lie by Corinne Jackson

Book: If I Lie 

Author: Corinne Jackson

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Sometimes, you read a book that makes you, I suppose...grateful that you grew up the way you did. Ireland has a proud military history, but our army are peacekeepers who haven't actively fought overseas since WW2. They do amazing humanitarian work, bit the military is not as all-encompassing a presence here as it is in the South Carolina town where If I Lie is set.  And, trust me, that factoid is going to be way important.

Sophie Quinn, the narrator, is a military daughter, niece and girlfriend. She lives in a tiny town where the majority of high school graduates enlist in the armed forces before the ink is fully dry on their diplomas. Her boyfriend Carey has been deployed on his first tour of the Middle East and he's asked her to keep a devastating secret for him while he's gone: Carey is gay. Confused and hurt, Sophie seeks comfort in the arms of Blake, Carey's oldest friend. But when photos of the two in a compromising position end up on Facebook, Sophie becomes a virtual outcast. Unable to explain her actions without revealing Carey's secret, Sophie is left to face her senior year with no support, under the fierce scrutiny of her cold and judgmental father. But then Carey goes missing, presumed dead, and Sophie knows that, as the hatred around her escalates, that she is going to have to make some really tough decisions for the sake of her own happiness.

This is a really fantastic book. Sophie absolutely shines as a narrator; despite the utterly crappy situations she's wound up in, she manages to stay perky and snarky and funny. She also unfalteringly keeps Carey's secret, despite the torrent of abuse she receives from her former friends and even the teachers at her school. She knows the alternative; if she reveals Carey's secret, he will never be looked at the same way again. I can't imagine what that must be like, to grow up in a town so stifled that turning poor Sophie into a modern Hester Prynne is preferable to telling the truth. Some parts of the book made me so mad; Sophie was doing this really noble thing and all she got was abuse from all angles. God, I wanted to tell everyone about Carey, just to make them leave poor Sophie alone! The townspeople all made Carey out to be some poor suffering martyr, even though he's left Sophie in an impossible situation; she can't tell his secret, because he's still her best friend and she loves him too much.

There are some good points though, in spite of all the bitchy cheerleaders who scrawled messages on Sophie's locker or shoved her over in the hall. You've got the supporting characters for one. Even the ones you'd describe as flawed, like Sophie's dad, are really well written and well rounded. Blake, the boy Sophie supposedly cheated with, is stoic yet oh-so-sexy.And then there's George, the veteran that Sophie befriends at the local military hospital. He was great; sweet with just the right about of crabby (all old men should be just a little crabby!).

This is a great book; I highly recommend it.

God Save Us All....

It's the weekend, which for me means several things:

1. I will be screamed at enough times in work to warrant Solpadeine (non-Ireland based readers, it's the strongest painkiller you can buy over the counter, but the pharmacists are so stingy about selling it, I'd have an easier time procuring a nuclear weapon).

2. I will be made to feel like a criminal whilst buying my Saturday-night-wine-for-with-my-takeaway. I may look young, but the last time I checked, wine from M&S was not top of the shopping list for pre-teens who wish to get hammered in a field while groping each other. Just saying.

*Public Service Message: Don't drink before your 18/21/insert geographically appropriate age here*

3. I will read something.

Naturally, point three is the best bit.

This weekend, I have selected this bit of magnificence:



It is Girl of Nightmares, by Kendare Blake, and how gorgeous is that cover?

Dear god, I've gone out with worse looking men. But that's another post entirely.
Page 120, awesome so far, may abandon my plans to watch The X Factor and finish it tonight (not that I'd be missing much....).

I Hate Whiners

See above; if a protagonist in a book is big moaner I am guaranteed to get a smidgen irritated. Nobody's life is perfect, you know? Mine certainly isn't. My ass is too big, I still have teenage skin at twenty one years old and I don't know what I want to do with the rest of my life. But I have a job, a degree and my parents aren't threatening to de-nest me just yet (to international readers, most Irish people don't leave home til their late twenties, formerly because of the housing boom that made life impossible for first time home buyers, and lately because the recession has rendered most graduates poor or unemployed). Where was I, and what was I talking about. Oh yes, Keep Holding On by Susanne Colasanti (social commentary over, I promise never to do it again).



Dude, the narrator in this book complains. So. Much. I mean really! Yes, her mother is awful and never buys her tampons but she has the use of her legs, is not blind or deaf and her best friend really loves her. It's not that bad! My mum forgot to buy tampons for me once or twice so I did what everyone else does and got them from the school health official. It was not the end of the world! It did not mean I was unhappy or neglected! And, Noelle, fine, your mum doesn't do your laundry but...you are SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD! I did my own laundry and ironing then. My mum, like Noelle's mum had, and has, a job so maybe doing LAUNDRY IS NOT SUCH A BIG ASK. You put things in the washer, then the dryer, and then you fold them. No big deal, really. It's quite relaxing, I find.

Noelle, in case you hadn't gathered from the above caps-lock rant is the impoverished protagonist of the novel. Her mum works a dead end customer service job and, in all fairness, is quite disinterested in Noelle, but even when she does make an effort Noelle moans about it. There was one bit where her mum makes pasta and Noelle complains for a whole paragraph that the garlic bread is the packaged kind. Well, that's unimaginable  store-bought garlic bread! Call the police like! Sheesh! I found that really annoying.

Then there was another bit about how when Noelle took a summer job, she was pissed off at her mum for 'stealing' all her wages. Well, if you're behind on the rent and the power is getting shut off, maybe you should be contributing! All my friends and I hand up some of our wages and have done since we were kids. Yes, her mum should have discussed it with her first but you can't expect to spend all your money on new clothes if your mum can't afford electricity and is claiming food stamps, can you? That seemed...dumb to me, if I'm honest.

Then Noelle goes on about how she's bullied at school, but when she sees another student being picked on she does nothing to help them out, and still complains that no one ever helps her. Do I even need to point out what's wrong with that scenario. Dun, Noelle. No one is going to fight for you if you aren't prepared to fight for them in return!

I think I've run out of steam now.

Epic sigh. I mean the book was good, but enough with all the whining!

Give it a go, I suppose, if you like getting irritated by narrators. The book does have some important points to make about bullying and is worth a read from that perspective alone.

Oh, God.....

I have an entire weekend off work, and have chosen this golden opportunity to develop an ear infection. Classic, Kitty. Job well done.

While sitting around with bits of cotton wool in my ear, and watching endless episodes of Four in a Bed, I have finished some books. Numero Uno: How to Save a Life, by Sara Zarr.



Hmm. Hmm. This book was great, don't get me wrong. But I sort of felt like I had been beaten over the head with it, and was expected to find it amazing and fantastic and life-changing. I mean, it was good, it just wasn't...all of the above, you know? And I found Jill (Protagonist One of Two) a bit annoying. Even so, if you like contemporaries, give it a bash.

Numero...two: I re-read Anna and the French Kiss. Don't judge me, I needed it.



This book is amazing, in case you've never read it or heard of it. Etienne St Clair....just read it, I'm not explaining any of it to you in case you get lazy and don't read the thing. It's brilliant.

Finally, we had Keep Holding on by Susanne Colasanti....hmmmm. I feel there will have to be an entire review for this one, to be honest. I have many issues. Many. But it is late, and I am tired...we will come to that in the morning.

See links to Goodreads...zzzzzzzz....