This was a great mystery - I never guessed the twists which absolutely kept me on board with the story.

Think this could've been very interesting but it just felt quite disjointed - the plotlines of revenge and befriending the rich girl were two very separate stories.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

I hated Nora and what she was doing. I don't mind amoral or bad behaviour if it's justified but this was not in the text at all. the writing did not work for me either. Perhaps if the writing had been edited so Nora was a bit more likeable I would not have minded as much her actions.

Thank you for providing a copy of this book for review however I was unable to open the file for this document unfortunately! Apologies.

Nora Tobias engages in a teacher-student relationship with the new art assistant at her school and ends up tangled in a web of her own lies. I didn’t have much sympathy for any of these characters, the story was alright but teacher-student predatory relationships are tricky subjects for books even if the characters are intriguing and manipulative.

DNF @ 42%. this has so much potential but I'm just bored. I wanted to read more about the lies and the relationship with the teacher (I've honestly forgotten all the names except Bel and I only put down the book half an hour ago) but it dipped into boring, tedious territory with Bel, which kind of came out of nowhere then took over. It felt like two books squashed into one.

Honestly, I really struggled with this book and I really didn’t like Nora. She seemed bratty and immature, and the sheer irresponsibility of her and her lies was ridiculous. Belle was just really, really weird and I get that she was supposed to represent this mysterious allure, but to me it just seemed like they were playing at being mysterious. Not for me.

Nora is a liar. She fabricates truths and surrounds herself with alternative versions of reality.
This in itself could just be a coping mechanism, a cry for help. But the lies become more and more preposterous, and I never really understood why she is so predisposed to lying.
Nora is not a particularly likeable character, but her attempts to manipulate those around her are chilling.
Not what I expected, but I’m intrigued by the wider appeal of this. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication.

I think the strength of this book lies in the complexity of it's characters. No character is wholly good or wholly bad, they are all different shades of grey which always makes for an intriguing read. You are never sure whether Nora is a character that you like or not which just made me feel like I needed to know more about her to find out why she behaves the way she does. The other characters in the case are also very well fleshed out and have their own personalities and meaningful backstories which can often be missed out in supporting characters.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC Copy I received in return for an honest review.

Little Liar has reminded me exactly why I love young-adult fiction so much. The characters are well developed, the story line well thought out and the writing is excellent.

Nora, our protagonist, is, as the title might suggest, a little liar. She lies about her father, she lies about the art assistant, she lies to her mother - she can’t seem to stop lying. Her lies get bigger and bigger throughout the novel, and you start to understand a little bit behind why she is the way she is. She’s a troublesome character, there’s something innately likable about her, despite her behaviour, and at times callous actions. One of her charms is that she is acutely aware that the way she is behaving is wrong, yet can’t seem to stop herself. It’s an interesting portrayal of that mixed-up teenage time, where you’re not a child but not quite an adult. And sometimes trying to pretend you’re more grown up than you are, can have undesirable effects.

The characterisation in this book is standout. Nora is somewhere in between the Iago she’s aspiring to be, and the good influence she’s assumed to be. This novel focuses on the shades of grey - no character is wholly good or wholly bad, and that is one of the many things that make this such an interesting book. We’re not always sure if we should like Nora, or whether her behaviour has finally crossed over into the unacceptable. Nora, indeed, is often harder on herself than the reader is, she judges herself by the same standards she holds others too.

This is a story about many things. Lies, yes, but also grief, adolescence, desire, jealousy, friendship and expectation. It's also about consequences and why the truth is sometimes too much to bear. It captures the feeling of being a teenager, as Nora desperately tries to control situations around her because there are some that she simply cannot.

There is so much more I could write about Little Liar as it is packed full. It is an unique story - one that I enjoyed very much. It devastated and thrilled me in equal parts, as Nora started to learn that lies can always be unpicked - but real truth is in power. I didn’t see the end coming, though I suspect on a second read I might pick up a few more hints. It’s a well written book, with well observed, unpredictable characters. I’d recommend to anyone who asked. Four stars.

The main character in this book is fairly awful. That's kind of the point of the book, she's not likeable at all but I really struggled to enjoy because of it. I'm not sure I would have finished reading if I wasn't reviewing the book as it didn't hook me in or hold my attention very well.

This book gripped me right from the very start. There was so much mystery, so much happening and a main character who couldn't be trusted, let alone believed. Little Liar was such a good story that was impossible to predict. I loved Nora so much, despite how much she lied and how awful she was to the people around her, there was something about her that made me want her to succeed. Despite being a terrible person, she was incredibly likable.

Bel also was a great character. She made me think a lot about the manic pixie dream girl trope and how there is a friendship version as well. Bel is beautiful and unpredictable and spontaneous. There are often books about quiet girls befriending girls like her and having their world changed around them. Of course it usually ends in tears.

Little Liar was no exception and I enjoyed the book right until the very end. I was very sorry to finish it and have no more to read. I'm really excited to explore other books by Julia Gray.

Nora's narration is really the thing that pulls this book together; her observations and full openness really held my interest. Unfortunately apart from that I personally did not enjoy the more 'thriller' aspects of the book, tho I believe this may just be personal preference.

Nora is a little liar. But really she's a girl struggling with things she can't control, like her depressed mother, her feelings about her father, a grandmother who is ill and she latches on to Bel, a girl who has enough money to let her be wild and carefree in a way that Nora can't be. I fear this book won't quite get the attention it deserves because it doesn't meet the current trend for black and white morality I'm seeing resurging in YA where all female characters have to be ethically unimpeachable. This is a dark little book and I think a lot of young people will enjoy Nora's narration as I did.

Wow. What a stunning book. The best part of this is undoubtedly Nora's narration. It's full of smart little observations and the kind of transparency that is uncommon but oh-so-good in a first person story. The story itself, it doesn't have many twists and turns like a regular thriller (i think this may count as a thriller) but the events unfold in a very natural way. It doesn't feel contrived at any point, even with the larger-than-life characters. The only thing I could possibly say in criticism of this is that I wish there were more main characters than just Nora and Bel. But what a glorious book!

Nora has lied many times in her life before. She has three different versions of her father's death, and uses a different one depending on who asks. She lies for important and small things alike. But, what she hasn't realized, is that by constantly lying, you can easily lose your true self.

When her false accusations about an incident with an Arts assistant starts to break surface, Nora will need a friend. Bel, an eccentric, talented senior and aspiring actress is the ideal candidate. But as their friendship becomes closer, she realizes that Bel is a lot more dangerous than what she had thought. Can Nora find her way out of her own lies? Or is she going to weave herself an even more intricate web of lies? Could she be in actual danger?

Little Liar is a captivating story of a pathological liar in need of an escape. Perfectly narrated, it is an interesting book with a complex and intriguing heroine. Not stopping there, however, the author has created a second character as interesting as Nora: Bel is in the verge of falling apart, and the reader follows her way down, while at the same time wonders if Nora will be a savior to her, or if she is going to administer the final blow.

The heroine's complexity is, to me, the book's greatest asset. Here is a character you cannot call inherently good or bad. There are actions, well constructed reasons behind them, and unavoidable consequences after them. Is Nora a bad person? Is she good? That, even after having read the book, I cannot tell. And that's the beauty of the story: not everything is black or white. A lot of gray lines will guide you through a fascinating read.

Whatever you come to think of the heroine, what is sure is that Little Liar is a book to love.

To start this review, I must say that I am very hard to please when literature is concerned. I also want to add that I applied to read this book on a whim, having been interested by the cover. Reading the blurb for Little Liar, I didn’t even realise that Bel was a girl, and when I started reading, I had forgotten the blurb entirely.

I read this book in an entire afternoon, unable to stop. Little Liar is a mastery of the young adult genre, exploring many different themes over the course of its 384 pages. Gray’s sensory detail of Bel’s home, of France, of the simplicity of an art room make the book a delight to read.

The protagonist, Nora, is a liar. This is repeated to us over and over again, Nora schemes and deceives and makes up fantastical stories. And yet, you root for her as the main character. Not once did I ever stop and decide that she had gone too far, that the lies had stacked up against her. I genuinely wanted her to succeed, and I actually enjoyed the lies she told to get what she wanted.

One of my favourite things about the story is it’s setting. An English school, St Agatha’s, that feels like an English school. St Agatha’s is almost identical to the school that I was brought up in, right down to the strange friendships that happen between girls, pressed together with no space to breathe.

(Also, a young adult novel that talks about A Levels and gets it right! What a novelty!)

There are so many little moments in the novel that Gray writes so perfectly. Nora is surrounded by positive female role models, who are allowed to mess up and have flaws. Her mother, Evie, is lovely, she cares about her daughter, she works hard, she’s even an ex goth. Within the space of the narrative, Evie is also allowed to develop as her own character, she’s a widower, a recovering alcoholic. Evie also has her own friends and life, she is not cut off from the rest of the world just because the author couldn’t be bothered to develop the adult characters. This book has so many amazing female characters, Aunt Petra, Nana, and they all have their own journeys throughout the book.

Another thing that I was grateful for, is that there was no love story. Of course, there is Nora and Jonah Trace, but that isn’t love, more Nora scheming to get a teacher with horrific intentions out of her school. Bel’s brother, Darian, would have been a love interest in any other book, the brother of the best friend, the reason that Nora and Bel split apart. I am so grateful that Gray doesn’t go through with this narrative, and Darian is simply there to be himself, and not part of a love triangle. The book, also, does not need a typical straight love story. Bel and Nora are clearly in love, possessive dangerous love. It could also be argued that there is a budding relationship between Nora and Megan. Female friendships take control in Little Liar.

The only criticism I have with the novel is that I wish the Jonah Trace element had come back to haunt Nora. I
was waiting for him to reappear, right up until the final moment, when Nora is on the boat. I think that Gray misses a trick here, and could have brought him back for one final confrontation. Trace’s storyline also made me extremely suspicious of Bel’s father, Anton, to the point when I was very worried when he and Nora met alone. That might just be my overactive imagination however, as Anton seemed a very lovely man.

Overall, this book was a delight to read. So many things happen, but never once do you feel crowded, or having to deal with too much to take in. Nora is an amazing protagonist, flawed both physically and mentally, and I really enjoyed reading her story. I will be recommending this book to everyone once it’s released.

Thank you NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for a review.

A fun easy read about a girl getting revenge. I'd recommend this to any YA contemporary fans.

A very fun and interesting read about revenge and loyalties. I can recommend it to everyone!