The Best Liars in Riverview is by local debut author, Lin Thompson, a stunning new literary voice that tackles sexual orientation, identity, emotional abuse, and bullying with care and refreshing honesty.  This story answers the call for much needed diversity in middle grade.   The book features racially-diverse, nonbinary, and queer protagonists, and the author identifies as queer and nonbinary. Emotionally rich and fulfilling, readers of all ages will connect and sympathize with the characters’ struggling with feelings of isolation and loneliness, gender exploration, and the pain of losing a best friend.

More about the book: Aubrey and Joel are like two tomato vines that grew along the same crooked fence—weird, yet the same kind of weird. But lately, even their shared weirdness seems weird. Then Joel disappears. Vanishes. Poof. The whole town is looking for him, and Aubrey was the last person to see Joel. Aubrey can’t say much, but since lies of omission are still lies, here’s what they know for sure: For the last two weeks of the school year, when sixth grade became too much, Aubrey and Joel have been building a raft in the woods. The raft was supposed to be just another part of their running away game. The raft is gone now, too. Aubrey doesn’t know where Joel is, but they might know how to find him. As Aubrey, their friend Mari, and sister Teagan search along the river, Aubrey has to fess up to who they really are, all the things they never said, and the word that bully Rudy Thomas used that set all this into motion.

Lin Thompson (they/them) is a Lambda Literary Fellow of 2018. An earlier version of this novel was workshopped in Pitch Wars and it also received the Travis Parker Rushing Memorial Writing Award at Emerson College. Lin grew up in Kentucky but now lives in Iowa with their wife and cat. Visit them online at www.linthompson.com.