Starred Review for Publishers Weekly

Readers will get chills paging through Larbalestier's (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">How to Ditch Your Fairy) suspenseful novel about a compulsive liar who becomes a suspect in her boyfriend's murder. Micah admits it is hard to believe a girl who has pretended “she's a boy, a hermaphrodite, or that her daddy's an arms dealer,” but when Zach, the popular boy who was secretly seeing her “after hours,” is found dead, Micah claims innocence, promising to tell readers her story with “No lies, no omissions.” But the supernatural tale she tells may be her wildest yet. Micah composes her story in short sections labeled “Before” and “After” (the murder), as well as “History of Me,” “Family History” and other categories. This is a well-paced novel with a masterfully constructed unreliable narrator, confessing to lies she has told readers along the way (“You buy everything, don't you? You make it too easy”) and explaining how she makes lies believable. Could Micah really be innocent, or is she a confused girl who killed out of jealousy? Is she even human? Readers will be guessing and theorizing long after they've finished this gripping story. Ages 14–up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Oct.)

School Library Journal Starred Review (Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

Gr 9 Up-Biracial Micah Wilkins, 17, is the quintessential unreliable narrator. On the first page, she readily admits she's a liar though now she wants to tell her story straight. She attends a progressive private high school in New York City. She's a bit peculiar, with extra-human speed and sense of smell, and has few friends. After another student, a popular senior named Zach, is found brutally murdered, it comes to light that he and Micah had a relationship outside of school. Now she is considered a suspect. Her suspenseful, supernatural tale is engrossing and readers will be tempted to fly through it, though the wise will be wary of her spin and read carefully for subtle slipups and foreshadowing. The chilling story that she spins will have readers' hearts racing as in three sections she goes from "Telling the Truth," to "Telling the True Truth," to "Telling the Actual Real Truth," uncovering previous lies and revealing bizarre occurrences in the process. Micah's narrative is convincing, and in the end readers will delve into the psyche of a troubled teen and decide for themselves the truths and lies. This one is sure to generate discussion. Patricia N. McClune, Conestoga Valley High School, Lancaster, PA

ALA Booklist (Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

Micah Wilkins is a senior at a New York City private school, an extraordinarily talented runner, and a compulsive liar. She's masqueraded as a boy, invented family members, and hidden her relationship with handsome fellow student Zach Rubin. When Zach dies under mysterious and horrific circumstances, Micah's history of lying brings her under suspicion. Larbalestier creates and sustains a marvelous tension, as readers ponder what part of Micah's narrative is true. "Before" and "After" entries call to mind Green's Looking for Alaska (2005), and like that titular character, Micah is wonderfully complex, both irritating and immensely likable. A supernatural element is well supported by Micah's obsession with genetics; she frequently cites facts learned in school to try to understand what is going on inside her. Larbalestier effortlessly and realistically shows the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of Micah's world (she is African American), something teens of color will appreciate. The unresolved ending will certainly provoke discussion, sending readers back to the text for a closer rereading.

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

In recounting the gruesome death of her boyfriend, Micah (a compulsive liar) informs us that she wants to finally tell the truth--which begins with her being a werewolf. Larbalestier takes the unreliable narrator to the extreme; readers follow the faintest of trails to figure out what really happened. Micah's story makes addictive reading, and the ambiguous ending will haunt readers.

Kirkus Reviews

Micah declares herself a liar and calls her own reliability as a narrator into question on the first page of this dark, gripping page-turner. When Zach, the boy with whom she might or might not be romantically involved, goes missing, Micah tries to tell the story of her tortured relationships with Zach and her classmates, teachers and family. Is Micah a killer? Quite possibly yes, but she weaves lies and truths together so artfully that even as she admits her deceptions, she becomes an increasingly compelling and sympathetic character. Micah's fractured first-person narrative skips around chronologically, further deepening the confusion about what has really happened in her life. The constant reversals keep readers guessing, a plot device that threatens to wear thin by the halfway point of the novel, but Larbalestier moves the plot nimbly past this moment, creating such an engrossing story of teenage life on the margins that even readers familiar with her Magic or Madness trilogy might not see the supernatural twist (or not) coming. In the end, it calls to mind I Am the Cheese with its hermetic wiliness. (Fiction. 14 & up)

Voice of Youth Advocates

Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkryie Cain (aka Stephanie Edgley) are back to save the world again in this third adventure by Irish author Landy. Someone is murdering teleporters, but Skulduggery and Valkryie's investigation is hampered by the fact that the two are now fugitives from the Sanctuary. The murders continue until only one teleporter remains, a brash, untrained seventeen-year-old named Fletcher Renn, needed by the evil Diablerie to open a portal so the Faceless Ones can return to this world. As with the series' previous installments, this book is entertaining and fast paced. Although the plot is not particularly memorable and it can be difficult to keep some of the more minor characters straight, Skulduggery and Valkryie remain one of the more entertaining duos in recent young adult fiction, tempering their affection for and loyalty to one another with constant, witty jibes. Characters from the earlier books, including Tanith Low and Kenspeckle Grouse, make welcome appearances in this volume, and Kenspeckle's oft-repeated concernùthat Valkryie is giving up and risking too much in this ongoing fight against evilùis surprisingly touching. Readers will continue to appreciate that the violence is real rather than cartoonish, causing authentic damage, including to Valkryie. Although this particular adventure is concluded, Skulduggery's uncertain fate would indicate that at least one more book is forthcoming. Both public and school libraries should continue to stock this well-written, entertaining series.ùAmy Sisson. Micah is different. She is a loner, an enigma, and a compulsive liar. Micah lies so much that no one believes a word she says. First she is a boy, and then a hermaphrodite. Her father is an arms dealer. She has a brother. Then she never had a brother. MicahÆs boyfriend Zach disappears and turns up dead. Micah was the last person to see him alive. Or was she? Zach had a girlfriend, and it was not Micahùor so everyone claims. When Micah becomes a suspect