Reviews for What I Saw and How I Lied

The average rating for What I Saw and How I Lied based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-05-08 00:00:00 Tommy Tucker There are good novels and then there are good novels. This one is the latter. However, it's hard to pin down why it's such an amazing novel. Sure, I could comment that the writing was flawless and brilliant. The characters were fleshed out, detailed and intricate. The setting was technicoloured, nostalgic and almost touchable. But I think what really makes this novel is the gritty, raw, awkwardness of it. Evie is on the cusp of womanhood. She's so close she can almost taste it and yet, she rankles with childishness. She's naive, with a dreamy, delusional view of life and the world. She sees the world and the people in it with a child's eyes and understanding that is portrayed so well by Blundell. It doesn't help that her mother is classic. Effortlessly beautiful, with a rich understanding of humanity, people and how to work them. It can't be easy for any teenage girl to develop a healthy self-esteem about herself when she has that impossible image to live up to. On their holiday in Florida, Evie meets Peter. He's suave, charismatic, worldly and charming. She's instantly caught up by him and clings tenaciously to her dreams and fantasies - blinding herself to the mystery, intrigue, and clues that surround her. The slight of hand, the winks, the double entendres all fly over her head whilst all are laid bare for the careful reader. Then we watch, agonizingly, already knowing what's going to happen and powerless to stop it. What I love about this novel, is being able to read it as an adult. Because, I felt like Evie was my child, or even myself at fifteen. And I read this novel with great affection for her. I felt for her - because I knew the world she'd eventually end up living in. It's the world that adults go to and it's not a nice place. Teenage years are meant to bring the child into it bit by bit. But it doesn't go that way for Evie. She's suddenly catapulted into it - leaving me saddened at the childhood that was lost and can never be returned. I felt anguished knowing the world she had to step into. If you're still a teenager, waiting to grow up - I guess this book is perfect for you. Listen when her mother says, "Don't be in such a hurry to grow up, baby. It's not all polka dots and moonbeams, you know." But I know you won't listen, I didn't either at your age.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-06-16 00:00:00 David Sorensen I know, very few of my Goodreads' friends have read or liked What I Saw And How I Lied, but I am so very grateful that such stories are even written and published these days. Historical fiction is not in vogue right now, unless, of course, it involves cattiness and soapy melodrama, it seems. For one, I loved the atmosphere of this novel. It gave me the same feeling of strange nostalgia for post-WWII America, the way Mad Men does - red lips, cigarettes, glamor and privilege, with a generous pinch of unpleasant - sexism, homophobia and antisemitism. And then, this is a story about growing up, about that time in your young life when you want to be an adult, to be attractive to men and to be taken seriously. But when you get a taste of this adulthood, it's not as sweet as you expected it to be. You learn that your parents are flawed, that being enticing to men has its cost. You learn to lie and pay dearly for your decisions.