Book Review: The Lie Tree

Faith’s father has been found dead under mysterious circumstances,
and as she is searching through his belongings for clues she discovers a
strange tree. The tree only grows healthy and bears fruit if you
whisper a lie to it. The fruit of the tree, when eaten, will deliver a
hidden truth to the person who consumes it. The bigger the lie, the more
people who believe it, the bigger the truth that is uncovered.

The girl realizes that she is good at lying and that the tree might hold
the key to her father’s murder, so she begins to spread untruths far
and wide across her small island community. But as her tales spiral out
of control, she discovers that where lies seduce, truths shatter . . .

I’ve been stuck in a real reading rut so I was after something gripping yet kind of easy going to try and get me back into the swing of things, which is why I turned to this young adult novel. I’m usually quite the fan of young adult novels and find them great for providing a story that I can read fairly quickly and with ease but still be completely drawn in by the tale. Sadly, The Lie Tree only served to put me deeper into my reading slump.

The concept of a tree that feeds off lies is a great one but something just didn’t work for me. The twists and the lies fell flat and failed to keep me turning the pages. Of course there were parts I enjoyed and overall it was quite well written and towards the end I did find the book picked up pace but it just took so long to get to that point.

 

I wanted to like this book, I really did, but sadly it just fell a little short for me. I couldn’t really connect with the story or any of the characters which for me, made the book drag.I don’t know if the book genuinely wasn’t great or if my disconnection
to reading has lead to these views so please don’t dismiss this novel
based purely on this review.   

Rating: ★★★☆☆