This Story Is a Lie

by Tom Pollock

Overview

A YA thriller described as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time meets John le Carré, about a teen math prodigy with an extreme anxiety disorder who finds himself caught in a web of lies and conspiracies after an assassination attempt on his mother.

Seventeen-year-old Peter Blankman is a math genius. He also suffers from devastating panic attacks. Pete gets through each day with the help of his mother—a famous scientist—and his beloved twin sister, Bel.

But when his mom is nearly assassinated in front of his eyes and Bel disappears, Pete finds himself on the run. Dragged into a world where state and family secrets intertwine, Pete must use his extraordinary analytical skills to find his missing sister and track down the people who attacked his mother. But his greatest battle will be with the enemy inside: the constant terror that threatens to overwhelm him.

Weaving between Pete’s past and present, This Story Is a Lie is a testimony from a  protagonist who is brilliant, broken and trying to be brave.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641290326
Publisher:	Soho Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	07/02/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	365,593
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Tom Pollock, described as “a powerful new imagination” by The Guardian, is the author of four novels and an ambassador for Talklife—the peer support network for youth mental health where he blogs about his experiences with depression, anxiety and bulimia (blog.talklife.co). Inspired by those experiences, This Story Is a Lie is his first thriller for young adults. He lives and works in London, and can be found on Twitter @tomhpollock.

Read an Excerpt

Mum finds me in the larder. I crouch in the corner, flinching from the sudden light in the doorway. My mouth is full of blood and shards of porcelain.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "This Story Is a Lie"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Tom Pollock.
Excerpted by permission of Soho Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Praise for This Story Is a Lie

"Revelatory about mental health, ingeniously constructed and a thrilling ride . . ."
—The Sunday Times

“In this dark and twisted thriller, nothing is what it seems; but Pollock’s greatest triumph is the portrait of a psyche at war with itself.”
—The Guardian

“At times dark and gory and illustrated with strong language, Pollock's paranoid world has real substance thanks to his skillful development of the characters.”
—The Irish Times

“Fans of the Bourne series, The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time and all stories where everything is not as it seems will lap it up.”
—The Scottish Herald

"Gripping, dazzling, and pulse-pounding, Pollock’s YA debut is a thrill from the first page to the last . . . The final twist is well disguised and truly revelatory."
—School Library Journal, Starred Review

"[A] sophisticated, dark novel . . . Readers who thrill to the combination of mathematics and psychological suspense will be utterly enthralled."
—Booklist, Starred Review

"Unrelenting twists and turns . . . Even the last page will keep readers wondering if there's truth to the title."
—Kirkus Reviews

"This shape-shifter of a novel explores the tragic cost of family secrets and lies . . . a fascinating premise."
—Publishers Weekly

"This Story Is a Lie is easily one of the greatest page-turners I’ve read this year . . .  Intensely gripping because of its clever plot and memorable characters."
—Washington Independent Review of Books

"Tom Pollock displays a graceful mastery of both words and numbers in this brainy, unpredictable, and truly original thriller."
—Samantha Shannon, New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Season series

"Dazzling. It's as though Escher and Schrödinger had collaborated on a thriller."
—M.R. Carey, bestselling author of The Girl With All the Gifts

"Unreliable. Unputdownable. Deeply empathetic. This Story Is a Lie is a magnificent rollercoaster of a book." 
—Marieke Nijkamp, New York Times bestselling author of This Is Where It Ends

"Notable for its hi-octane drama but also its thoughtfulness in the story’s quieter moments . . . a tremendous read from start to finish."
—Geek Dad

"This Story Is a Lie is a terrific YA thriller. It’s enjoyable to read, the math underpinning provides solid food for thought without being too daunting for readers who may lack confidence with the subject, and Peter Blankman’s blurred perception of what’s happening to him intrigues us from the first page to the very last."
—New York Journal of Books

"Readers won’t soon forget this very smart,thoroughly original science fiction action-adventure."
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"An exceptional and deftly crafted thriller of a read from beginning to end, This Story Is A Lie showcases author Tom Pollock's genuine flair for character and narrative driven storytelling."
—The Midwest Book Review

"Incredible, my mind is blown."
—Katherine Webber, author of The Heartbeats of Wing Jones
 
"A dazzling, dizzying rollercoaster of a novel, about memory and family and other things you can't completely trust. It will twist your brain in the best possible way."
—Will Hill, author of the Department 19 series
 
"Exceptional, funny, bleak and emotionally brutal and had me permanently on the edge of my seat."
—Jack Grimwood, author of Moskva

"Taut, suspenseful and compelling . . . A very self-assured and breathtaking debut."
—Worth Reading? Worth Sharing! blog

Praise for Tom Pollock’s previous work

“Vivid, inventive and truly weird.”
—Daily Mail
 
“Gorgeously written and brimming with bizarre urban creatures, this darkly imagined and sometimes painful tale should delight fans of Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, and Holly Black.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

From the Publisher

06/11/2018
No one is as they seem in Pollock’s YA debut. Peter, 17, uses his savantlike math abilities to parse his daily experiences and cope with his severe anxiety. After his mother, a scientist, is nearly killed and his twin sister, Bel, goes missing, Peter is kidnapped by his mother’s colleagues (or maybe her would-be assassins), and math becomes Peter’s lens for deciding whom he can trust. This shape-shifter of a novel explores the tragic cost of family secrets and lies. Its use of math is fresh and fascinating, but Pollock mashes Peter’s mental health issues into a spy/serial-killer/action/revenge/family story, which morphs among genres and doubles back to cover Peter’s personal backstory of being bullied and his close relationship with Bel. Though flashbacks provide insight into Peter’s past, they sap momentum—and because characters are constantly lying and changing allegiances, it’s challenging to keep everyone (and everything) straight. The story offers a fascinating premise, but the unending action and disjointed narration result in a bumpy reading experience. Ages 14–up. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 06/01/2018
Gr 9 Up—Seventeen-year-old Peter Blankman is a math prodigy. Math permeates everything in his life, including helping him deal with his almost-daily panic attacks. Peter survives largely with the support of his brilliant scientist mother; his twin sister, Bel; and his best friend Ingrid. When Peter watches an assassination attempt on his mother and her subsequent kidnapping, and then Bel disappears, a colossal panic attack strikes him down. He is swept up into a shady government conspiracy that revolves around his mom and Bel (and, bizarrely, Ingrid). None of them are anywhere near the people Peter thinks them to be. Whirlwind adventures across the country change Peter's perceptions of his family, his past, and who he actually is. Gripping, dazzling, and pulse-pounding, Pollock's YA debut is a thrill from the first page to the last. Peter is supremely amiable; a kid who just wants to be liked and understood and "normal" is painfully hiding behind all of the advanced math and nervousness and panic episodes. Credit should go to Pollock for making all of the hyper-advanced math reader-friendly as well. The final twist is well disguised and truly revelatory. An abrupt, ambiguous conclusion will frustrate some, intrigue others, and have many teens fiercely debating what really happened VERDICT A fast-paced STEM thriller, and a worthy choice for YA shelves.—Tyler Hixson, Brooklyn Public Library

School Library Journal

2018-05-28
Pollock (Life Inside My Mind: 31 Authors Share Their Personal Struggles, 2018, etc.) takes the unreliable narrator to the extreme as an anxiety-ridden teen tries to elude deadly spies in this British import.While Pete's panic attacks are unpredictable, he finds the predictable patterns of mathematics soothing. And while he's often the object of bullying in their London school, his adventurous, rebellious twin sister, Bel, serves as his protector. The white teen's also found camaraderie with Ingrid, an obsessive-compulsive classmate who is a fellow math genius. After a difficult panic attack, Pete reluctantly agrees to attend an award ceremony for his single mother, a notable scientist. Instead of accolades, however, his mother receives a potentially fatal stab wound. As they are whisked away by a dubious team of rescuers, Pete learns that this team really consists of spies known as 57 (even more covert than MI6) and that his mother's scientific research is part of their operation. He also learns that Bel has gone missing. These shocking revelations are just the start of unrelenting twists and turns that continue as Pete relies on various math theories and Ingrid's help to escape and hunt for Bel before 57 takes all of their lives. Chapters that alternate between past and present eventually merge together to provide more clues. Or do they?Even the last page will keep readers wondering if there's truth to the title. (Thriller. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews