Lies My Girlfriend Told Me is a tale of teenage lesbian romance and betrayal.  Alix is 16 and Swanee was her first girlfriend.  Swanee was on the track team but she just died unexpectedly, of a weak heart.  Alix believes she is grief-stricken and acts both selfishly and dramatically, despite the fact that they were only dating for 6 weeks and they had never had sex.  Alix’s mother works as a nurse in a neo-natal ward and her father stays home working as an internet consultant, so he does a lot of caring for Alix’s little brother, while Alix spends her time texting and crying.  Maybe the most satisfying part of the plot is how Alix matures through the story, and starts to take on more responsibility.  The main plotline has Alix discovering Swanee’s lies about her life: she discovers that her girlfriend never broke up with her previous girlfriend Liana, and Swanee was cheating on them both.  She also used pot a lot and had a dysfunctional family. Alix gradually comes to see how Swanee was not as perfect as she thought.  She finally encounters Liana, and after a rocky start they discover they have a lot in common. 

The characterization is weak and the plot is implausible, but at least the book grapples with a number of issues, including trust, sexuality, maturity, family loyalty, grief, and love.  By the end of the story, Alix thinks she has true love again, but there’s not much reason to think she is much more mature after a few months. Maybe teen girls readers will find Alix a sympathetic narrator, but it is hard to imagine that any readers will not find her tiresome and immature.  The unabridged audiobook is performed by Christine Lakin, who has a good range of voices, but doesn’t quite carry off the emotional rollercoaster that is Alix’s life. 

© 2014 Christian Perring

Christian Perring, Professor of Philosophy, Dowling College, New York