Tell me Lies by Melissa Wall - Book Review

Yeah, first of all, this book isn't horror, it doesn't have zombies in it, so you may be wondering why it is on here.  Well, that's a good question I guess.  Tell me Lies is a book written by the YouTube genius idranktheseawater.  It is a superhero tale, but more than that it is a coming of age tale about a girl discovering her place in the world.

Honor is a typical 17 year old, though a bit of a loner.  She discovers that she is different to other kids though, she has powers which she doesn't understand, the ability to stop time, to read peoples minds, and to pass through solid objects.  A secret group of people have been monitoring her all her life, she finds out that as a baby they performed experiments on her that have made her have these special powers.  With their help she will be able to learn to control her powers.  At the same time as this though Honor learns she was adopted, as well as meets a special boy.

As always my lack of writing skills has revealed itself.  The book is good in that if not for the superhero angle the story could be a coming of age tale. There is no over the top shenanigans, everything feels really realistic, as if the tale were happening in the real world, and not some colourful cartoon world.

Honor is a likable character, she has dry wit, and sarcasm which is quite funny in places.  Her hopes and dreams are realistic, and she comes across as really real.  Her family are flawed, such as her father being an alcoholic, but they come across as realistic, not some cookie cutter perfect family, or some awful family.  The 5 people who created her are not given much book time, not a lot is revealed about them, or why they created her, this works well as gives them more ambiguity than if there motives were plainly explained.  The one character I didn't like was Honor's love interest Caden.  I admit I really am not a fan of love interests, as it just seems so unbelievable and corny.  This may be because in the real world relationships escape me, but I get annoyed and jealous of relationships in books, too good to be true. But really that is my bias; on the all, the characters all come across as believable people, and layered.

The story is low key, but riveting, and would work very well as a film.  It is written with plain language, but with an utterly captivating style.  I found it hard to put the book down, the words flow off the page beautifully without ever becoming stuck in deep description, or meandering.  A fantastic take on the superhero yarn, recommended reading!

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