Thursday, October 6, 2016

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett, by Chelsea Sedoti

Hey all! 

I just finished reading an ARC of The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett! 

Many thanks to Sourcebooks publishing for sending me a copy via Netgalley! I really appreciate it! :) This does not influence my review in any way. 

This will be published on January 3rd, 2017


"Hawthorn wasn't trying to insert herself into a missing person's investigation. Or maybe she was. But that's only because Lizzie Lovett's disappearance is the one fascinating mystery their sleepy town has ever had. Bad things don't happen to popular girls like Lizzie Lovett, and Hawthorn is convinced she'll turn up at any moment-which means the time for speculation is now.

So Hawthorn comes up with her own theory for Lizzie's disappearance. A theory way too absurd to take seriously...at first. The more Hawthorn talks, the more she believes. And what better way to collect evidence than to immerse herself in Lizzie's life? Like getting a job at the diner where Lizzie worked and hanging out with Lizzie's boyfriend. After all, it's not as if he killed her-or did he?



I saw that a lot of people were getting this book at BEA, and I was curious about it! A few days later I saw it on Netgalley and thought ‘why not try’? I was so excited when I got it! 

This book is about Hawthorn, a 17-year-old girl who’s somewhat of a misfit - she doesn’t really have friends in school, believes in the supernatural, and doesn’t really see the point of homecoming. She’s often one of the invisible wallflowers that people didn’t tend to notice. 

Until Lizzie Lovett disappeared overnight. 

Hawthorn becomes obsessed with wanting to know what happened, and why it did. She goes through all kinds of scenarios, and eventually sticks to the one where Lizzie became a werewolf. Hawthorn meets Lizzie’s boyfriend, who everyone thinks may have killed her, and they become friends of sorts. 

Suddenly, Hawthorn gets a wave of negative attention at school, and her parents starts worrying about her and her obsession. 

I enjoyed this book! It is super easy to get into, and is one of those reads that once you start, you want to get to the end of. I found myself just sitting and reading it for hours on end and barely realizing it! Very compulsive to read, maybe because the writing style felt natural, and because the chapters were somewhat on the short side. It never felt like Sedoti tried using fancy words or complicated ideas in her book, which was so nice for a change! It was a nice, flowing read. 

Hawthorn’s an interesting character. At first, I thought she might have been autistic - she’s not good with people, imaginative, good at specific things, confides in one person, etc. It never mentions that explicitly in the book, but it made sense to me. However, I never really kept that label on her, and just read the book as it was. 

Hawthorn’s not my favorite character of all time, but she was nice to read about! Her intense curiosity lead her to some crazy situations that she always reacted well to - not positively, but well. 

All of the supporting and secondary characters were carefully chosen, constructed and placed. Enzo, Lizzie’s boyfriend, made Hawthorn believe in herself more. Her brother was there for her when she needed, and Connor watched over her from a distance, like a guardian.

Lizzie herself was described as a popular cheerleader - one of those people that almost everyone likes, or wants to be. However, everyone in the book describes her differently. It’s almost as if she has 100 lives rather than 100 lies. ^^ 

One character I did not like, however, was Emily. I don’t know if that was how she was meant to be portrayed, but I found her incredibly annoying and rude. When reading about Emily and Hawthorn’s friendship, it almost seemed as if Emily let Hawthorn be her friend out of pity, and that she would rather be anywhere else than be talking with her. I mean she wasn’t always a bad friend, but it really bothered me when she thought she was better than Hawthorne. 

Although it was a strangely-timed one, I did enjoy Hawthorn’s relationship with Enzo. I really liked them as friends. I never really shipped them (I always thought that she and Connor would be adorable ^-^), and am somewhat glad that they weren’t endgame, but I’m still sad about what happened between them in the end. It felt like Hawthorn finally found someone who understood her, and the fact that she lost that person in a way that is just cruel... well I didn’t like that much. 

The end of the book is quite sad, and hit me more than I thought it would. It was nice how everything ended up being okay though. :) 

I feel like the plot might have been lacking just a little bit of substance. For example, I’d love to know more about Hawthorn’s hobbies, or her friendship with Emily. 

Overall, I’m giving this a 4/5 feathers! I enjoyed it! 


Are you planning on reading The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett? Let me know!

Have a great day and enjoy the rest of the week! 




4 comments:

  1. I have never heard of this book before! But it sounds quite intriguing, and if everyone was getting them at BEA, then I'll have to add it to my TBR! :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I saw it around quite a lot (I watch way too much booktube hahaha ^^). I hope you like it too! :D

      Delete
  2. I saw this on netgalley and it looked really interesting. Great review!

    Kate @ Ex Libris

    ReplyDelete

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this post!
Any and all comments make me smile, and I will reply to all of them!
I can reply in English, French, and sometimes in Dutch and German.
Have an absolutely fabulous day!