Veronica Mars gets a fantastical twist in this novel about a girl with a transferrable consciousness, who uses her power for good, only to have it turned on her when someone uses her body to commit murder. Now she must solve the crime before the killer comes after her.
Caught red handed... for a crime she didn't commit.
Within the secret circles of Harvey Davis High School, everyone knows Tia Dante is worth her weight in hall passes. Using her genetic gift of transferable consciousness, she can slip inside your mind and do your dirty work—humiliate your cheating boyfriend, bring a bully to his knees, tell your boss where to stick it—and then return your body with no one the wiser. No task is too awkward, and unlike the competition, she takes care of business without peeking at your goods.
But while Tia is occupied during a routine payback mission, someone uses her body for a few dirty deeds of their own…like murdering the town prosecutor. With the crime caught on camera and no concrete alibi, Tia is forced to ask her infuriatingly gorgeous ex—Nash Brock--to help unravel the mystery. The heat is on, in more ways than one, and a few stray bullets later, Tia is in a frantic race against the clock to find the killer before they find her.
Title : Make Me a Liar
Author : Melissa Landers
Format : eBook (overdrive)
Page Count : 240
Genre : YA / mystery / sci-fi
Publisher : Disney Hyperion
Release Date : December 5, 2023
Reviewer : Hollis
Rating : ★ ★
Hollis' 2 star review
I really only gave this one a chance for two reasons. One, once upon a very long time ago, I read Starflight by this author and remember being totally tickled by how much I enjoyed it, and two, one of my favourite shows was used as a comp. And while the latter has been used before, I thought the mental-hopping element would elevate this YA mystery with an added bit of oomph whilst still giving me the promised nostalgic gumshoe vibes but alas.. no. The aforementioned sci-fi twist was so glossed over that it felt ridiculous (sometimes this tactic works, forcing the reader to believe something is commonplace and accepted, instead of something to be introduced from the onset, but in this case we're even told that it's something of a new revelation, so, nope) that one was to believe this was the guiding star of the whole concept behind the particular crime and subsequent mystery to solve. But also, the ultimate reveal of the mastermind behind everything was just.. weak.
I think that sums up the whole thing. Weak. And this is such a short book, why couldn't we have spent time beefing it up? Or, like, anything. Such as the pointlessly protracted romance woes that ultimately made no sense when it all came down to it. And the bestie was a literal caricature and there was no attempt to give anyone any kind of depth or real motivations.
This was a big disappointment but at least it bumped up my total books read tally without requiring much time or effort to complete. Womp.
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