Book Review: The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang

 This is another book I highly recommend for your TBR.  

I really enjoy S.L Huang.  I liked her retelling of the Chinese tale The Water Margin very much and I was looking forward to a new book from them. 

I have to admit when I saw the cover and the title, I was a little bit... skeptical.  (this is one cover that didn't pass the test for me.) 

For me this cover was maybe a bit too understated. It did not scream out to me - this book may re-arrange your entire thought processes about the way we relate to other humans and animals. 

BUT... hear me out- it might. 

There is a lot to unpack in this novella, and if readers take the time to do so, they will find themselves with a different perspective on colonialism, language and identity. 

Now, this may have some spoilers, but I'm going to try not to spoil it. 

Readers meet Ro, our main character, who's been nicknamed "cheerful disaster" by their elders. Ro seems to be just like me, until I realize Ro has 2 beautiful kind hearts, several stomachs, fur and claws and a hive life that's highly communal. Ro lives in outer space and is training to be a linguist and astral traveler. Ro is mostly wanting to do the right thing, and succeed within society, and one day- poof- Ro does it. 

Ro infiltrates another outer space society- the Star Eaters, and begins to send reports back. Soon, however, our adorable astral traveler starts to see things aren't as they should be. Like the cheerful disaster that Ro is- Ro burns it all down. There might not be a great conflagration, but...it's still.. something to behold in print or spoken word. 

Harris & Ewing, photographer. TORNADO. , None. [Between 1913 and 1917] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016853119/.

What follows is an aftermath that cannot be imagined. You'll really have to read this one. 

   What's unique is that there are no actual human characters that I could identify in the novella. None. 

  Readers have a fantastic, imaginative space adventure that removes the human element, and in doing so- gives us mere human readers a space to really examine what happens when we "study" another society, when we colonize, infiltrate and explore- even with the best, most cheerful intentions. Can a society, or an individual ever really- go back home? (and really- what is "home"?)

Narration of the audiobook (Thank you Dreamscape Media!!!!!) was done impeccably by Emily Woo Zeller.  As always I could sink right into the foreign world built by Huang- and Zeller's voice disappeared. At times I felt like I could smell the ozone smell of space! 

100% Recommend. 

STATS

First Published: 4/21/26

Pages: 176

Available as an Audio Book :  YES  ~ 4.5 hrs

Trigger Warnings:  violence, cultural death, outer space torture, bullying 

(this is not a full list, read responsibly)