All the Best Liars
Age 14+
General Fiction
A dark, modern psychological thriller of obsession, manipulation and the intensity of friendship.
Tic tac toe, three girls in a row. Nine years old and inseparable. Friends for life, or so they think...
Best friends Syd, Rain and Brie grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in the stifling California desert, desperately wishing for a way out.
In the end, each of them will escape, but not in the way they expect. One will do it by dying, another by lying, a third by taking the fall. A deadly fire is set two weeks before the end of their senior year of high school and nothing will ever be the same.
With gorgeous, taut prose and twists to the very last page, All the Best Liars switches between the present and the past to unravel the truth behind the fire and the cost of the secrets at the heart of their friendship.
Resources
Creators
Amelia Kahaney grew up in San Diego, California, and Hilo, Hawaii. She received her MFA from Brooklyn College and teaches writing at CUNY and The New School. Her previous YA titles include The Brokenhearted and The Invisible.
Reviews
A beautifully twisted and unsparing thriller that will have readers holding their breath until its fiery conclusion.
Courtney Summers
In this thriller, two best friends find their relationship pushed to the breaking point. After Brianna’s father became wealthy, Rain and Sydney felt abandoned by her as she warmed to her newfound acceptance by their more popular peers. Later, Rain also experiences a dramatic change in social class when her mother wins the lottery. This dark drama opens with a chapter from the perspective of Syd, whose sense of decency seems reliable even if her recollection of events, clouded by drug and alcohol use at a party the night before, does not. Alternating between Syd’s, Rain’s, and Brie’s points of view, and moving back and forth in time between the present and the periods before and after the house fire that claimed the life of one of the girls, the narrative structure sets the stage for a psychological mystery that explores loyalty and jealousy. There is a fair amount of coincidence packed into this story, but the intense emotions and yearnings each of the young women feel to be accepted and worthy grounds this ever shifting novel in very real ways. Some readers will spot twists before they are revealed, but there is enough left up in the air until the very end to keep them hooked. The three main characters read as White; names signal some diversity in secondary characters. A dynamic, suspenseful tale of friendship and betrayal. (Thriller. 14-18)
Kirkus Review
This is a captivating look into their friendship, with questions of loyalty, obsession, manipulation, jealousy and betrayal. It is a psychological thriller that will have you wanting to find the truth, and the twisted reality will come as a surprise!
Lamont Books
Told in parts by Syd, Rain and Brie, All the Best Liars is a gripping thriller full of twists and turns that will keep you up, desperate to know how it ends. I loved the way Amelia Kahaney moved around the timeline with her characters, showing not just the night of the fire and the immediate aftermath, but the days and months leading up to it as well.
Readings
A skilfully written story that addresses many of the issues facing teen-aged girls, including making and keeping friendships as circumstances and priorities change, and self-preservation kicks in. A gripping read that delivers right up to the final plot twist and raises many contemporary discussion points.
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