A review by margaretann84
The Innocence Treatment by Ari B. Goelman
5.0
I was really, really lucky to win a copy of this book from the author in a Goodreads Giveaway.
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“The hardest lies to catch are the ones you want to believe” (206).
And that, my friends, is the most important line of The Innocence Treatment. You’re welcome.
Okay, maybe that’s exaggerating a bit. The entire book is important. No, really! It’s important…and funny and tragic and amazing, and I wish I could go back in time so I could read it all over again for the first time. It’s just that good.
I’m a sucker for unreliable narrators, and throughout the book I was trying to decide who to trust: Lauren, whose journal entries make up the bulk of the text; Brechel, the psychologist analyzing Lauren in the transcripts; Corbin, in the few times she shows up; Evelyn, with her teenage idealism and loathing for the Department; or Sasha, the spy paid to protect Lauren. Most of the story is told from Lauren’s point of view, so it’s hard to believe anyone but her is telling the truth, but in the transcripts we see a character who is as coldly calculating as Cumberbatch’s version of Sherlock Holmes (a comparison Lauren makes herself, I imagine with a wry grin). Evelyn admits in her notes that even she doesn’t know the exact truth about any of this, though she is naturally inclined to believe Lauren’s account than anyone else’s. Because of this uncertainty, the book kept me on my toes and had me compulsively turning pages long after I should have been in bed. The book called me all day while I was at work, whispering at me to read just one more paragraph before class started…
Full Review at A Writer Reads.
-----
“The hardest lies to catch are the ones you want to believe” (206).
And that, my friends, is the most important line of The Innocence Treatment. You’re welcome.
Okay, maybe that’s exaggerating a bit. The entire book is important. No, really! It’s important…and funny and tragic and amazing, and I wish I could go back in time so I could read it all over again for the first time. It’s just that good.
I’m a sucker for unreliable narrators, and throughout the book I was trying to decide who to trust: Lauren, whose journal entries make up the bulk of the text; Brechel, the psychologist analyzing Lauren in the transcripts; Corbin, in the few times she shows up; Evelyn, with her teenage idealism and loathing for the Department; or Sasha, the spy paid to protect Lauren. Most of the story is told from Lauren’s point of view, so it’s hard to believe anyone but her is telling the truth, but in the transcripts we see a character who is as coldly calculating as Cumberbatch’s version of Sherlock Holmes (a comparison Lauren makes herself, I imagine with a wry grin). Evelyn admits in her notes that even she doesn’t know the exact truth about any of this, though she is naturally inclined to believe Lauren’s account than anyone else’s. Because of this uncertainty, the book kept me on my toes and had me compulsively turning pages long after I should have been in bed. The book called me all day while I was at work, whispering at me to read just one more paragraph before class started…
Full Review at A Writer Reads.