Cover Image: The Big Lie

The Big Lie

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Member Reviews

I was so intrigued by this premise,, but the execution fell really flat for me. I kept hoping it would get better, but it didn't.

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I saw Julie Mayhew talk about this book in 2016 and it was incredibly impactful. I love the bite in this, the fire and bitter honesty in the strength of the protagonist's convictions. I think this is an important book to be out, and contemporary YA lit should be this honest (haha!) more often.

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I really wanted to love this book because of the feminist premise, but even though I tried several times to read it (even tried it as audiobook) I couldn't connect with the story.

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I love alternate universes, especially when they're affected by Big Historical Changes. The Big Lie's dystopia universe is so fascinating; the cross-over genre is amazing. It's a painful thing to read, especially in today's sociopolitical climate, but it's a great YA book because of it and I think it'd be a great book club book. Jessika's such an interesting, often unlikable but still sympathetic main character; Mayhem did a great job presenting her in a multifaceted way.

Also, THAT ENDING.

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I stuck with this one for a lot longer than it usually do when books don’t immediately grab me. I really had high hopes and kept thinking it would get better at any minute. Alas, no such luck for me.

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This book was really hard for me to finish. I was bored by the characters and awfully confused. But another teacher has used it in her classroom and recommended for me to use it with some of my students so I'm going to listen to her.

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In all honestly I should have DNF'd this book. I made the mistake of continuing to think it was going somewhere. I love dystopian books and so this alternate 'history' of the Nazi's winning WWII and what that regime would look like post-2000 sounded like a brilliant premise. And it probably still is. So two stars for a good idea; but only two stars for poor execution.

The Missing Plot
Unfortunately Julie Mayhew didn't deliver any solid plot or story. Instead The Big Lie is just a telling of how the world is and one girls 'participation' in said dystopian world. Nothing really happens. Many things seem like they are about to happen and when one really huge thing does transpire 2/3 of the way through the book the narrative that comes after is just confusing and frustrating.
I feel a bit like a broken record on this but plot is important! It's not enough to tell the story of someone existing in a certain world. I want to know what drives, excites, worries, pleases, etc. them given the context of the world they live in. Characters need a driving force. And while yes there are many real people who may have no real passion or movement in their lives when you take that type of a person and drop them in a story they are a dull, boring and frustrating character. A poor choice for the lead heroine for sure.

Annoyingly Obscure
If you've read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas then you're going to know what I say when I talk about obscure references. The boy in that story says "Out-With" to refer to Auschwitz. Due to his age he is unable to say the name correctly. Within about three pages of the weird wording an aha moment happens for most readers and they catch on to what the boy is actually saying. This is done for a handful of terms quite effectively with the child’s voice.
Mayhew did not achieve this aha moment for me with her obscure and varying descriptions or inferences to situations. I did not at all understand that an X on a girls belly meant that she would be sterilized until 100 pages AFTER the reference was first made. I'd like to think I am not that slow or inattentive of a reader that I missed some key clue. Instead I think a lot was expected to be inferred. So much so that at times I reread chapters twice to make sure I didn't miss some hint or tip about what they were actually talking about. Obscurity done well is a wonderful story telling mechanism. But done poorly it can be the downfall of an entire book. For The Big Lie it falls down a long ladder of missed nuances for me.

Character Annoyances
I really wanted to like our lead heroine. I really did. But by the end of the book I just wanted to torture her into submission. Ironic given some of the things that happen in the last 1/3 of the story... Indoctrination is a very dangerous thing and it can be done without you ever realizing it's happened. Take school shootings... they have become such a common occurance in the USA that they are barely reported on anymore. And if they are reported on it's only for a day, maybe two. In the past people would be obsessed with a school shooting incident for months, possibly even years. But we have become desensitized, normalized, or even indoctrinated (depending on how you view media) to accept that school shootings happen and that's just the way it is. This is what politics can do to society when they simply 'ignore' an issue.
If there is one thing to take from this book it’s how easy it is to fall prey to the indoctrination when everyone around you is pushing it. One voice of reason is not enough. I guess in the end I’m annoyed and ultimately disappointed by our heroines inability to even grasp what could have been. Maybe that’s the point Mayhew is making; that we are all likely to be failures in our lives about issues we know are wrong. If that is the message I still think it’s not worth getting from this narrative.

In the End
Maybe my point above about the indoctrination is what Mayhew wanted to really say to her readers. If that is the case then she certainly managed to get the point across. Unfortunately it was done in an annoying and unproductive way. I would not recommend this book to even the most politically interested of readers as I don't think it says anything new and it certainly didn't appeal to me at either the story, plot, character or political level.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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This book is an interesting concept, and I could understand the appeal for fans of certain genres. However, I feel like this book fell short of meeting its mark. The main plot seemed to dwindle early on and I found the worst bland. I think this book could have been great..

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Julie Mayhew’s Big Lie is the bleak, but utterly compelling tale of Jessika Keller a teenage girl brought up in hard-core British Nazi family who begins to doubt the truth of what she has been told as her friendship with her rebellious friend Clementine develops. Jessika treads a fine line between what she has been told is right, and what she knows morally is right leading to a tense climax.

You can tell Mayhew has really done her research into what might have been should the Nazis have occupied Britain in 1940. Some clever detailed touches included the change of name of the major UK retail store Marks & Spencers to Spencers as Marks was Jewish. Also the use of the name Clementine in a subtle form of protest by Clementine’s parents (Clementine was the first name of Winston Churchill’s wife).

Don’t forget to read the Historical Notes section at the end of the book where the author explains the events that inspired her to write The Big Lie including the unlikely inspiration of Justin Bieber and how the dangers in the book are still echoed across our world today.

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This book has an interesting premise: what if the Nazis had won the war? What would England be like now if that had happened? The book jumps off from there with two characters - Jess and Clementine - dealing with their friendship and feelings for each other when one tries to be the dutiful daughter (both of family and country) and the other sees issues with the ideology of the land. This book grapples with complex issues on many levels and is an intriguing read for current times.

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A compelling coming of age novel with an intriguing premise. Imagine what it would be like as a teen in a contemporary Britain that lost WWII to the Nazis. Remaining citizens have been purified to the Aryan ideal, thoughts and opinions not sanctioned by the government are illegal. People who doesn't measure up for a myriad of reasons disappear and life goes on -- until you're the one to disappear and you see what it's like on the other side.

Told from the POV of Jessika, whose father is a high ranking Nazi official, the reader is plunged into a seemingly ordered and prosperous world, witnessing how someone in Jessika's situation could fall for the big lie. The consequences for deviating are massive.

Well-written, consuming and prescient.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the e-review copy of this excellent novel.

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I have decided not to read this book after reading several Jewish bloggers opinions on the "savior" trope that this story uses.

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I was drawn in by the cover and description of the synopsis. A historical fictional world with some aspects of a dystopian society where the Nazi’s have control of Britain. I loved how LGBT+ was incorporated into the story. I thought it was original for being in a historical fiction book and portrayed well. I liked the (could be) historical aspects of the book and how well crafted it was. I thought the story started out a bit too fast and it could have taken more time to build on certain aspects of Jessica’s life instead of jumping dates so quickly. I also would have liked to have seen more of the larger aspects of WWII that were not incorporated but were still prevelant.

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I'm not sure what I was expecting. This is perhaps my second-ever alternative history book and I have mixed feelings about it. I liked the story line, but some parts felt underdeveloped. Overall, I enjoyed reading it.

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I have no problems with alternate history stories. Speculating on a world where Hitler won is an interesting mental exercise. I might have like this one better if there had been a little more history exploration. Don't just tell us that Hitler won. Explain why. Did the US not enter the war? That's how it felt but there's no real explanation. In all, the book felt rather unfocused. We start out with this exploration of sexuality, gender roles, parental/societal expectations ,and politics. It's trying to be a political and sexual awakening but that focus gets muddied.

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Fits in our dystopia unit and the study of 1984 by Orwell. I'm loving this alt- universe theme lately in books and TV. My students will enjoy this.

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The premise of The Big Lie was very intriguing, but I felt like the execution feel short. The story was very depressing and slow in my opinion.

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I had a hard time getting into this book. Since I did not finish it, I do not intend to publish a review.

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Was the theme oppression or sexual choice or both? In fairness it was a YA book and I am far from it. Proceed with caution

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I think this novel had a lot of potential. The story is really interesting and I was happy that the novel was told from the perspective of a teenage girl. The author touches on a lot of different topics like loyalty, sexuality, and freedom, and these topics were presented very well. Jessika is undoubtedly the main character, and the whole story is about how she is changed through her interactions with Clementine. The story is split into 3 parts that chronicle 3 different time points in Jessika's life. I think that the strongest part of the book was Part One; this is where the story really developed. We only hear from Jessika's perspective, but it is a very good perspective to read from as we see her ignorance being chipped away by the events she is seeing and the emotions she is experiencing. We see her try to reconcile between the truth and what she has always believed, and we see how hard she fights to maintain her innocence. This part made me feel the most connection to Jessika and it had me invested in the story. However, the second and third part of this story was a big let down. In the second part, the author went back and forth in time (again from Jessika's perspective) but after the constant forward motion of the first part, this just made it confusing to read. I also thought that there were big jumps being made in the story that weren't really addressed by the author. More detail and a more consistent flow would have made this section better. The last section of the novel was even more inconsistent; it felt like it wasn't even part of the same book! Now, Jessika is at a different time point and age and there was no real transition to this new point. The abruptness really didn't work for me and it left me disappointed in the ending, which didn't have the depth of emotion that the first part had. Overall, this novel had a very interesting start but the choppiness of the second and third part of this book led to disappointment. I'm giving this a 2.5/5 stars.

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