High school senior Micah Wilkins is a liar. She begins her first-person narrative, "I was born with a light covering of fur." As her story unfolds, she makes a case for why she has lied: No one would believe the truth. By page six, Micah reveals that her secret "after hours" boyfriend, Zach Rubin, is dead. She divides her story into alternating sections "before" and "after" the murder and splices in some "school history," "family history" and "a history of me." But she starts with a "promise": "I will tell you my story and I will tell it straight. No lies, no omissions." In each slightly adjusted version of the events, what remains consistent is Micah's feeling that she is "stuck somewhere in between . . . half black, half white; half girl, half boy; coasting by on half a scholarship. I'm half of everything." She speaks the truth when it comes to emotions ("The place is thick with grief and dust. And emptiness," she observes from outside Zach's window), and she's keenly aware of the smells and sounds of her surroundings. Micah felt most alive and content during her clandestine late-night runs and rendezvous with Zach.
Can an unreliable narrator be trustworthy? And isn't hypocrisy lying? As Micah says, "Chantal's a hypocrite and every bit as big a liar as I am." Using this clever premise of the fine line between truth and falsehood, Larbalestier mines the larger questions teens confront. How much do I reveal to my parents? How much do I omit in order to protect myself--and them? At what point do I begin to take responsibility for myself? The author also explores how alien one's body becomes with puberty, and the wild hormonal impulses that take over--including rage and lust. These themes all tie together in a larger revelation halfway into the book. Considered a "freak" by her classmates and a suspect in Zach's murder, Micah could easily give up. Instead she fights for what she wants for herself and for her own view of justice. This suspenseful and page-turning novel suggests that much of life's experiences exists in the gray area, "somewhere in between" the masculine and feminine, human and animal instincts. There is no black or white.--Jennifer M. Brown
