Reviews

KirkusDIRTY LIAR
Author: James, Brian


Booklist
\\\\\\\\James, Brian. Dirty Liar. Feb. 2006. 286p. Scholastic/Push, $16.99 (0-439-79623-7).
Gr. 9-12. Benji (also known as Dogboy) has a compelling story. It is written in hard, first-person language, and there is fear and drugs and cursing and more fear, but it is also deeply poetic. Benji has moved from his alcoholic mother's trailer--but more important away from her abusive boyfriend--to live with his distant and controlling father and his wife. Benji, who keeps a journal to try to name and define his demons, calls both his former girlfriend and Rianna, the new girl he clings to, his angels. He hopes that somehow, in some way, they will save him. Benji has to save himself, but it is the open and gentle persistence of his stepmother, and the realization that Rianna, too, has demons to fight, that allow him to do so. Powerful, compelling, and, in the end, almost sweet. -GraceAnne A. DeCandido