Lies by Michael GrantMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
With Sam no longer in charge, and the Council debating but not acting, Zil and his Human Crew are allowed to grow more extreme in their efforts against the freaks, and Caine moves in as he becomes more desperate to survive. Worst of all, Drake has survived, and so has the Darkness; it lingers in some minds, spreading rumors. Grant overcomes the challenge of matching the dynamics of a FAYZ-like society and the mentality of children to the characters’ thoughts, hopes, and dreams, and he excels at creating a storyline that comes together in a beautiful, intense climax. However, he often fails to explain each event and motive sufficiently, instead he relying on cheesy, artificially emotional explanations and overly stereotyped characters that I’d expect from an amateur author. Also, I feel that he tries to create an atmosphere of foreboding, but the foreshadowing and the predictability of the characters all too often give away the best twists in the plot. Therefore, I recommend Lies only to those searching for quick-paced, dystopian action but not necessarily good writing or deep characters and compelling ideas. - Kai A. ‘17
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Kai's point that the characters are all one-dimensional is a good one, and I think Grant encounters this problem because he needs to introduce more and more members to the cast to feed his convoluted plot. Whereas Hunger, the second book of the FATZ series, mixed incompatible ideas from romance, science fiction, survival, and fantasy novels, the author has finally found a single genre he wants to pursue: horror. Every chapter has another horrific death, devastating betrayal, or heart-stopping corruption. And some scenes, like the one with the narrowly-avoided mass suicide, indicate that Grant has even more horrifying ideas to throw at us in the coming books. Is this change in the series's direction good news, or bad? It's up to the reader to decide, but I know to steel myself for the worst as I approach the sequel to Lies.
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