SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: This Story Is a Lie
WORK NOTES: Published as White Rabbit, Red Wolf in UK
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://tompollock.com/
CITY: London
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
LAST VOLUME: SATA 291
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3000519.Tom_Pollock http://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/author/Tom_Pollock http://darkfaerietales.com/review-citys-son-tom-pollock.html http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-citys-son-by-tom-pollock-reviewed.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in London, England.
EDUCATION:Sussex University, degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
AVOCATIONS:Travel.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Tom Pollock, a fantasy writer, bases his uncanny parallel worlds on his home city of London, England, highlighting that city’s rich history and unique allure. Influenced by the aesthetic of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, which is set in the shadowed subculture of London’s abandoned sewers and subway tunnels, Pollock produced the young-adult urban fantasy The City’s Son in 2012. The first volume in his “Skyscraper Throne” series, The City’s Son chronicles the adventures of a teen artist as she finds a dangerous refuge in the hidden parts of the city, and her adventures play out in apocalyptic fashion in The Glass Republic and Our Lady of the Streets.
In The City’s Son readers meet sixteen-year-old Beth Bradley, a graffiti artist whose recent school suspension has made life with her widowed father trend from bad to worse. Deciding to make it on her own, the teen flees into London’s darker corners, where she meets a bedraggled teen wanderer named Filius Viae. From him she learns about the parallel world existing underneath the city, a world where gods and goddesses as well as weird and monstrous creatures live alongside humans. In fact, Filius is a prince of this underworld, a son of the goddess Viae, who disappeared at the time of London’s Great Fire in 1666. Among the gods still in power, the most dangerous is Reach, god of limitless and heedless growth, who is intent upon Filius’s destruction. Known as the Crane King, Reach hopes to destroy London as it now exists and build a new city to reign over. Joining her new friend, Beth goes on a shared quest to amass an army capable of halting the Crane King and summoning Viae back from her slumber.
A reviewer for Publishers Weekly praised Pollock’s story in The City’s Son, writing that its setting—“a city transformed by ephemeral, incandescent magic”—comes to life in a text “gorgeously written and brimming with bizarre urban creatures.” “Compelling language and brisk dialogue add texture and humor,” noted School Library Journal critic Janice M. Del Negro, the critic adding that the glimmer of hope that drives the two teens amid a “violent war for survival” serves as “a potent invitation” for readers to delve into the other two “Skyscraper Throne” novels.
Pollock’s next novel, This Story Is a Lie, is a “thriller about murder, math and the mind,” Pollock stated in an interview on the Soho Press website. “It’s about a seventeen year old math prodigy called Pete, who suffers from severe panic disorder. He gets through each day with a mix of humor, math, and the help and love of his mother who’s a government research scientist,” he continued.
The novel’s protagonist, Peter Blankman, is completely committed to his mathematics studies. Nearly everything in his life is related to math, which he uses as a tool and an aid to help him navigate the mental illness that affects him. In addition to the support of his mother, Peter also gets important social and emotional help from his twin sister, Annabel, known as Bel, and his best friend, Ingrid.
Peter’s life is upended when his mother is attacked at a ceremony celebrating her scientific achievements. She is stabbed and seriously wounded in what is apparently an assassination attempt. Peter and his mother are saved by a team of rescuers who turn out to have deep secrets that also involve his mother. It turns out that she was part of a group of spies called 57, a covert organization with even deeper cover than Britain’s MI6. Her scientific research was integral to the group’s operation. In the turmoil surrounding the assassination attempt, Bel has gone missing. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Peter has to take a larger role in finding out what happened and where Bel has disappeared to, using mathematical theories and concepts to help him find the answers he needs. As the danger and mystery intensify, Peter realizes that he may not be able to trust the seemingly helpful 57 after all.
“Gripping, dazzling, and pulse-pounding, Pollock’s YA debut is a thrill from the first page to the last,” remarked School Library Journal contributor Tyler Hixson. The story’s “use of math is fresh and fascinating,” commented a Publishers Weekly reviewer. In assessing This Story Is a Lie, a Kirkus Reviews writer concluded, “Even the last page will keep readers wondering if there’s truth to the title.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2012, review of The City’s Son; June 15, 2018, review of This Story Is a Lie.
Publishers Weekly, August 13, 2012, review of The City’s Son, p. 70; June 11, 2018, review of This Story Is a Lie, p. 67.
School Library Journal, November, 2012, Janice M. Del Negro, review of The City’s Son, p. 115; June, 2018, Tyler Hixson, review of This Story Is a Lie, p. 93.
Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 2012, Cheryl Clark, review of The City’s Son, p. 284; August, 2018, Debbie Kirchhoff, review of This Story Is a Lie, p. 65.
ONLINE
Soho Press website, http://www.sohopress.com/ (August 1, 2018), “Heart-Soaked Experience: A Q&A with Soho Teen Author Tom Pollock.”
Strange Horizons, http://www.strangehorizons.com/ (January 25, 2013), Martin Lewis, review of The City’s Son.
Tom Pollock website, http://www.tompollock.com (October 3, 2018).
HEART-SOAKED EXPERIENCE: A Q&A WITH SOHO TEEN AUTHOR TOM POLLOCK
August 1, 2018
BY: SOHO PRESS
#TEEN
COMMENTS: 0
Share
By now, you’ve probably heard that Tom Pollock’s This Story is a Lie is an utterly absorbing, fantastic read.
“Unreliable. Unputdownable. Deeply empathetic …” is how bestselling author Marieke Nijkamp put it.
But we wanted to give you more context regarding the book’s origins and concepts, so we asked Tom a couple of questions and he was gracious enough to respond with answers that are, as is his custom, smart, insightful, and fun to read.
Enjoy.
What’s your new book about?
I call it a thriller about murder, math and the mind. It’s about a 17 year old math prodigy called Pete, who suffers from severe panic disorder. He gets through each day with a mix of humour, math and the help and love of his mother who’s a government research scientist.
When, at a ceremony to honor her for her work, Pete’s mum is put into a coma in a failed assassination attempt, Pete is thrust into the heart of a terrifying conspiracy, where he must grapple with his condition while trying to solve the mystery of who is attacking his family, and ultimately of his own past.
What attracted you to the idea/concept of the book?
This Story Is a Lie has three central themes: mental illness, math and spies.
I’ve lived with anxiety disorders, including an eating disorder, and panic attacks for most of my life. I wanted to write a story where the main character shared those experiences, and which rendered them faithfully, but where they weren’t the primary focus of the plot. Because one of the things your brain can sometimes tell you when you have a mental illness is: ‘this is all you are, this is all you will ever be, this is what your life is about.’ But that story (forgive the cheesy roll-credits title reference) is a lie.
Writing a book about a math prodigy was pure wish fulfillment for me. I’ve always been awed by math in a kind of celestial-music, language-of-the-universe kind of way, but never displayed any aptitude for the nuts and bolts, so getting to write about someone who was awesome at it, was really fun. Plus, I’ve always vaguely thought there was something inherently mathematical about story – we talk about them having an ‘arc’, and that’s a geometric object.
As for spies. I just love spy novels. I go to sleep most nights listening to a John Le Carre audiobook. Plus, an espionage theme meshes really well with the other two themes. Math fits well with code and code breaking, and an atmosphere of paranoia and conspiracy goes great with the anxiety theme.
What kind of research was required?
Well, as mentioned, while the mental illness part was largely based on my own experience (although I consulted some others) , the being-a math-genius part was sadly not, so I had to do a lot of research into math, and particularly into 20th C. Austrian logician Kurt Gödel, who’s fascinating, but tragic life story looms in the background of the book. Also there was research into spying: trade craft, kinds of codes, that was super fun.
Which books or authors influenced you while writing this book?
This is always a hard question to answer, because the truth is I think I’m influence by basically everything I read, but here are some salient ones that spring to mind:
Patrick Ness, especially The Rest Of Us Just Live Here, is a really beautiful example of how to write mental health into a novel where that isn’t the be-all and end-all of the narrative, and I really looked to that.
VE Schwab’s Vicious was an inspiration as a structurally ambitious thriller that weaved together different time periods in different orders, which is something This Story Is a Lie does.
The way John Green draws out the metaphorical resonance of Kantor’s discovery that some infinities are bigger than others in The Fault In Our Stars was definitely in my mind when I was setting out to do the same for Gödel’s proof that even math has holes in it.
And then John Le Carre and Robert Harris for just how to write a really good spy thriller and Frances Hardinge for how to write a really good story full stop.
Did anything not make it into the book that readers might find surprising or interesting?
There was one scene that got cut where the spy agency is planning a drone strike and Pete has to try to talk them out of it by calculating the odds of them saving lives if the target was a terrorist vs the odds of killing an innocent person if they’d misidentified him.
I wanted to explore the idea that when the government becomes convinced there are terrorists who have the intention and the ability to kill thousands, then they have an incentive to kill anyone they think might be one, even if they aren’t sure, because the consequences of letting them go are so potentially terrible. And that this incentive can lead to lots of innocent people getting killed as a result of poor intelligence and misidentification, but ultimately, I cut it because it wasn’t advancing the plot.
When readers finish the book, what do you hope they will think and feel?
First off, I hope they feel exhilarated, and entertained and that their hearts are beating out their chests, because that’s what every thriller writer wants😊
After that, if the reader is someone who has their own experience of mental illness, I hope they recognize something of their own experience in Pete, and that he makes them feel a little less alone with it. If the reader doesn’t have that experience, then I hope they get a little bit of a sense for what it feels like to not be able to trust your own mind.
It’s funny – I do a bit of work as an ambassador for a mental health organization called Talklife, and one of the things that involves is writing non-fiction about my experiences with mental illness (like this one: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/28/bulimia-hidden-in-men-pig-out-puke-after-gym-diagnosis). And one thing I’ve noticed is that people respond to such pieces with a lot of interest and sympathy, but not so much empathy. They stay at emotional arms-length. Fiction is completely different, fiction people immerse themselves in, they soak their hearts in the experience, that’s what it’s for, and I hope This Story Is a Lie lets them do that.
***
“INCREDIBLE. MY MIND IS BLOWN.”
–Katherine Webber, author of The Heartbeats of Wing Jones
POLLOCK, Tom. This Story Is a Lie
Tyler Hixson
School Library Journal. 64.6 (June 2018): p93.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
* POLLOCK, Tom. This Story Is a Lie. 336p. Soho Teen. Aug. 2018. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781616959111. POP
Gr 9 Up--Seventeen-year-old Peter Blank-man is a math prodigy. Math permeates everything in his life, including helping him deal with his almost-daily panic attacks. Peter survives largely with the support of his brilliant scientist mother; his twin sister, Bel; and his best friend Ingrid. When Peter watches an assassination attempt on his mother and her subsequent kidnapping, and then Bel disappears, a colossal panic attack strikes him down. He is swept up into a shady government conspiracy that revolves around his mom and Bel (and, bizarrely, Ingrid). None of them are anywhere near the people Peter thinks them to be. Whirlwind adventures across the country change Peter's perceptions of his family, his past, and who he actually is. Gripping, dazzling, and pulse-pounding, Pollock's YA debut is a thrill from the first page to the last. Peter is supremely amiable; a kid who just wants to be liked and understood and "normal" is painfully hiding behind all of the advanced math and nervousness and panic episodes. Credit should go to Pollock for making all of the hyper-advanced math reader-friendly as well. The final twist is well disguised and truly revelatory. An abrupt, ambiguous conclusion will frustrate some, intrigue others, and have many teens fiercely debating what really happened VERDICT A fast-paced STEM thriller, and a worthy choice for YA shelves.--Tyler Hixson, Brooklyn Public Library
KEY: * Excellent in relation to other titles on the same subject or in the same genre | Tr Hardcover trade binding | lib. ed. Publisher's library binding | Board Board book | pap. Paperback | e eBook original | BL Bilingual | POP Popular Picks
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hixson, Tyler. "POLLOCK, Tom. This Story Is a Lie." School Library Journal, June 2018, p. 93. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A540902970/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7fc8f253. Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A540902970
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535564895388 1/3
Print Marked Items
Pollock, Tom. This Story is a Lie
Debbie Kirchhoff
Voice of Youth Advocates.
41.3 (Aug. 2018): p65.
COPYRIGHT 2018 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
Pollock, Tom. This Story is a Lie. Soho Press, August 2018. 336p. $18.99. 978-1-61695911-1.
3Q * 3P * S * NA
The unreliable narrator, named Peter Blankman, has debilitating panic attacks and anxiety. Add to this the
fact that seventeenyear-old Peter has genius-level mathematics ability, and it is easy to understand his
struggle to deal with everyday reality. Peter is fortunate to have the unwavering support of his mother, who
is a brilliant scientist, and that of his polar opposite twin sister, Annabel. He has long been on a quest to find
a math equation to "fix" his anxiety and become more like his brave sister. He fills notebooks with his
research and equations. Just when it seems that Peter's narration will be an exploration of a teen's mental
health challenges, in a heartbeat, it becomes instead a fast-paced tale of kidnapping, murder, and espionage.
Who would want to attack Peter and Bel's mother at a ceremony to honor her scientific accomplishments?
Why has Bel vanished? How is Peter's only friend, Ingrid, involved?
This tumultuous story features family secrets, lies, and betrayal. There are many scenes of violence and an
unrelenting stream of plot twists in This Story is a Lie, making it a challenging read with a completely
unresolved ending, which may be frustrating for some readers.--Debbie Kirchhoff.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Kirchhoff, Debbie. "Pollock, Tom. This Story is a Lie." Voice of Youth Advocates, Aug. 2018, p. 65.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A551167848/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=32dce0c5. Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A551167848
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535564895388 2/3
Pollock, Tom: THIS STORY IS A LIE
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Pollock, Tom THIS STORY IS A LIE Soho Teen (Young Adult Fiction) $18.99 8, 7 ISBN: 978-1-61695-
911-1
Pollock (Life Inside My Mind: 31 Authors Share Their Personal Struggles, 2018, etc.) takes the unreliable
narrator to the extreme as an anxiety-ridden teen tries to elude deadly spies in this British import.
While Pete's panic attacks are unpredictable, he finds the predictable patterns of mathematics soothing. And
while he's often the object of bullying in their London school, his adventurous, rebellious twin sister, Bel,
serves as his protector. The white teen's also found camaraderie with Ingrid, an obsessive-compulsive
classmate who is a fellow math genius. After a difficult panic attack, Pete reluctantly agrees to attend an
award ceremony for his single mother, a notable scientist. Instead of accolades, however, his mother
receives a potentially fatal stab wound. As they are whisked away by a dubious team of rescuers, Pete learns
that this team really consists of spies known as 57 (even more covert than MI6) and that his mother's
scientific research is part of their operation. He also learns that Bel has gone missing. These shocking
revelations are just the start of unrelenting twists and turns that continue as Pete relies on various math
theories and Ingrid's help to escape and hunt for Bel before 57 takes all of their lives. Chapters that alternate
between past and present eventually merge together to provide more clues. Or do they?
Even the last page will keep readers wondering if there's truth to the title. (Thriller. 14-18)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Pollock, Tom: THIS STORY IS A LIE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A543008942/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7479b32b.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A543008942
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535564895388 3/3
This Story Is a Lie
Publishers Weekly.
265.24 (June 11, 2018): p67.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
This Story Is a Lie
Tom Pollock. SohoTeen, $18.99 (336p)
ISBN 978-1-61695-911-1
No one is as they seem in Pollock's YA debut. Peter, 17, uses his savantlike math abilities to parse his daily
experiences and cope with his severe anxiety. After his mother, a scientist, is nearly killed and his twin
sister, Bel, goes missing, Peter is kidnapped by his mother's colleagues (or maybe her would-be assassins),
and math becomes Peter's lens for deciding whom he can trust. This shape-shifter of a novel explores the
tragic cost of family secrets and lies. Its use of math is fresh and fascinating, but Pollock mashes Peter's
mental health issues into a spy/serial-killer/action/revenge/family story, which morphs among genres and
doubles back to cover Peter's personal backstory of being bullied and his close relationship with Bel.
Though flashbacks provide insight into Peter's past, they sap momentum--and because characters are
constantly lying and changing allegiances, it's challenging to keep everyone (and everything) straight. The
story offers a fascinating premise, but the unending action and disjointed narration result in a bumpy
reading experience. Ages 14-up. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"This Story Is a Lie." Publishers Weekly, 11 June 2018, p. 67. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A542967391/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=df38f0cf.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A542967391