Book Review: The Lovers, The Liars, and Me
Title: The Lovers, The Liars, and Me
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s
Review Copy: ARC from publisher
Availability: Available Now
Summary: Jaliya Powell has never had a real adventure, a real boyfriend, or spoken up for herself. She’s never even been kissed. Despite being valedictorian of her high school class, Jaliya is used to fading into the background.
But this summer will be different.
This summer, Jaliya is visiting her uncle and his family in Jamaica. Under the guise of one last vacation before college, she plans to find out more about her estranged mother, whose absence has remained an unspoken mystery. But things have changed in the seven years since Jaliya last visited. Her cousin has his own life and is reluctant to let Jaliya in, her childhood crush has only gotten hotter and more unavailable, and her aunt and uncle aren’t everything she remembered, either. Then she meets India, who’s vibrant, gorgeous, and free-spirited. And who makes Jaliya feel something she’s never felt before.
While searching for traces of her mother across the island, Jaliya finds herself entangled in complicated relationships, tricky secrets, and a passionate new love. As she navigates this perfectly complicated summer, Jaliya must choose between who she has always been or who she hopes to become.
Review: I reviewed DeAndra Davis’s debut last year (All The Noise at Once review), and absolutely loved it. When presented with the opportunity to read her sophomore novel I jumped at the chance. And I can tell you that Davis has range. With some authors, they have a style that is uniquely their own and books tend to feel similar (and that is no way a bad thing). That is not the case of this novel. The Lovers, The Liars, and Me is a very different novel in that it is not as intense as her debut as it is more of a journey of self-discovery, and the writing is much more fluid to reflect who Jaliya is and her journey. Davis excels at writing touching relationships and that continues in this novel; the difference being that us readers get to be with Jaliya as she develops a relationship with India while trying to fill in the hole the lack of relationship with her mother has created.
Jaliya is a unique character who is fully aware of her failings, her insecurity being the biggest, and is really looking to make a change, but is not too sure how. She wants to be more social, more outgoing, like her best friend Ketta but holds herself back. She’s graduating from high school and has decided to make a change when she goes to college, but first an impromptu trip to Jamaica to find her mother whom she feels is the reason why she so unsure of herself, which is a valid point. She’d gone to Jamaica often but hadn’t been back since she was 10 as seeing pictures of her mother at her uncle’s house was too painful for her. When she arrives, she realizes that staying away not only hurt herself but the relationships she had with her aunt and uncle, but mostly her cousin Shevaughn and the friends she grew up with. At first her time is a bit awkward but once she makes amends and shares her desire to find her mom, her friends decide to help her in her search while making her visit memorable. Through their adventures Jaliya comes to see Jamaica from a new lens as well as with a new attitude. She becomes brave and fearless as she learns more about her mother by experiencing her mother’s favorite places. It also doesn’t hurt that India and her connect, thus pulling Jaliya out of her shell. I really like the way Jaliya slowly realized her feelings for India and wasn’t fully conflicted about her sexuality. She’d never been interested in anyone before so when India arrives and Jaliya recognizes her feelings, she thinks “okay, the world makes sense now.” The focus of the story is not on Jaliya’s discovery of her bisexuality but more on recognizing her own identity as a whole. She used her mother’s tarot cards to make decisions and they held her back. Through her adventures she comes to rely on the cards less and less and rely on her confidence, her sense of self more. She also realizes that a number of times during her “search”, she has more fun being in the moment rather than focusing on the search for her mom. The growth that Jaliya goes through is beautiful. She leaves Jamaica a stronger version of herself, even more than she could have hoped for.
I really enjoyed going on the journey with Jaliya as she searched for her mom, but ended up finding herself instead. There were so many touching and funny moments as Jaliya’s family, including her found family, wrapped her in love and support. Like I said earlier, Davis’s strong suit is writing strong relationships that the love and care basically jumps off the page. This novel felt like a warm hug after a long day. Or as Jaliya says about Jamaica, “like coming home.”
