I just came across a blog post from someone who’d borrowed a copy of Liar from their library in the US only to discover this:
So, last night I checked out Justine Larbalestier’s Liar out of the library. I curled up on the couch and happily got to page 34, only to discover that someone ripped out pages 35-36. Upon closer examination, I discovered someone did the same for pages 82-83 and 137-138.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a US edition of Liar here in Sydney and I confess I’m dying of curiosity to know what’s on those specific pages. Could one of you help me out? If you could give me the first sentence on page 35 & the last on page 36 and the same with pages 82-83 and 137-138 that would be deeply awesome. I can then look them up in the Oz edition I have here.
Thank you!
Update: Thank you so much for your incredibly fast response. Bless!
Update the second: I’ve gone through the pages and I can detect no pattern. I think whoever it was had very idiosyncratic reasons for vandalising the book. Maybe they just desperately needed paper? Odd.
P 35 -AFTER The only teacher who’s okay is my biology teacher.
Last on p 36- “Next, the cells cease aerobic…”
35 begins with:
AFTER
The only teacher who’s okay is my biology teacher.
36 ends with:
“Next, the cells cease aerobic respiration so they can’t”
137 begins with:
“You know, that’s a hard question to answer. The more”
and 138 ends with:
“sleeved shirts. We’d tried waxing, electrolysis, laser. The”
Start of 35: AFTER.
The only teacher who’s okay is my biology teacher.
End of 36: Next, the cells create aerobic respiration so they can’t mantain normal muscle biochemistry.
82: perhaps it would help to get away? It does not have to be w/ the Greats.
83: we say “he” or “him” or “his” but never “Zach”.
137: you know, that’s a hard question to answer.
138: when the medication wasn’t working I wore pants and long sleeved shirts.
p 82 and 83 aren’t back to back pages.
81 “…him right there at the kitchen table. I would love to watch his head fall into his syrup-drowned bacon.”
end of 82 – “She slides in next to me as if we’re friends.”
p 83 – Why is she talking to me about whether Zach loved her?”
end of p 84 – “covering myself in lies makes me cynical”
35-36: “The only teacher who’s okay is my biology teacher.” through “‘Next, the cells cease aerobic respiration so they can’t…'”
82-83: These are facing pages, not one leaf. 82 begins with “…so foul. Perhaps it would help to get away?” and 83 ends with “We say ‘he’ or ‘him’ or ‘his’ but never ‘Zach.'”
137-138: “‘You know, that’s a hard question to answer.'” through “(We tried waxing, electrolysis, laser. The…”
The beginning of page 82 is the last page of an ‘after’ chapter, where Micah’s parents are trying to convince her to go up to the Greats. Then the end of 82 to 82 is another ‘after’ chapter in which Sarah talks about how she doesn’t think her boyfriend ever loved her. 83 ends with, “We say ‘he’ or ‘him’ or ‘his’ but never ‘Zach.'”
Wow. That was quick! Thank you!
Forgot the other one, but 82 and 83 are facing pages, so I’m not sure what’s going on here.
81 begins:
“him right there at the kitchen table. I would love to”
82 begins:
“so foul. Perhaps it would help to get away? It does not”
83 begins:
“we’re not? Why is she talking to me about whether Zach”
84 ends:
“what I’m not; covering myself in lies makes me cynical. I”
Hope that helps.
Page 35: The only teacher who’s okay is my biology teacher.
Page 36: “Next, the cells cease respiration so they can’t maintain normal muscle biochemistry.
Page 82: Perhaps it would help to get away?
Page 83: We say “he” or “him” or “his” but never “Zach.”
Page 137: “You know, that’s a hard question to answer.”
Page 138: (We’d tried waxing, electrolysis, laser.
I hope this helps!
page 35 starts with “AFTER The only teacher who’s okay is my biology teacher.”
page 36 ends with “‘Next the cells cease aerobic respiration so they can’t”
page 82 begins: “so foul. Perhaps it would help to get away?”
page 83 ends: “We all say ‘he’ or ‘him or ‘his’ but never ‘Zach’.”
Note: in my edition (hardcover, 1st edition), pages 82 & 83 are opposite facing pages, not front & back of same page.
page 137 begins: “‘You know, that’s a hard question to answer.'”
Page 138 ends: “(We’d tried waxing, electrolysis, laser. The”
I literally had it sitting right next to me when I saw your tweet. 🙂
p35 begins: “AFTER – The only teacher who’s okay is my biology teacher. Yayeko Shoji doesn’t coat things in sugar.” p36 ends“Next, the cells cease aerobic respiration so they can’t (p37) maintain normal muscle biochemistry.”
p82-83 are two different sheets, so I’ll give the start to p81, end p82, start p83, and the end of p84:
p81= “him right there at the kitchen table. I would love to watch his head fall into his syrup-drowned bacon.”
p82= “She slides in next to me as if we’re friends. How can she have forgotten how much we’re not? (p83) Why is she talking to me about whether Zach loved her?
p84= “I suspect my cynicism comes from pretending to be what I’m not; convering myself in lies makes me cynical.”
p137 begings: “You know, that’s a hard questions to anser. The more reseach I’ve done on this…” p138 ends: “When the medication wasn’t working I wore pants and long-sleeved shires. (We’d tried waxing, elextrolysis, laser.”
——
Hope that helps!
82 starts with
“so foul. Perhaps it would help to get away? It does not have to be with the greats.”
and 83 ends with
“name. We say “he” or ‘him’ or ‘his’ but never ‘Zach.'”
Looks like I’m too slow in digging out my copy. Hope you have what you need.
Who would do such a thing to a poor, defenseless library book?
These are facing pages rather than front and back, so I’m not sure they’re right, though it is the first U.S. edition.
p82: Perhaps it would help to get away?
p83: We say “he” or “him” or “his” but never “Zach.”
These are front and back.
p137: “You know, that’s a hard question to answer.
p138: We’d tried waxing, electrolysis, laser.
Hope that helps 🙂
Page 35 starts with “The only teacher who’s okay is my biology teacher.” and 36 ends on “Next, the cells cease aerobic respiration so they can’t . . .”
82 and 83 are facing pages, so 81 and 84 would also have been ripped out. 81 begins on “I would lave to watch his head fall into his syrup-drowned bacon” and 84 ends with ” I suspect my cynicism comes from pretending to be what I’m not.”
137 starts with “You know, that’s a hard question to answer.” and 138 ends with “(We tried waxing, electrolysis, laser.” 137 is ironically mostly about censorship.
It’s a shame that someone would do that to a library book, or any book for that matter. Hope this helps!
Oh I missed it, but I have the book sitting in my book basket as we speak. Someone did that to a book I had read and I still keep thinking that the most important info was contained on those pages.
With a book like Liar, you really can’t afford to have any pages missing.
Tearing the guts out of books? That’s like book murder! And now I all I want to know is why someone would do that. There had better be a really good reason involving maybe saving the world.
A little late to the game, but now I’m dying to go back and re-read what’s in those pages. (Which means it must be a good time for me to re-read the rest of the book. I knew this day would come. Excellent.)
Something super weird is going on here. I was reading Ally Carter’s Heist Society and there was something missing from that, too. And it was the Australian edition! It didn’t seem like it could have been more than a couple of sentences, though. No page numbers missing
Human error? Computer virus? Random attack on literature?
Oh wow, I just came across this blog post, very odd to see myself quoted. 🙂 I think I made a mistake with page numbers, and it was either 81-82 or 83-84. In any case, I looked at all those pages in another copy, and I can’t figure out why anyone would rip them out. Then again, I don’t really understand why anyone would deface any book.
On a more joyful note, I finished Liar yesterday. It’s an excellent book! Definitely one of my YA favorites now.