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by Maura Pierlot (Author)
The biggest lies are the ones you tell yourself.
When gorgeous new student, Carter, struts into class, Harley knows it's time to reinvent herself. Before long, she's shedding not only her weight but her friends, her family and the person she used to be. Betrayed by someone close to her, Harley abandons her only ally, drawn into a dangerous game of self-deception with no rules. Or winner. Spiralling deeper into a world where nothing is as it seems, Harley is desperate to find her way back. But first, she must figure out why her dead grandmother is messaging her. Why her father's never home. Why the voice keeps making her do things she doesn't want to do. Why everyone she loves is out of reach. Why everything she wishes for is vanishing before her eyes ... or is she the one disappearing?
Set in Australia, The Lies We Tell Ourselves is a timely, smart and utterly compelling story of how to piece yourself together when your world's falling apart. The work tackles issues at the heart of adolescence today: cyber-bullying, and the myriad of ways that young people can fall victim to intimidation; grief and the hole left behind when someone close dies unexpectedly; body image, particularly in a world constantly focussing on the external; and the heady, confusing world of teenage love. Combined, these themes are underpinned by existential tenets, eternal truths that are creatively explored in Harley's philosophy class. The story won the Children's Book Council of Australia NSW Aspiring Writers' Mentorship Program, The Charlotte Waring Barton Award and was shortlisted and named runner up for several other Australian writing awards.
