Lies We Tell Ourselves is a book about labels and how a person looks at you and instantly decides who you are. Despite being set in 1959 during the American Civil Rights movement it is very relatable to our lives today; not exactly the topic, just the idea of being judged by appearance and then labelled with others’ opinions of you.
In this book Sarah is one of ten black students starting at an all-white high school and the white students, and even white teachers, don’t want them there. They do everything they can to get rid of them; from throwing things at them to calling them names or trying to fight them on their way out of school, they won’t stop at anything to send them back to the school they came from – the school just for African-American children that doesn’t get enough funding to even have the correct equipment.
Linda is one of the cruelest and her father is a segregationist who is set in his ways and can’t stand the thought of his daughter having to associate with someone of a different skin colour. So she follows in his footsteps and hurts the black children at the school, even those younger than her, and writes articles on how wrong it is for them to mix.
Then Sarah and Linda have to work together on a school project. And they both hate each other. At least to start with. Sarah should be afraid of Linda because of her skin colour, but she isn’t. Linda should hate Sarah because of her skin colour, but she doesn’t. Both girls start to feel something different between them and something that they can’t ignore. The something is more than friendship and all it takes is a secret kiss in a store room that both girls enjoy and everything starts to change. They both start to question everything they have ever been told. Can Sarah really trust a white girl after everything white people do? Can Linda really love a black girl despite everything her father says?
Besides, it will take enough strength for them to deal with being friends in a society so against race equality, never mind having to deal with people knowing that they are kissing. Just because their opinions of the world are changing doesn’t mean that the world will stop judging them and leave them be. Can they ignore everyone’s comments and spend time together in public despite being different colours? And can both girls come to terms with being lesbians in a society so quick to judge without even understanding? Read this novel for a tale that is so empowering that it changes your opinions of the whole world and it teaches you that perhaps we are all the same, no matter what people may say, and no matter who we are or what we look like or who we choose to love. We are still human. And we still deserve to be treated with equality.
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