An Academy for Liars

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of substance use, sexual content, suicidal ideation, animal cruelty and death, racism, emotional abuse, and mental illness.

On the day of her engagement party, Lennon Carter, the young woman who is the novel’s protagonist, unhappily stares into the mirrors that surround her as she gets ready. Her reflections pile up as the mirrors reflect each other. Lennon slaps herself, but one of her reflections does not mimic her action—instead, it smiles sinisterly and approaches the front of the mirror. Lennon thinks of this strange reflection as the “aberration.” The aberration appears directly behind Lennon’s main reflection; it wraps its arms around Lennon before kissing her neck. Unnerved, Lennon knocks a glass jar of cotton balls off the counter, breaking it. The sound prompts her fiancé Wyatt to check on her; he is annoyed that she’s already an hour late to the party. Lennon cleans up the glass shards and checks that the aberration is gone before trying to tell Wyatt about the incident, but he ignores her.

Lennon feels like an outsider at the party as acquaintances ask the same questions about her heritage and her past.