In There Will Be Lies, a young girl and her mother are on the run from an untrustworthy past filled with unsavory characters, all the while protecting themselves from everything and everyone under a freshly woven blanket of lies.
Shelby Jane Cooper is 17 years old and knows nearly nobody in her home of Phoenix, Arizona. Since she is homeschooled by her uber-protective, overweight, painfully shy mother who’s scared of everything—especially men—Shelby doesn’t get out much, or even have the chance to talk with other people. But this has been her life for so long that it doesn’t even seem unusual to her. That is, until she gets struck by a car after leaving the library one afternoon. While lying on the hot pavement, Shelby has a vision of a coyote—considered cosmically dangerous and ominous by the local Navajo tradition—trot up to her and tell her, “There will be two lies. Then there will be the truth. And that will be the hardest of all.” As soon as Shelby can be released from the hospital, her mother uncharacteristically rushes her into a rental car packed with all their belongings. As they put some ground between them and Phoenix, Shelby’s mom finally begins to reveal what may be the truth about her father: He’s not dead after all, and he may be coming after them at this very moment.
Nick Lake is a publishing director by day and a Printz Award-winning YA novelist by night. In this emotionally charged thrill ride, he honors the existential through his masterful storytelling to remind us that life is what we make of it, and that it is meant to be lived fully, regardless of how terrifying it may at first seem.
Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.
