Review: What I Saw and How I Lied

What I Saw and How I Lied

Author: Judy Blundell
Pages: 284
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: Own

Description from Goodreads:
Murder and intrigue surround a girl in this mystery set in American in the aftermath of WWII

When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than just good war stories. When movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes. She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him . . . until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two.

First Sentence: "The match snapped, then sizzled, and I woke up fast."

Review:

My expectations going into What I Saw and How I Lied were high. Most of my friends really liked the novel, and it won the National Book Award, so it ought to be mind-blowing, right? Well, not really, at least for me. Though WISAHIL did provide adequate entertainment, I didn't learn or feel anything as a result.

Set in the landscape of post-WWII America, WISAHIL centers around the coming of age of Evie Spooner. Evie has always lived in her mother's shadow; Bev Spooner gets compared by everyone to the most beautiful movie stars of the day. Evie feels plain and boring compared even to her friend Margie, who at least has already developed a figure, no longer needing to stuff her bra with tissues.

Joe, Evie's step-father, comes home one day with an idea: they should all go on vacation to Palm Beach. Ever since he returned home from the war, he's been working hard and they all deserve a break. Their trip involves numerous annoyances and they arrive in Palm Beach to find the place deserted, since the creme de la creme never go down there until December. Evie enjoys the novelty of the beach, but that quickly wanes and boredom sets in.

Of course, nothing dispels boredom like a handsome man. Peter Coleridge, a private from Joe's company with whom he seems to have a mysterious past, is everything Evie has ever wanted. Her imagination kicks into high gear and she starts wanting to grow up and fast, because Peter's 23 to her 15. Even before this point, I didn't much like Evie or Peter, but when it became clear that he was her love interest I decided definitively that I did not care for them. Honestly, almost every single character in this book is awful. Peter especially, because hitting on a fifteen year old girl who definitely acts and thinks like one when you're 23 is completely disgusting.

If you like your historical fiction full of drama, betrayal and mystery, then I suspect you might enjoy WISAHIL. I kept expecting some big twist, but the book went exactly where I predicted it would, though that might not be the case for every reader. Still, I flipped through the pages really quickly, because, original though it wasn't, I had to know for sure what went down.

Despite the accolades accrued by Blundell for this novel, the writing did not impress me. She uses the very simplistic style common in first person narratives. While that worked okay for Evie, I would have expected to see some more complex sentence structures spoken by other characters at least. Then again, if you have a better sense for Evie as a person, then perhaps the narrative will just fit her and you'll love it. All I know is that the writing did not hold any special appeal for me.

All in all, this was an entertaining read, but lacked the depth and historical impact for which I hoped. Since I own another Blundell book, I do intend to give her work another shot.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote: "Look at them eating toast — how can they be so heartless?"