Little Blue Lies by Chris Lynch | Book Review

Personally, I'd give Little Blue Lies 3 of 5 stars.  But bigger picture, I think it definitely does have teen appeal (and it's a teen book, so bingo) so I'm giving it 4 of 5 stars.  I don't know... it's pretty short, so I read it nearly overnight.  I had one of those nights where you're sick and not asleep so you read a YA book.  Maybe that's making me more "meh" about it than I should be.

Little Blue Lies follows two teens, Junie and Oliver, who are kind of dysfunctional.  Like, Junie knows that her dad works for the local mob boss and she's heard of this mob boss (known only as One Who Knows) has hurt people in the past, but she still insists on standing up to him.  That seems pretty dangerous for a teenage girl.  And O?  He just DOES NOT have it together.  He's the only kid in a rich-rich family and he has absolutely no goals or motivations in life.  He graduated high school but he doesn't have a job or plans or college applications out.  He's just OBSESSED with getting Junie Blue back as his girlfriend.

So this book is told stream-of-consciousness from Oliver's mind.  So it's a little rambling at points and definitely has some laugh-out-loud moments.  I kept finding it really hard to remember that Oliver is 18; his thoughts and perceptions read much younger.  Also, since the whole book is from his perspective, I imagine we miss out on some information.

My problem with the book is that about 2/3 through a WHOLE BUNCH of stuff happens that would never ever happen in real life.  Like, the mob boss is out to get Junie so Oliver decides it's ok to let her go walk dogs, unaccompanied, in the mob boss's neighborhood?  Junie's mom is getting beat down emotionally (and sometimes physically) by her husband on a regular basis so she leaves and goes to Oliver's house and the husband is just cool with that?  Oliver needs to get away, so he takes his mom's car and his dad's gold card and checks in to the swankiest hotel in town, and none of the hotel employees question it?  They just hand over the penthouse keys?

It was just a really well-written book (once you get used to the stream-of-consciousness) and pretty funny but then near the end all the pieces start falling in place way too conveniently.  Way too many characters turn out to be 180 degrees different than you thought.  Too unrealistic for realistic fiction.  But hey; I can see plenty of teens (guys and girls!) reading this and laughing a little and enjoying it.  Nothing wrong with leisure books!