Lie Until It's True

by Jessie Weaver

Overview

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder meets Knives Out in this haunting YA thriller. To redeem herself, true crime TikToker Amanda Pruitt spends the summer in Colorado investigating a murder that seems open and shut. But when two crimes—one past, one present—intertwine, Amanda becomes the main suspect.

Amanda Pruitt needs redemption. She is the one, after all, who turned her sister in for murder and anonymously broadcasted her trial to millions on TikTok. And she was wrong. Her sister is innocent, making Amanda the villain—not the hero—all along.

So when her childhood best friend's mom is arrested for murdering an eccentric billionaire and refuses to give a statement, Amanda decides to help solve the crime. This could be her second chance. If she can use her TikTok to get the public on her friend's side, the police will have to reopen the investigation.

The plan? Stay the summer with her aunt who is the concierge at the Summit, a historic (read: haunted) hotel in the mountains that also happens to be the scene of the crime. Investigate the billionaire's murder. Win back her estranged bestie Vince.

Not the plan? See a ghost. Fall for Vince. Black out and lose 15 minutes of her life. Wake up to find the dead body of a frenemy.


Amanda and Vince must work together to find the killer, or Amanda risks going down for a murder she isn't quite sure she didn't commit. Set in a possibly haunted hotel and including TikTok interstitials, this is the perfect follow up to Live Your Best Lie.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781368078412
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/07/2024
Series:	Like Me Block You
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	42,351
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Before writing about flawed, funny teens with big hearts, Jessie Weaver spent ten years teaching them English. She completed the Stanford University online novel writing program in 2019. Though she’s an East Coast girl at heart, originally from Baltimore, MD, she currently lives just outside Denver, Colorado with her husband and two daughters. Live Your Best Lie is her first novel.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Jessie Weaver crafts a pulse-pounding new mystery where secrets and deception intertwine, a thrilling follow up to her unputdownable debut with even more suspects and entanglements!”

—Melissa de la Cruz, #1 New York Times bestselling author



LIE UNTIL IT'S TRUE is a twisty murder mystery chock-full of tropes I adore: found family, an old, creepy hotel with a haunted past, and a friends-to-lovers romance. But best of all are Weaver's characters, who are so well-rounded that even when you're mad at them, you still love them. Readers be warned: once you open up this book, you're not going to be able to put it down."
 
 
—Liz Lawson, New York Times bestselling author of The Agathas, The Night in Question and The Lucky Ones

Editorial Reviews

"An engrossing, sprawling whodunit." -Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

05/01/2024

Gr 8 Up—Four friends, two dead bodies, and one vengeful ghost await readers in this second installment of Weaver's "Like Me Block You" series. Amanda Pruitt is finally back in Colorado at her aunt's famously haunted mountaintop hotel for the summer after three years away. She's ready to turn her life around after getting her sister arrested for a crime she didn't commit, then secretly broadcasting the trial on TikTok. Her plan? Help friend (and potential flame) Vince Sanchez-Reyes exonerate his mother, who was found at the hotel holding a literal smoking gun by the body of local billionaire Royden Das. Amanda, Vince, and their friends Mallory and Cole will go to great lengths to discover the truth—including inviting a ghost hunter reality show to the hotel. The four, all of whom present white except for dark-haired, brown-skinned Vince, face a tangled web of lies and deceit that could sink or save the fortunes of the Summit Hotel as well as the Sanchez-Reyes family. When a second body is discovered on the grounds and Amanda becomes the main suspect, pressure mounts to get to the bottom of things once and for all. VERDICT For fans of Weaver's first novel, especially those who enjoy a complex mystery à la Knives Out with a hint of the paranormal.—Darla Salva Cruz

School Library Journal

2024-02-17
A Los Angeles teen whose sister has just been found not guilty of murder becomes embroiled in another mystery in this follow-up to Live Your Best Lie (2023).

Amanda’s life has been a mess with all that’s happened with her sister, not least because Amanda started posting anonymously on TikTok about it—and now that Cora’s been exonerated, Amanda worries she’ll find out she’s behind the account. Amanda has struggled in Los Angeles, missing longtime friends Mallory, Cole, and Vince, who are in Colorado. Trying to escape the glare of media attention, Amanda flees to the Colorado mountains to stay with her aunt, who works at Mallory’s family’s hotel. But her friends have also had a rough few years. Vince’s mother is in jail, charged with the murder of Lillia Das’ grandfather. (Lillia’s a peer on the fringe of their group, and someone with whom Amanda shares a secret bond.) Readers will easily sympathize with Amanda’s earnest third-person voice. Many more secrets twist their way through this story involving several families in an insular tourist town, a true-crime documentary producer wanting to feature the Das case, and a ghost story connected to the hotel. Weaver packs a lot into this page-turner, interspersing flashbacks and online speculations about the various cases and leaving readers guessing throughout. Amanda, Mallory, and Cole are cued white; Vince is Latino, and Lillia is from Kolkata.

An engrossing, sprawling whodunit. (Mystery. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews