Liar, Dreamer, Thief

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.