Review: If I Lie by Corrine Jackson

Title: If I Lie
Author: Corrine Jackson
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release date: August 28th 2012
Pages: 276
Genre: Contemporary YA
Source: Bought
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Quinn’s done the unthinkable: she kissed a guy who is not Carey, her boyfriend. And she got caught. Being branded a cheater would be bad enough, but Quinn is deemed a traitor, and shunned by all of her friends. Because Carey’s not just any guy—he’s serving in Afghanistan and revered by everyone in their small, military town.
Quinn could clear her name, but that would mean revealing secrets that she’s vowed to keep—secrets that aren’t hers to share. And when Carey goes MIA, Quinn must decide how far she’ll go to protect her boyfriend…and her promise.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Reading is awesome. Really, that's all I want to say, because that's just how I feel, after finishing If I Lie. That seems to be all I want to say after each good book I finish lately, since it sadly doesn't happen as often anymore because college is evil. Anyways, If I Lie made me feel all the things; it reminded me what's so great about reading books that make you think and feel. It was one of most anticipated 2012 debuts, and it didn't disappoint!

Carey is a great MC. She's realistic and flawed; she can be snarky and sarcastic, which is really entertaining to read about, but she also has a very vulnerable side, and I really connected with her in that way. I loved the secondary characters, too - Quinn's parents are very flawed but add a lot to the story, George is made of awesome, Blake is really sweet, and even the mean girls have a backstory that makes them realistic. The only character I didn't love was Carey - I never felt like we really got to know him enough to understand how Quinn could sacrifice so much for him.

To be honest, the whole Carey storyline was not my favorite part of the novel. His secret is predictable and kind of disappointing. It wasn't that bad, though, since we find out what it is only about 20 pages into the book - if we hadn't found out till the end, and then gotten such a predictable secret, I would've been really annoyed, but like this, I didn't mind too much. I still think, though, that Quinn made a little too big a deal out of it; I totally get why she didn't tell the whole town, but I feel like she could have told someone, at least her dad - I just can't see someone sacrificing their relationship with their dad could like that, when she could have fixed it by just telling him the truth, without really betraying Carey, since I can't imagine the dad telling the whole town about it or anything like that.

But, really, that didn't take all that much from my enjoyment of the novel. The description focuses a lot on this one storyline, but there's so much more going on. There's the family storyline, which I loved - I really liked seeing how Quinn's past tied in with what's going on now. There's Quinn's relationship with George and the rest of the people at the hospital, another set-up I loved. And there's the bullying and Quinn's relationship with Blake. Corrine Jackson really impressed me with the way she tied together all the different storylines, the different layers of Quinn's life.

Corrine Jackson's writing is amazing; I can't explain why, but it just grabbed me, pulled me along and made me finish the book in a day. But at the same time as it made me want to read on as fast as possible, there were also a few lines that made me stop and marvel at their beauty - and that, to me, is the perfect combination.

One thing I didn't love was how pro-military the message of the novel is, how much war heroes are idolized; it was just a little too patriotic to America for me. I'm not saying that's wrong or anything like that, and I don't want to get into this too much because I know this is a touchy subject for a lot of people, but some of it just didn't sit right with me.

Despite the few smaller issues I had with the novel, If I Lie is one I really enjoyed reading. Emotional, gripping, and thought-provoking, it delicately blurs the lines between right and wrong. Quinn's story is one I know I'll be thinking about for a while!