Liar and Spy by Rebecca SteadMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
When I picked up this book I didn’t expect anything. I didn’t expect a story so real and genuine that it’d swallow me down. Neither did I expect a boy with a voice honest that I now believe that there is a twelve year old living in Brooklyn named Georges.
Liar and Spy is a book about Georges who is quite an average twelve year old, although, he has just moved into a new apartment. In that apartment he meets Safer – another twelve-year old who is a self appointed spy. Together they spy on the elusive Mr X. But as cracks start appearing on the surface; is Safer a real friend or is it just a tangle of lies?
Being a ‘Carnegie connoisseur’ (I jest!), I’ve noticed a pattern. Each year I have participated in this award, the Carnegie would usually have mostly older teenage books and then one or two books aimed at twelve and younger. Usually I disliked or didn’t read those, as I found with ‘The Death-Defying Pepper Roux’, (Carnegie nominee 2011), I found it a bit ‘meh’. But, thankfully, not with Liar & Spy. Rebecca Stead’s book is brilliant for all ages, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I love the real sense of mystery in this book, as many questions are slowly answered throughout the course of the novel. I suppose this is what really enchanted me; a book which is set mostly in one square mile in Brooklyn that had so much mystery and so much appeal. Even the spy undertones had quite a magical vibe. I thought Stead’s writing was very realistic and I especially loved being in Georges head – the thoughts and conversations he had were so engrossing.
This book is a definite 5/5 for me. So grab a copy and read ‘Liar & Spy!’
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