Even though what really happened isn't the point, I can't help but speculate. This is what I believe really happened: Judi is aging and has already lost one son along with a daughter in law that she loved dearly so her over-protectiveness was completely understandable. She's also suffering from menopausal symptoms and trying to cope with those during these trying times for her so she became a character that was easy to get behind when her family was shutting her out. For those reasons along with learning Amber really did have ulterior motives from her chapters I was easily hooked into wanting to know just how that prologue would tie into the story and what would happen with this book. What you are actually reading for is learning what is real and what is not. I loved the structure of the book, as Justine Larbalestier assembles various vignettes, labeled either "BEFORE" or "AFTER" (Zach's death) or "HISTORY" (of Micah and her family). Like I said, the character is the plot. (While I loved the structure of short vignettes, I didn't love how that same choppiness manifested in the prose, with lots of abrupt sentences and one-sentence paragraphs that didn't flow naturally to me. Yet they also did reflect Micah's mental state well, as someone whose thoughts are simply being shot out staccato in a desperate attempt to tell the truth, or at least lie her way into truth.)

Liar by Lesley Pearse | Goodreads

But then Ben meets Amber, the perfect woman for him, everyone is happy that Ben has found someone except Judi. She is very suspicious of Amber, but is her concern well founded or is she just an over protective mother. Ben tries his best to keep his two favourite women happy but does he face an impossible task. The beauty of it is that lying or telling the truth, you'll want to believe Micah because just like everybody else, you want it to be the truth.

Basically read it in one day, and was kept in the dark throughout most of it. I knew something huge was coming but seriously?! Ahhh!! Griffiths, Eleanor Bley (19 June 2017). "Downton's Joanne Froggatt is a serious schoolteacher in first-look image from ITV thriller Liar". Radio Times.

Liar (TV series) - Wikipedia Liar (TV series) - Wikipedia

That's another issue I had with the book. Amber obviously is a dislikeable character as "the baddie" and Judi being the central character was the one I had empathy with at the start and the one I was rooting for. As the book went one she became more and more irritating. Having no characters that you like or at least remain curious and interested in doesn't bode well for a book. Even after unraveling the mystery and navigating the crazy twist (I avoided spoilers to I could really enjoy the story, and it was definitely an interesting twist), I still felt a disconnect. Not only did I feel like I didn't get a chance to truly know Micah, but I also didn't get a good feel of her parents or Zach. Just bits and pieces of them. The same goes for all the minor characters in this story. I don't know if this was done on purpose or what. The book is written in such a way that events are clouded in mystery and all you're left with is random fragments that you later have to fit together to make sense of what's really happened.We know right away that Judi is right to be suspicious of Amber. Her "chance meeting" with Ben was actually carefully orchestrated. She's the perfect girlfriend, but she's playing a part. Why is she so eager to insert herself into their lives? A controversy like that isn't what made me want to read the book, though. At first, I didn't particularly want to read it at all. The blurb didn't entice me, and because of the nature of the story all the reviewers are keeping quiet about what the story's really about. Which is a good thing, because when I did get the book on a whim and start reading it, I was taken by surprise. And I like that. The writing is fluid and smooth. The characters are desperate, devious, damaged, and consumed. And the plot, although a little predictable, does a good job of creating tension, suspense and strife as it methodically unravels revealing all the personalities, complex relationships and dark motivations within it. The tension between Judi and Amber builds up very well. The character development of Judi and Amber is very typical of this genre. The pace is slow and as expected the last sections have twists. Since there are a limited set of characters, I could sense where the story would go early on. This one’s a compendium and, while it might help you in a pub quiz, I wouldn’t describe it as dense. For example, only seven prisoners actually lived in France’s Bastille prison when it was stormed in 1789, and they lived in relative comfort. Another one? Paul Revere didn’t warn anybody on his famous midnight ride – he got captured by the British first. It’s a fun read, full of surprising historical misconceptions.

Liar Liar: An unbelievably gripping and heart-pounding Liar Liar: An unbelievably gripping and heart-pounding

Drunken nightmare … George Segal, Richard Burton (holding the rifle) and Elizabeth Taylor in the film of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Photograph: George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images I found this boring for the most part, and the twists in the last sections did not surprise me too much or make things better. Ben is raising his 2 young boys by himself with the help of his loving and dedicated mother, Judi, after his wife passed away 2 years ago. But then one day he meets the beautiful and mysterious Amber and they start dating. That’s when things don’t go so well between Judi and Amber. Ben becomes torn between the 2 women in his life. He just doesn’t understand why Judi hates Amber so much, and Judi is devastated that Ben is allowing Amber to cut him and the boys out of her life.

Here's the deal: I'm not going to give you any clues. Micah does that, in Part One: Telling the Truth (except that she doesn't tell the truth, or not all of it). The clues build up, so that in Part Two: Telling the True Truth, her Big Secret isn't so unbelievable. It actually makes a lot of sense. The interesting thing is what role the reader takes in all this. I want to believe in her Big Secret. Not just because she succeeds in making it believable - somehow, lying about it to us after telling us she'll be truthful actually makes it more believable, not less - but because it makes the story a hell of a lot more interesting. a b Petski, Denise (30 September 2016). "Joanne Froggatt & Ioan Gruffudd To Star In 'Liar' For Sundance TV & ITV". Deadline.com. The 'Liar' for whom the book is named, is Micah, a seventeen year old girl(maybe) who looks a lot like a boy. So much so, that when mistaken for a boy she pretended to be one until she was discovered. But Micah has a MUCH bigger secret. Several in fact. One such secret, around which much of the mystery of this book is centered, is that she was involved with Zach, one of the popular boys in her school and he goes missing, then is later found dead. Micah may or may not have been involved; she tells different stories throughout but the problem is, you never know which to believe because she really is a liar, and one of epic proportions. And her biggest secret, may be one worth keeping -- believe me, you'll understand why she doesn't tell -- or it may just be another lie.