Blog Tour: The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 398
Received: Received a copy from Raincoast Books in exchange for an honest review

Release Date: January 3, 2017
Buy From Chapters.ca / Buy From BookDepository.com

Goodreads Synopsis:

A teenage misfit named Hawthorn Creely inserts herself in the investigation of missing person Lizzie Lovett, who disappeared mysteriously while camping with her boyfriend. Hawthorn doesn't mean to interfere, but she has a pretty crazy theory about what happened to Lizzie. In order to prove it, she decides to immerse herself in Lizzie's life. That includes taking her job... and her boyfriend. It's a huge risk — but it's just what Hawthorn needs to find her own place in the world.

My Review:

First off I want to say thank you to Raincoast Books for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. This book was so much fun to read, and it is quite different from a lot of other books. I am so glad that I am able to talk a bit about this story.

When a girl from town goes missing, the whole town starts to speculate about what happened to her, she was a very beloved girl that everyone knew, and they all want to know the mystery. Even readers want to know what happened to Lizzie Lovett, as the story continues on though, I almost felt like I forgot about Lizzie's story and I fell into Hawthorn's world.

Hawthorn knows who Lizzie is, let's be honest the whole town knows who she is, but somehow Hawthorn gets herself immersed into her own investigation of what happened to Lizzie Lovett. She comes up with many of her own theories, but one theory really sticks out in her mind, and she does everything that she can to investigate this theory. Hawthorn takes over Lizzie's life to find the answers, to what seems like a crazy theory. While investigating Lizzie, Hawthorn is able to learn a lot more about herself and she finds where she fits in with people.

What I really loved about the book that kept it interesting is how Hawthorn needs to come up with crazy ideas, her life seems boring so she comes up with things to make it more adventurous and fun. Hawthorn is the type who is sarcastic and doesn't care to other people, but when you get to know her you can tell that she is lonely and feels left out, which is why she comes up with all these crazy theories. I can definitely relate to Hawthorn, finding comfort in fiction over reality when I feel like I don't fit in somewhere, it's a way to escape and feel like you belong. Hawthorn goes beyond that fiction though and truly turns it into a reality, but that is what makes this book so much fun.

The secondary characters really help enhance that feeling in Hawthorn, they all look and treat her like she is crazy, except for Enzo. He is looking for what he lost, and in that he enables Hawthorn's crazy ideas. I don't truly like him, I find he is using Hawthorn (then again she seems to be using him as well). It just is not the greatest pairing. Then you also have Hawthorn's family, who in themselves seem crazy and you can see why Hawthorn needs to find her own reality.

This is such a fun book, and yet it is about finding yourself in the absurdities around you as well.

Don't forget to stop by the other blogs this week that will be featuring this book!

Also included in this blog tour, I got to ask Chelsea Sedoti a question about writing and her book. Check out her answer below:

What characteristics of yourself do you see in your characters?

One of my favorite things about writing is that it lets me live lives that aren’t my own. I can create characters who do things I’d never in a million years do. I can invent situations that, realistically, I’ll never find myself in.

For that reason, I try not to make my characters too autobiographical. I’d quickly get bored with them.

At the same time, it’s impossible to entirely remove myself from a story. No matter how different from me a character might be, they still came from my head. They’re a part of me.

Hawthorn and I aren’t the same person. But I understand her feeling of not fitting in. Of not being able to relate to other people. I share her desire to escape from the world. To Hawthorn, real life will never be as exciting as something she’s read in a book or seen in a movie. My outlook isn’t quite as extreme, but I can certainly empathize.

There’s a key area where Hawthorn and I diverge, though. She thinks she can shape the world around her to make it whatever she wants it to be—no matter how outlandish, and no matter what negative impact it might have on other people along the way.

I deal with my desire for magic and adventure differently. I write books.

So, while none of my characters are exactly like me, they definitely have little pieces of my personality or elements of my own experiences. More interesting versions, hopefully.  Because according to Hawthorn, fiction is always more fascinating than reality.