Julie

Review: Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

May Contain Spoilers

Review:

Lies We Tell Ourselves is a brutally frank look at one of the most racially charged moments in the history of the United States. Sarah Dunbar is a teenager, and she’s one of the first black students to attend a traditionally white school in the south. Sarah is a bright girl with a promising academic future – until her parents enroll her Jefferson High School. She faces opposition every day, and the honor student’s schedule is full of remedial classes, because the school administrators don’t want these new, unwanted students holding back the rest of the class. The white students don’t want her there, their parents don’t want her there, and even the faculty looks the other way as she is tormented daily.

After reading this, all I can say is “Wow.” I don’t know where Sarah found the strength to endure the daily abuses she suffered at the hands of her white classmates. To say that she was constantly bullied understates her situation. She was taunted, called names, spit on, tripped, pelted with spitballs – the list goes on. There was no one at school for her to ask for assistance because the teachers practiced selective blindness when it was happening. Before even starting at Jefferson, Sarah and the small group of teens who were selected to attend with her were given training and strict instructions to never talk back, to always be polite, and to never fight back. I don’t think I could have done it. I know I wouldn’t have lasted more than a day or two if I had been in Sarah’s shoes.

Linda is one of Sarah’s white classmates. Her father is the editor for the local newspaper, and he is very outspoken in his thoughts on integration. He is totally against it and he’s still fighting it, tooth and nail, even after the court order paving the way for Sarah to attend the former all white school. Linda’s relationship with her father is contentious, but what she wants most in the world is his approval. Even a shred of attention is uplifting. To gain his approval, she parrots his views on the colored interlopers at her school, but as she gets to know Sarah, against her will, she starts to question her own poisonous views.

I enjoyed getting to know the girls so much. The story is told in alternating POV, and Sarah’s narrative made it difficult to put the book down. It took a while for me to warm up to Linda, because of the things she said and did. Every now and again she would do the right thing, then, in the next breath, she would do something to negate her selfless acts. Argh! She made me so frustrated!

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot. Lies We Tell Ourselves is a thought-provoking read that will make you angry, sad, and ultimately, hopeful. I loved the ending, and it left me reassured that both Sarah and Linda would find their place in the world, and they would meet each new challenge with courage and strength.

Grade: A

Review copy provided by publisher

From Amazon:

In 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever.

Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.

Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town’s most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept “separate but equal.”

Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another.

Boldly realistic and emotionally compelling, Lies We Tell Ourselves is a brave and stunning novel about finding truth amid the lies, and finding your voice even when others are determined to silence it.

The post Review: Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley appeared first on Manga Maniac Cafe.

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