Lies by Michael Grant

Synopsis:

It's been seven months since all the adults disappeared. Gone.
It happens in one night. A girl who died now walks among the living; Zil and the Human Crew set fire to Perdido Beach; and amid the flames and smoke, Sam sees the figure of the boy he fears the most: Drake. But Drake is dead. Sam and Caine defeated him along with the Darkness—or so they thought.
As Perdido Beach burns, battles rage: Astrid against the Town Council; the Human Crew versus the mutants; and Sam against Drake, who is back from the dead and ready to finish where he and Sam left off. And all the while deadly rumors are raging like the fire itself, spread by the prophetess Orsay and her companion, Nerezza. They say that death is a way to escape the FAYZ. Conditions are worse than ever and kids are desperate to get out. But are they desperate enough to believe that death will set them free?

My Take:

Michael Grant blessed the world of literature with yet another masterpiece.  Despite my enthusiastic review of the sequel in the series, Hunger, Lies was not quite what I had had in mind for the threequel.  Don't get me wrong, it's a great book, just a bit disappointing in my opinion.  I guess it's like, after a while you start feeling SO sorry for these kids.  And things never get better, they only continue to get worse, more problems emerge.  The predicaments that we thought were solved come back to bite them.  And the cheerful bits from the first two books have almost completely disintigrated.  The romance in the books are basically gone, which I can understand, because they, like I said earlier, have so many things to deal with!  As I'm reading it, I'm just like 'These poor kids!! Cut 'em some slack, will ya?'  BUT, despite the fact that it was a little too dank and disturbing, it is impossible to ignore Michael Grant's obvious talent. 


Sam Temple is walking around town at 2am, checking to make sure chaos hasn't broke out in the unpredictable place called the FAYZ.  He spots a mutant named Orsay Pettijohn on the beach, surrounded by kids who are looking at her as if it is storytime and she is their mother.  Orsay has been spreading rumors about how to get out of the prison they are trapped in.  But her theory is a bit scary.   


The Human Crew, Zil's 'gang' is still at it, and they are taking it to the extreme.  Which is much too far for Sam to allow.  Even worse, they set half of Perdido Beach on fire to help Caine, of all people.  Without getting into too much detail, lets just say there is some island where two adult movie stars lived before the coming of the FAYZ.  Movie stars are rich, you know, with junk food, yachts, mansions and helicopters.  And foster kids under the age of fifteen.  This is surprising to the reader-to find out that while our regular FAYZ kids back at Perdido Beach are surviving off of fish, squirrels, and cabbage, there are five kids living on some fancy island stuffing themselves with ice cream and Cheerios.  You can imagine how the mainland characters felt when they found out.


I would so recommend this book-after you read the first two, that is.  Even though it wasn't my favorite of the series, you never know, you might really enjoy it.  It is very fast-paced, but not quite as much as Gone and Hunger.  However, I am ecstatic about reading the fourth one. 


Rate: 6 out of 10

P!nky