Who is the Liar

book notes

title: Who Is the Liar
author: Laura Lee Bahr
published: 8.1.2025
publisher: Little A
source: Kindle First Reads
genre(s): horror
pages: 268
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | BookBub | BookHype | StoryGraph | Goodreads
rating:

the blurb

An ingenious novel of suspense about sisterhood, innocence, murderous games, and how far we’ll go to protect the ones we love.

In a tight-knit town in the 1980s, a child-killer is on the loose. And Topaz’s parents are on edge. At ten years old, Topaz is so vulnerable. But she has nothing to worry about. Her eldest sister, Ruby, has made sure of that. Swearing Topaz to secrecy, Ruby reveals she has trapped the monster in their root cellar.

Bound and bloodied in the cold space is kindly Brother Johnson from the Church. Pleading with Topaz to cut him loose, he says her reckless sister is a liar. Brother Johnson is right about that: Ruby does lie. She also likes to scare people. Still, even Ruby wouldn’t lie about this. Would she? The game—and the secret—is in her hands. But Topaz just wants to do the right thing.

Let Brother Johnson die in the cold space? Or try to set him free—and then see what happens next?

a few notes

trigger warnings: murder, gore, child sex abuse

POV: 1st person
setting: United States
keywords/phrases: family dysfunction, secrets
tropes: unreliable narrator, evil next door
spice: 0/5
language: 1/5

my review

This was a thoroughly gripping read. There is something intensely chilling and terrifying about having a 10-year-old girl as the narrator of a story, a narrator who is also part of the dark events. Adding to the tension of it is the time and place in which the story unfolds. Topaz and her sister live in a conservative household in the midst of the satanic panic in the 1980s.

Using Topaz as the perspective through which we view the story is so interesting, the perspective of a young girl who is little equipped to deal with the situation at hand. Someone has been taking children and murdering, leaving the town in abject terror. But when her older sister Ruby tells her she’s safe. Why? Because Ruby has captured the killer and trapped him in the cellar. This leaves young Topaz caught between her sister, a known liar but one who Topaz still adores, and a man who professes his innocence. But despite her sister’s history, Topaz can’t bring herself to believe that her sister would lie to her about something like this. And this is what makes Topaz the perfect unreliable narrator… the two people she’s caught between both being potential liars.

My favorite thing about this book is the way each chapter ended, with a single line that absolutely propels the reader into turning the page to read on. It’s a truly effective technique that amps up the tension and anticipation of the story.

All men are dogs, people love serial killers, and evil is boring.

(page 102)

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Rating Report
the story
the characters
the writing
the pacing
the world-building
the conclusion
Overall:

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 2026 52 Books Reading Challenge
• 2026 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge
• 2026 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge: Author Edition
• 2026 Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge
• 2026 Linz the Bookworm & Logophile Reading Challenge
• 2026 Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge