About This Book

National Book Award Winner
A School Library Journal Best Book
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults

When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than just good war stories. When movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes. She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him...until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two. As she begins to realize that almost everything she believed to be a truth was really a lie, Evie must get to the heart of the deceptions and choose between her loyalty to her parents and her feelings for the man she loves. Someone will have to be betrayed. The question is...who?

Praise for What I Saw and How I Lied

"...a taut, noirish mystery/coming-of-age story set in 1947; it's easy to picture it as a film starring Lana Turner, who is mentioned in these pages.Readers can taste Evie's alienation and her yearning; it's a stylish, addictive brew." — Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Blundell navigates this multidimensional plotline with unique, well-developed characters and insightful dialogue." — School Library Journal, starred review

"Blundell crafts a richly atmospheric period piece, reminiscent of the films that intrigue adolescent Evie, movies about worldly wise dames played by Joan Crawford or Barbara Stanwyck. The girl’s heartbreaking coming-of-age tale rings true as she brazenly joins the world of adult deception and lies yet manages ultimately to pull off her own small but significant stand for social justice. " — The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review

"Using pitch-perfect dialogue and short sentences filled with meaning, Blundell has crafted a suspenseful, historical mystery that not only subtly explores issues of post–WWII racism, sexism, and socioeconomic class, but also realistically captures the headiness of first love and the crushing realization that adults are not all-powerful." — Booklist