Review: Father of Lies

FATHER OF LIES
Ann Turner
Paranormal Young Adult
256 Pages
Harper Teen
Available February 8th
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY
It's winter in Salem, Massachusetts, and on the currents of the wind and blistering cold, some believe the devil himself has blown into town. Several young girls have fallen ill, subjected to fits in which their limbs flail about outside of their control and they claim to feeling needles stab at their skin. Those responsible for this witchcraft must be stopped before anyone else suffers.

Fourteen year old Lidda is unique among the girls of Salem. She doesn't wish to be a dutiful housewife, pregnant and obedient, but rather seeks the freedom to choose her own path. Adding to her unusualness is the arrival of a being in her room one night, granting her the ability to see truth from lie, and whispering to her that the girls of Salem Village are lying in their accusations.

Worried her admission to seeing a presence who calls himself Lucian and admitting she hears voices in her head will earn her a place in jail with the others accused of evil doings, Lidda struggles to get a grip on reality. She knows the girls are lying, but she's a single voice amidst a chorus of noise calling for the demise of the oppressors. Can one stand against many? Or will Lidda succumb to her affliction and go up in flames side by side with those who are innocent?

MY THOUGHTS
Father of Lies serves as a reminder of the extreme consequences when a voice is lent to untruths, shedding light on a period of history when the thrill of power and control overwhelmed reason and morality, leaving good people swinging from the end of a rope while the accusers spouted venom followed by half-hearted apologies. The story transports us to the middle of a brutally cold Salem Village, the freezing temperatures reflective of the icy cruelty of the young girls who vomit lies with little remorse. It is a study in fundamental human behavior, and though we are aware of the historical outcome, we can only read on with increasing anxiety as the young ladies get a taste for the influence typically denied girls of their station, and fight the bouts of nausea as the strength of their words has ramifications of epic and deadly proportions.

Lidda is an interesting protagonist, one who adamantly refuses to don the blinders the rest of the residents of Salem so eagerly wear, and refuses to easily fall prey to a dangerous mob mentality that results in irreparable damage. Though we're thankful to be privy to the mind of someone who sees the accusations as transparent falsehoods as opposed to solid truths, a connection to her never truly forms. Her thoughts are constantly churning as she struggles to discern fact from fiction and reality from hallucination, and we skip from thought to thought with little preparation for the move. Because she retreats into her mind at every opportunity, we are forced to live in the tangle of her mind with her, our access to the outside world and the other characters limited by the parameters of a possible bipolar disorder.

As a result of Lidda's issues, we experience the events of the trials only on the periphery, receiving snippets of information and rumors from third party mouths instead of first person experience. Though Lidda witnesses some of the girls' behavior first-hand, it's often in very short bursts and then she withdrawals either physically or mentally, and our exposure to the events is abruptly halted. The individuals carted away destined for jail or a noose remain distant and almost unreal entities, little more than names on a page as Lidda's interactions with them are practically nonexistent. As a result, our emotional attachment to the horror of the witch trials isn't quite as profound as it could have been were we able to witness the proceedings in additional dimensions. Because this story is a fictional retelling of the events, the opportunity to thrust us mind and soul into the middle of the action is there, but instead we delicately tiptoe around the outside as though careful not to disturb the historical facts any more than necessary, and we therefore see and hear through Lidda without being fully absorbed in the world.

Overall, Father of Lies is fascinating in its subject matter, and Lidda's battle with the voices in her head are engrossing, but there is something small missing that's keeping our emotional involvement at bay. We are only ankle deep in the story while wishing to be fully submerged, and with each page we struggle to wade deeper only to find that despite our efforts, we haven't moved an inch.

Rating: 3/5