Liar, Dreamer, Thief
Ratings7
Average rating3.8
A young woman's carefully constructed fantasy world implodes in this brilliantly conceived novel that blurs distinctions between right and wrong, comedy and tragedy, imagination and reality: "Surreal . . . leaves you with the creeping certainty that there is a different world lurking just under the surface of our own, filled with technicolor lies and terrible truths" (Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling and Hugo‑award winning author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January). Katrina Kim may be broke, the black sheep of her family, and slightly unhinged, but she isn't a stalker. Her obsession with her co-worker, Kurt, is just one of many coping mechanisms--like her constant shape and number rituals, or the way scenes from her favorite children's book bleed into her vision whenever she feels anxious or stressed. But when Katrina finds a cryptic message from Kurt that implies he's aware of her surveillance, her tenuous hold on a normal life crumbles. Driven by compulsion, she enacts the most powerful ritual she has to reclaim control--a midnight visit to the Cayatoga Bridge--and arrives just in time to witness Kurt's suicide. Before he jumps, he slams her with a devastating accusation: his death is all her fault. Horrified, Katrina combs through the clues she's collected about Kurt over the last three years, but each revelation uncovers a menacing truth: for every moment she was watching him, he was watching her--and the past she thought she'd left behind? It's been following her more closely than she ever could have imagined. A gripping page-turner, as well as a sensitive exploration of mental health, Liar, Dreamer, Thief is an intimate portrayal of life in all its complexities--and the dangers inherent in unveiling people's most closely guarded secrets.
Tags
Moods
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
I won this in a giveaway from Go Fug Yourself checks notes last winter. Thanks to the Fug Girls for sending it to me.
Ya'll, I like the IDEA of mysteries and thrillers, but I almost never buy into the central premise. I'm not a conspiracy person. I don't believe in This Day And Age so many people are going around with fake names and identities. That seems like a bureaucratic nightmare. I REALLY don't like civilians trying to investigate stuff on their own (though credit where it's due - Katrina did try to talk to the cops and they didn't believe her because mEnTaL hEaLtH and two glasses of wine). At multiple points after the halfway point, I rolled my eyes and said aloud to the empty living room, “No. Nope. No way.” But I did finish it! So clearly I was entertained enough to keep going.
So here's the deal - Katrina likely has OCD and some kind of schizophrenia/delusions. She doesn't always know what's real and what's not. That's all well and good - it sounds like the author inserted a lot of herself into this book, and we always need mental health rep in stories. Katrina often “escapes” into a world she read about in a children's story and uses it as kind of a litmus test for what's happening in the real world. (Those excerpts were part of the book, and I did not think they were necessary or interesting - and also did not seem developmentally appropriate for a children's book.)
Liar Dreamer Thief is real complicated, involving internet crimes and embezzlement from a bunch of old people's retirement funds and again, fake identities and stalking and revenge suicide, culminating in one giant conspiracy, and sometimes I got lost in the plot. It was fine. I finished it. I don't know that this genre will ever be my bag, but doesn't hurt to branch out on occasion.
