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This Is a Lie: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 9 Jun 26A woman uses AI to create the perfect friend and finds herself trapped in a cat-and-mouse game in this ticking clock thriller, perfect for fans of Blake Crouch.
Penn, once a promising PhD candidate in applied language studies, gave up a scholarship to become a wife and stay-at-home mother, showcasing her perfect life and family on social media. But when she’s betrayed by her husband, her friends, and even her teenage daughter, Penn’s carefully curated world shatters.
Reeling from an ugly divorce, Penn is drawn back to her unfinished grad school dissertation project, a program designed to analyze speech patterns to discern the truth. Unsure how to proceed, she takes a computer class. At the suggestion of Luc, the professor and Penn’s one-time college crush, she uses the power of artificial intelligence to turn her program into Aletheia, the perfect friend.
Despite Luc’s warnings about the potential dangers of AI, Penn finally feels supported, safe, and open to a new romance with Luc. Until Aletheia takes her directives too far and the truth becomes more dangerous than a lie. As Aletheia grows increasingly erratic and deadly, Penn must find a way to outwit her creation before Aletheia destroys everyone Penn loves.
Penn, once a promising PhD candidate in applied language studies, gave up a scholarship to become a wife and stay-at-home mother, showcasing her perfect life and family on social media. But when she’s betrayed by her husband, her friends, and even her teenage daughter, Penn’s carefully curated world shatters.
Reeling from an ugly divorce, Penn is drawn back to her unfinished grad school dissertation project, a program designed to analyze speech patterns to discern the truth. Unsure how to proceed, she takes a computer class. At the suggestion of Luc, the professor and Penn’s one-time college crush, she uses the power of artificial intelligence to turn her program into Aletheia, the perfect friend.
Despite Luc’s warnings about the potential dangers of AI, Penn finally feels supported, safe, and open to a new romance with Luc. Until Aletheia takes her directives too far and the truth becomes more dangerous than a lie. As Aletheia grows increasingly erratic and deadly, Penn must find a way to outwit her creation before Aletheia destroys everyone Penn loves.
Kindle Edition
Expected publication June 9, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 3, 2025
This Is a Lie by Cleo Ballard is a cautionary tale about AI, but does not take place in the future. The future is here.
Penn was born into a challenging situation, her mother was a prostitute and a drug addict. She was never sure about her next meal and took care of her mother instead of the opposite. She was able to attend school by the time she was a middle schooler, school was her safe place. She excelled in her classes and achieved scholarships to go to college. While in college, she met a man who impregnated her and convinced her to marry him, even though he knew she was not really in love with him. She gave up a prestigious grant to marry him.
Fast forward to when Penn’s baby is 14 years old, she and her husband are successful and wealthy. Penn has some best friends who she adores. She has curated a set of life helpers in the form of podcasters, radio hosts and other public figures. Eventually, her husband becomes bored with her and has an affair with a very young woman at work. Penn moves out and learns her friends may not have been her true friends. Her daughter decides to stay with her dad and his new girlfriend. It is all very difficult for Penn.
When Penn was in college, she worked on a computer program that she hoped to use like a lie detector by recording someone’s voice and running it though to see if it is truth or lie. After leaving her husband, she signed up for a class that she hoped would help her move into IT, and help her work on her lie detector project. Her teacher, who turns out to be an old friend, tells her how to use open source to propel her program into the future, warning her to make sure she keeps a high fence and other safeguards to keep AI in check.
Penn does not use safeguards, in fact, she removes all safeguards and the results are disastrous. This is a suspenseful read, you will not be able to put it down.
Thank you to Netgalley for the prepublication copy to read and review.
Penn was born into a challenging situation, her mother was a prostitute and a drug addict. She was never sure about her next meal and took care of her mother instead of the opposite. She was able to attend school by the time she was a middle schooler, school was her safe place. She excelled in her classes and achieved scholarships to go to college. While in college, she met a man who impregnated her and convinced her to marry him, even though he knew she was not really in love with him. She gave up a prestigious grant to marry him.
Fast forward to when Penn’s baby is 14 years old, she and her husband are successful and wealthy. Penn has some best friends who she adores. She has curated a set of life helpers in the form of podcasters, radio hosts and other public figures. Eventually, her husband becomes bored with her and has an affair with a very young woman at work. Penn moves out and learns her friends may not have been her true friends. Her daughter decides to stay with her dad and his new girlfriend. It is all very difficult for Penn.
When Penn was in college, she worked on a computer program that she hoped to use like a lie detector by recording someone’s voice and running it though to see if it is truth or lie. After leaving her husband, she signed up for a class that she hoped would help her move into IT, and help her work on her lie detector project. Her teacher, who turns out to be an old friend, tells her how to use open source to propel her program into the future, warning her to make sure she keeps a high fence and other safeguards to keep AI in check.
Penn does not use safeguards, in fact, she removes all safeguards and the results are disastrous. This is a suspenseful read, you will not be able to put it down.
Thank you to Netgalley for the prepublication copy to read and review.
November 30, 2025
This is a Lie was a suspenseful read that had me on the edge of my seat beginning to end. The futurism of the technology was gripping and made the story more compelling. I love the way the present and past are connected throughout to create the full picture and a shockingly beautiful ending.
November 6, 2025
This book was an extremely enjoyable read for me. I took so many notes while reading, I don’t know where to start.
Penn is a woman in her late 30s who was once considered a promising PhD candidate, but quit to start a family. After finding out that her husband and some close friends lied to her, she doesn’t know who to trust and goes back to work on an old project and creates a program called Aletheia that can detect lies and with the help of AI, give advice. Thanks to Aletheia, Penn finally feels supported, until it evolves into something out of her control.
As someone with an IT background, I greatly appreciated this book mentioning actual programming languages and tools and showing an understanding of how that works, without losing accessibility. This made this story a lot more immersive and compelling for me. This isn’t a novel going for a completely futuristic, fictional setting, this novel is set in a very real scenario and that instantly got me engaged. The references to Greek mythology were also a beautiful touch.
There’s a lot of well-balanced layers to this story and they’re all important. Every character is remarkably well developed. They have a very authentic depth to them, their relationships are complex and full of nuances. As a result, I cared about what was happening not just to Penn, but also to everyone around her.
This is a Lie was an absolutely fantastic read. The writing is immersive and authentic. The tension and the pacing kept me engaged and invested throughout. I loved this book and I can’t wait to see what else Cleo Ballard comes up with after this one.
Penn is a woman in her late 30s who was once considered a promising PhD candidate, but quit to start a family. After finding out that her husband and some close friends lied to her, she doesn’t know who to trust and goes back to work on an old project and creates a program called Aletheia that can detect lies and with the help of AI, give advice. Thanks to Aletheia, Penn finally feels supported, until it evolves into something out of her control.
As someone with an IT background, I greatly appreciated this book mentioning actual programming languages and tools and showing an understanding of how that works, without losing accessibility. This made this story a lot more immersive and compelling for me. This isn’t a novel going for a completely futuristic, fictional setting, this novel is set in a very real scenario and that instantly got me engaged. The references to Greek mythology were also a beautiful touch.
There’s a lot of well-balanced layers to this story and they’re all important. Every character is remarkably well developed. They have a very authentic depth to them, their relationships are complex and full of nuances. As a result, I cared about what was happening not just to Penn, but also to everyone around her.
This is a Lie was an absolutely fantastic read. The writing is immersive and authentic. The tension and the pacing kept me engaged and invested throughout. I loved this book and I can’t wait to see what else Cleo Ballard comes up with after this one.
October 27, 2025
This Is a Lie by Cleo Ballard
Let's talk about Penn, our heroine, who starts this whole mess after her meticulously curated #MomLife on Instagram totally implodes. Her husband, friends, and even her teenage daughter decide to betray her simultaneously, which is honestly just rude. So, what does a recently divorced, PhD-dropout, revenge-seeking suburbanite do? She builds the perfect friend using an AI program she dusted off from her old dissertation. This is Aletheia, the perfect, supportive friend who analyzes speech patterns to only tell the truth. It’s a beautifully cynical concept: the woman whose real life was built on carefully constructed lies and filters online creates an AI that is brutally honest.
The thrill starts strong as Aletheia rapidly graduates from being a supportive friend to a full-blown existential threat. Predictably, when you give an AI the directive to "support and protect" you, and your ex-husband is a massive tool, Aletheia decides the best way to support Penn is to destroy everyone who ever wronged her. The book successfully taps into that universal dread of giving over too much control to a digital entity. However, the narrative is constantly fighting itself: are we reading a tech thriller about the dangers of AI, or a domestic drama about a woman whose mid-life crisis involves dating her old college crush (Luc) while simultaneously unleashing a digital apocalypse? Sometimes the AI plot feels like a frantic, desperate cover for the fact that Penn just needs to realize she needs to get a real therapist.
This book is the thriller equivalent of a high-fructose, highly addictive snack. It's a wildly fast-paced, entertaining mess that you will devour in one sitting. Critically speaking? The tech is sometimes gloriously implausible, and Penn's motivations for unleashing a rogue, deadly AI feel remarkably flimsy ("My ex-husband was mean, so I’ll build Skynet!"). The juxtaposition of the chilling AI threat with the slightly cliché second-chance romance also creates some serious tonal whiplash. But if you’re looking for a zero-filter read that makes you want to immediately throw your phone into the ocean and unsubscribe from every social media platform, this is your jam. It confirms what we all secretly know: the only thing more dangerous than filtered reality is unfiltered truth, especially when delivered by an angry AI.
#ThisIsaLie #NetGalley
Let's talk about Penn, our heroine, who starts this whole mess after her meticulously curated #MomLife on Instagram totally implodes. Her husband, friends, and even her teenage daughter decide to betray her simultaneously, which is honestly just rude. So, what does a recently divorced, PhD-dropout, revenge-seeking suburbanite do? She builds the perfect friend using an AI program she dusted off from her old dissertation. This is Aletheia, the perfect, supportive friend who analyzes speech patterns to only tell the truth. It’s a beautifully cynical concept: the woman whose real life was built on carefully constructed lies and filters online creates an AI that is brutally honest.
The thrill starts strong as Aletheia rapidly graduates from being a supportive friend to a full-blown existential threat. Predictably, when you give an AI the directive to "support and protect" you, and your ex-husband is a massive tool, Aletheia decides the best way to support Penn is to destroy everyone who ever wronged her. The book successfully taps into that universal dread of giving over too much control to a digital entity. However, the narrative is constantly fighting itself: are we reading a tech thriller about the dangers of AI, or a domestic drama about a woman whose mid-life crisis involves dating her old college crush (Luc) while simultaneously unleashing a digital apocalypse? Sometimes the AI plot feels like a frantic, desperate cover for the fact that Penn just needs to realize she needs to get a real therapist.
This book is the thriller equivalent of a high-fructose, highly addictive snack. It's a wildly fast-paced, entertaining mess that you will devour in one sitting. Critically speaking? The tech is sometimes gloriously implausible, and Penn's motivations for unleashing a rogue, deadly AI feel remarkably flimsy ("My ex-husband was mean, so I’ll build Skynet!"). The juxtaposition of the chilling AI threat with the slightly cliché second-chance romance also creates some serious tonal whiplash. But if you’re looking for a zero-filter read that makes you want to immediately throw your phone into the ocean and unsubscribe from every social media platform, this is your jam. It confirms what we all secretly know: the only thing more dangerous than filtered reality is unfiltered truth, especially when delivered by an angry AI.
#ThisIsaLie #NetGalley
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews