REVIEW: “See How They Lie” by Sue Wellman
See How They Lie by Sue Wallman is set in a seemingly perfect wellness centre set up by the narrator’s father. We see it from the perspective of a young girl who has lived most of her life in its grip, secluded from the outside world. There’s excessive focus on health and fitness, and there are unnamed medicines scheduled for everyone to take. A few adolescent rebellions against the status quo, and the logic behind the tightly knit health resort unravels.
Once Mae pays attention, things start adding up to something sinister.
Suspense is built up well. You can feel all the ardor of the teenage friendships and the terror of anything happening to any of them. Sometimes it’s a bit glib, but for the most part the combination of high school politics and dystopic imbalance of power works really well.
There seem to be quite a few YA novels in this style. Dystopic setting, heavily regulated institute, characters with daily routines, security personnel empowered to enforce rules to a militant degree. Dire punishments if rules aren’t followed. This one wasn’t quite to the level of a book like The Girl with All the Gifts, being more simplistically resolved in comparison. The book does other elements of plot in an engaging way. There’s good action. The background is revealed at a tantalising pace. Things develop well. It’s only after the climax one feels the resolution is a bit swiftly down.
Overall it was a quick read, language wasn’t very ornate and the content wasn’t too dense. Very enjoyable and difficult to put down.
The gaslighting the main character faces by the authorities as she pieces together things might be a bit upsetting, so just be mindful of that if that’s the kind of thing that triggers you.
One thing did disappoint me — I’m used to titles holding some hidden or symbolic reference in the story. The phrase “See how they lie” is, sure enough, pretty clear in intention. I had thought it was connected to a line from the nursery rhyme, “Three Blind Mice.” See how they run. It would have added a layer of complexity to the book if it had a title that actually tied in to the rest of the story on a deeper level.
