Book Review: If I Lie by Corrine Jackson

If I Lie
Corrine Jackson
YA Contemporary
Published: August 2012

Image: Goodreads

If I Lie is deep, personal, and heartbreaking. From the start, we know a great injustice has occurred, and it's all the fault of our main character Quinn. It's a mark of a good writer to evoke sympathy from a protagonist who has right away made a painful mistake. Quinn's boyfriend Carey is missing in action in Afghanistan, and while he was away, she became involved with his best friend. Her military-devoted small town makes Quinn out to be as despised as a war criminal.

But the truth is more complicated. Not everyone knows that Quinn and Carey broke up before he left for his most recent tour. She can't tell anyone that because she promised Carey she wouldn't. Quinn suffers the wrath of the town, her father, and her classmates out of respect for Carey and to protect him from revealing even deeper secrets.

The writing here is stellar. I hurt for Quinn, and wanted so much for things to work out for she and her family. The other piece of the story relates to Quinn's abandonment by her mother, and her struggle with her strict, detached father who believes Quinn's betrayal of Carey is turning her into a next-gen version of his ex-wife who left him. As punishment for her sins, her father makes Quinn volunteer at the local veteran's hospital, where she connects with a former photo journalist working on a project to document veteran's experiences. I loved how three generations of the military were woven into the story: Carey currently enlisted, her father's hardened career-military ways, and the man in the VA care center. This story shows how the people at home deal with the realities of military service.

I highly recommend this if you like introspective YA contemporary. This is a debut author for 2012 and one of my favorite reads of the year!