LIE (Bock)

LIE
Caroline Bock, 2011
St. Martin's Press
224 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780312668327


Summary
Everybody knows, nobody’s talking.... Seventeen-year-old Skylar Thompson is being questioned by the police. Her boyfriend, Jimmy, stands accused of brutally assaulting two young El Salvadoran immigrants from a neighboring town, and she’s the prime witness. Skylar is keeping quiet about what she’s seen, but how long can she keep it up?

But Jimmy was her savior.... When her mother died, he was the only person who made her feel safe, protected from the world. But when she begins to appreciate the enormity of what has happened, especially when Carlos Cortez, one of the victims, steps up to demand justice, she starts to have second thoughts about protecting Jimmy. Jimmy’s accomplice, Sean, is facing his own moral quandary. He’s out on bail and has been offered a plea in exchange for testifying against Jimmy.

The truth must be told.... Sean must decide whether or not to turn on his friend in order to save himself. But most important, both he and Skylar need to figure out why they would follow someone like Jimmy in the first place. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Raised—New Rochell, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Syracuse University; M.F.A., City
   College of New York
 • Currently—lives on Long Island in New York

In her words
I feel like I've been writing all my life, and at the same time, that I'm just getting started.  I'm the co-author with my sister, Susan Blech, of the critically-acclaimed memoir, Confessions of a Carb Queen (Rodale, 2008). As a graduate of Syracuse University, I had the distinct honor of studying creative writing with Raymond Carver.  In 2011, I received my MFA in Fiction from The City College of New York, and I teach there as an adjunct lecturer in the English department.
 
Prior to focusing on my writing (and family),I headed the marketing and public relations departments at Bravo and IFC cable networks, and notably, was part of the team that launched The Independent Film Channel.

I was born in the Bronx, brought up in New Rochelle, NY by a father who raised four children by himself and am currently living on
Long Island in New York with my husband, two kids and 22 pound cat named Shelton.  I write novels, screenplays, poetry.  (From the author's website.)

Book Reviews
(Young adult.) Bock's (Confessions of a Carb Queen) first YA novel is a smart, topical story about a racially motivated hate crime, its far-ranging consequences, and the community determined to keep it under wraps. Skylar Thompson, a sensitive and complex loner, is deeply reliant on her boyfriend, Jimmy Seeger, a cocky, clean-cut jock. Shortly before their high school graduation, Jimmy and his best friend Sean are arrested for the vicious beating of Arturo Cortez, a young El Salvadoran mason, who subsequently dies of his injuries. Charismatic but cruel, Jimmy has been leading a gang that goes "beaner-hopping" on Saturday nights, assaulting Latinos for sick thrills. Skylar, who witnessed Jimmy's unprovoked attack on Arturo, suffers a crisis of conscience over whether to cover for her boyfriend; the lies Skylar and others are pressured to tell cut through the town like the Long Island Expressway the title plays on. Avoiding preachiness, Bock handles the novel's multiple viewpoints exceptionally well, rotating among the painfully believable voices of high school students and adults. Her characters may keep the truth inside, but their story reads like a confessional.
Publishers Weekly


(Grade 7 & up.) Skylar's life hasn't been the same since her mother died of cancer. The only bright light has been her relationship with her boyfriend, Jimmy, a Scholar-Athlete of the Year, but now he stands accused of assaulting two Salvadoran immigrants and she is the prime witness. The full story slowly comes into focus through the many different perspectives of people in a Long Island town that has seen its demographics change dramatically in recent years. Meanwhile, 18-year-old Skylar navigates her precarious position. As she puts the pieces together and ponders her own future, can she speak out against her boyfriend? And should she? Bock successfully captures a range of voices in addition to Skylar's, from teens close to the perpetrator to the victim's family and community members and richly develops this ripped-from-the-headlines tale. Within the larger picture of tension around illegal immigration is the lesser-known practice of "beaner-hopping," in which teens attack suspected illegal immigrants as a sick sort of sport. While readers are not given direct insight into Jimmy's views, he comes to life as a multifaceted person who unfortunately inherited many of his father's grudge-laden, bigoted opinions. Bock's debut will grip readers searching for complete realism in their fiction. —Jennifer Barnes, Malden Public Library, MA
School Library Journal


(Starred review.) This effective, character-driven, episodic story examines the consequences of a hate crime on the teens involved in it.... Realistic and devastatingly insightful, this novel can serve as a springboard to classroom and family discussions. Unusual and important. (12 & up).
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think Caroline Bock chooses to write all her characters in the first person? What effect does this point of view have on how you read, or experience, the novel?

2. What major question is posed to all of the characters? What choices and actions do these "first person" characters face? Discuss in broad terms the major problems of each character (both internal and external conflicts).

3. Spend particular time discussing the character of Sean Mayer, who makes a drastic and dramatic decision toward the end of the novel. (Spoiler Alert: Sean hangs himself after grappling with whether or not to tell truth about the hate crime. Discuss why suicide is never an answer to life’s dilemmas. How does his action influence others, including Skylar Thompson and her decision at the end of the novel?)

4. Two essential characters—Jimmy Seeger and Arturo Cortez—are seen only through the eyes of the other characters. Why do you think the writer chooses not to give them their own first person accounts? Do you feel it is more—or less—powerful to witness the incident through the eyes of Arturo's brother, Carlos, who is a legal immigrant?

5. What is the irony inherent in this hate crime—especially given that one brother is documented and one is undocumented? On what do Jimmey and Sean base their assumptions?

6. Talk about the ways in which the author explores peer pressure. How do we make our own choices in life--in the face of overwhelming pressure to follow what our parents, peers, and community believe? What happens when we come to understand, as Skylar does, that we no longer agree with what others close to us think?

7. Discuss the setting of the novel. Why is the town never named? What are the other key settings? How does the setting help define the characters?

8. By the novel's end—how do the characters change and what choices and actions have been resolved?

10. What overall themes in the novel are apparent?

11. If you were a character in a book, what would you have done? Who do you most relate to? Would you have followed Jimmy? Would you have come forth? Why or why not?
(Questions adapted from the publisher's Teacher's Guide.)

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