The Color of Lies

Gr 8 Up—Eighteen-year-old Ella Cleary can tell when you're lying. She is able to see colors that let her know the true emotions of any person she is talking to. That is, until she meets Alec. He makes Ella feel normal for the first time in her life and she finds herself drawn to him. However, Alec reveals that he is a fledgling journalist who has sought her out to solve the mystery of her parent's deaths in a fire 15 years earlier. Ella has always been told that their deaths were an accident. The only way for the protagonist to learn the truth is to find the killer. This is a well-constructed mystery and a quick read, taking place over the span of just a couple of days, with plenty of twists and turns to keep even the most distracted reader engaged. Where the story really shines, however, is in the development of its protagonists. The narrative is told from Ella's and Alec's alternating viewpoints. All the characters are fully developed. The chapters where Alec and his dad discuss Alec's actions, and potential consequences, play as genuine and honest conversations between a pragmatic father and his almost-but-not-quite-grown son. Even the members of Ella's ubiquitous best-friend Scooby Doo gang, which could have easily become derivative, are well-defined and multidimensional. This book will quickly take its place alongside Lyon's previous, well-crafted YA novels.