Beautiful Lies Final Review

Beautiful Lies

Beautiful Lies by Jessica Warman, is a paranormal mystery novel, depicting a snippet of a teen named Alice. When sneaking to go to the November fest fair, her twin sister Rachel goes missing. Alice and Rachel are not normal twins, they share a psychological bond, down to the last blood cell. If one gets injured so does the other.  Alice sometimes also get ‘feelings’, for lack of a better word, that are warnings that she uses to help her twin avoid getting hurt. Alice had one of those feelings the night at the fair.  It’s because of this nervousness that Rachel and Alice switched for the night. Switching is where Alice acts like Rachel and vice versa. When Rachel is declared gone, Alice heads home to inform her Aunt and Uncle, unfortunately they think that ‘Alice’ is gone. Alice has run away before, so her Aunt and Uncle are hesitant to call the police. Later that night Alice’s Aunt noticed blood on her wall as Alice sank into an emotional break down. Alice knows that this blood was not from an injury she caused, rather something that happened to Rachel. It’s then that Alice starts her quest to find Rachel in her own special way.

This novel holds an interesting voice. The author Jessica, tends to incorporate many flash backs. Each flash back pertains to a question, or provides information about Alice and her life before Rachel was taken. Jessica also successfully writes in a mental disorder into Alice though the book doesn’t come right out and tell you what it is. One can conclude that Alice has schizophrenia, a mental illness passed down through generations. Alice’s grandmother and mother are also believed to have this disorder. When Alice was young she asked her mom what was wrong with her slightly crazy grandmother. Her mom replied, “Sometimes people’s bodies get sick,” my mom would say, “and sometimes our minds get sick.” (Warman 202). Schizophrenia starts to show its symptoms anywhere from ages 16-30. Alice is 18 in the book, and shows signs of delusions (a symptom) and hallucinations (another symptom) throughout the book. Studies show that schizophrenia can get worse when one doesn’t constantly take their prescribed medicine, or show signs of substance abuse. Alice’s grandmother does both, causing her to have delusions of Caption her dog still being alive, her sentences don’t make sense, and she was constantly having her children taken away when she was raising them due to her being ‘unfit’. Alice’s mother was harder to diagnose because she died in a car crash when Alice and Rachel were seven.  Her only flashbacks were written about her and the twins’ dad. Due to a quotation comparing the three of them, Alice, her mom, and her grandmother, one might conclude that this disease was passed on down from one to the next. Rachel was talking to Alice, and comparing her with her family members when talking about their sensitivity “You’re like Mom,” She continued. “You’re like Grandma too. It runs in the family but not with me.” One can create a reference to the illness and proof of it passing through the generations.

One of Jessica’s weakness was when she incorporated clichés. A mysterious ‘boyfriend’, crazy relatives, brushes with drugs, teenage parties, or dead parents. Just name it, and it has probably been used at some point in the story. This can create frustration as a reader, one might wonder how all these clichés fit together. In reality, Jessica writes the story in such a way that the plot falls in to place as puzzle pieces seem so random, but fit together at the end to create a picture. The mysterious ‘boyfriend’ connects to the illness which connects to the parents which connects to the insane grandma. They all fit in some insane psychotic way. The only thing that the reader has to worry about is getting past the clichés because the rest of the Young Adult novel gets so good that you almost have to stop life to figure out the mystery.

Over all, this book generated a four out of five stars, five being the absolute best. It was due to the seemingly unconnected clichés that Beautiful Lies earned this less than perfect rating. The plot generated enough interest, and the epilogue will get one on the edge of their seats, reading in anticipation. Beautiful Lies created its own twist and signature on the mystery genre, through the seemingly paranormal aspects. This book would be recommended to any paranormal reader, or mystery reader, or survival story lovers. All in all, Jessica Warman did her job and created an easy read, interesting story, and used phenomenally researched and lovable characters who were a thrill to learn along with. 

Resources: 

SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH 

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml?utm_source=publish2&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=www.kpbs.org#part1 

BOOK QUOTES

Beautiful Lies by Jessica Warman

WORD CHOICE

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VIDEO

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PICTURES

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