LIAR’S DICE
By: Juliet Faithfull
Published: April 28, 2026
Publisher: Random House
Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️

LIAR’S DICE is one of the first books published by the new publishing imprint Thousand Voices, founded by Jenna Bush Hager, which sets out to find fresh voices in all genres. JUNE BABY was also published by Thousand Voices.

“The mission of Thousand Voices Books is to pull up seats to the table for writers of all genres, from all walks of life. We’re so excited to discover emerging talent from all over the world and share their stories with as many readers as possible.”
Jenna Bush Hager

I’m always drawn to a sister story. Set in 1972 Brazil, 12-year-old twin sisters have been separated because one has a disabling illness. Dolores is struggling with not having her twin, Mita, around. The two spent every minute together, speaking their own language, and curling up next to each other until Mita started having seizures. After a particularly debilitating seizure, their parents decide to send Mita to live in a London hospital for disabled children. Dolores and her parents move to Rio de Janeiro, hosting parties where no one even talks about Mita, as if she no longer exists.

“You come in a pair, with two parents: You think you’re a package that will stay that way always.”

Dolores can’t read or write but is determined to learn. Her teacher, Mr. P, makes time to teach Dolores how to read. Dolores also befriends a classmate from the “other side of the tracks”. Dolores is exposed to a whole different lifestyle by spending time with Andrea, including drugs, prostitution, and poverty. Dolores resents her parents for seeming to remove Mita from their lives.

“Now I know how it feels: tiny shards of crystal, exploding inside. A heart doesn’t break, it shatters; like Mummy’s Czechoslovakian sherry glass did when it fell.

This is a slow-burn type of story without a propulsive plot point. I was drawn in by the 70s time frame, which I haven’t read much about, the political climate of Brazil at the time, and the sisters being split apart by their circumstances. I wanted to like this story, but I found some parts of the novel disappointing. I really loved that Mr. P was a supportive and trustworthy adult for Dolores and then, “Poof”, he was removed from her life. At the beginning of the school year, Dolores didn’t even know her letters, and then, in a short period of time, she was writing letters for cash and reading French poetry. It seemed a bit unlikely to me.

“I think of a comma as a breath, take a full breath; it’s a little curl in a sentence, like a hand saying slow down, Mita, slow down. Be careful, you might fall….There are no commas in Daddy’s world, no breathing spaces or pauses.”

I appreciated the dual timeline narrative and how the history of Mita’s illness was slowly revealed. I wanted to know more about their parents and their reasons for leaving Mita behind, which isn’t revealed until the very end. I also didn’t realize there was a glossary at the end of the book until I had finished. Many of the conversations are in Portuguese, and even though I could guess some of the words, it would have been nice to be able to look them up more easily. I would have put a glossary at the beginning of the book to make sure readers knew about it.

I wanted to love this story, but it fell short in a few places, which kept me from giving it more stars. Dolores was a spunky tween and a character I could easily root for. Dolores narrates the story, so I understood why many of the answers I was looking for were hidden. But it still made for frustrating moments while reading. Dolores’ determination to find her sister while never giving up hope that she would find her kept me reading and rooting for her until the end.

What Jenna said about LIAR’S DICE and choosing to publish it with Thousand Voices:

When I started Thousand Voices, I found myself searching for a love letter to twin relationships. I know how specific that is, but when Liar’s Dice came across my desk, it felt like something I had manifested.

JULIET FAITHFULL is a Spanish-British-American writer who grew up in Brazil. Liar’s Dice, her first novel, was a winner of the 2024 Irish Writers Centre’s Novel Fair and a semifinalist for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship. She was awarded a Pauline Scheer Fellowship by GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator program in Boston, and her short stories have been published in the Bellevue Literary Review and Urbanus Magazine. A graduate of Harvard University and Smith College School for Social Work, Juliet works as a trilingual psychotherapist and currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her two sons.

Click HERE to purchase a copy of LIAR’S DICE

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Thanks to the publisher for sending a copy of this book for this review. This review is my honest opinion. If you choose to purchase through the above links, I may receive a small commission without you having to pay a cent more for your purchase.