payment page
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Performance of Identity
In First Lie Wins, identity is not a fixed concept but something fluid and malleable, molded to fit the needs of the moment. Evie survives by embodying different roles and personas, adapting her behavior to fit seamlessly into various environments. Whether she’s Mia Bianchi working on a political campaign or Helen White infiltrating the Tate estate, she performs these identities so convincingly that her true self becomes increasingly obscured. This constant performance also highlights the emotional toll of never having a stable identity to return to—Evie becomes lost in the roles she plays, struggling to find meaning beyond them.
Class plays a significant role in how identities are performed throughout the novel. Evie’s ability to infiltrate high-class environments hinges on her skill at mimicking the behaviors and mannerisms of the wealthy. However, moments when she is perceived as “lesser,” such as when she’s mistaken for just a flower shop girl at a high-end event, grant her the power of invisibility. The characters she interacts with often perform class themselves—Ryan and his friends present an image of effortless wealth, pretending not to care about social standing while still adhering to its expectations. Their ability to move easily through elite spaces reinforces the theme that identity is a performance designed to maintain access to power and privilege. Evie’s interactions with this world show that success often relies not on authenticity but on the ability to perform roles convincingly. In a society where perception is everything, identities become costumes, and the ability to shift between them becomes a crucial tool for survival.
How Appearances Can Influence Reality
In First Lie Wins, a young Evie learns from her mother that appearances shape how others perceive and treat you. However, her mother’s lessons focused on enhancing her natural beauty, suggesting that appearance should reflect and magnify what already exists. Evie, by contrast, uses appearance to completely transform herself, crafting new identities to slip unnoticed into different roles. What begins as a tool for self-enhancement becomes a means of erasure, blurring the line between who Evie is and who she pretends to be.
The novel emphasizes how adopting the outward trappings of wealth and class allows Evie to move through upper-class spaces undetected. When she dresses the part of someone wealthy and confident, others assume she belongs—whether she’s wearing expensive clothes to flirt with Tate’s son or blending in at elite events by mimicking upper-class behavior. This ability to project affluence is essential to Evie’s survival, allowing her to navigate environments that would otherwise be closed off to her. A key moment in the novel highlights this: at a high-end event, an acquaintance doesn’t recognize her because they know her only as a flower shop girl, granting her the invisibility to eavesdrop and sneak around. Here, the novel reveals how appearances do more than just mask reality—they shape it. To others, Evie is defined by how she looks, not who she is, and she uses this superficial judgment to her advantage.
Ryan Sumner’s character also exemplifies the theme of appearance versus reality. Outwardly, he performs the role of a charming and respectable businessman, deeply embedded in his community’s social fabric. His polished exterior masks his involvement in illegal activities, showing how carefully curated appearances conceal darker truths. Just as Evie hides her real motives behind different identities, Ryan uses his public persona to compartmentalize his life, keeping his legitimate business and criminal dealings separate. This mirroring between Evie and Ryan underscores how appearances not only mask but actively construct reality. In both characters’ worlds, the line between truth and illusion blurs—how someone presents themselves often matters more than the truth they conceal.
The Blurry Line Between Truth and Deception
In First Lie Wins, the boundary between truth and lies is constantly shifting, with characters—particularly Evie—using deception to obscure or reveal deeper truths. Evie often tells lies that contain emotional truths while concealing the factual reality, and vice versa. This slipperiness is central to how she navigates her relationships and missions, allowing her to manipulate situations and protect herself. One striking example occurs when she tells Ryan she has no attachment to her furniture. On the surface, this is a lie—Evie didn't have any furniture in the apartment—but it also reflects an emotional truth, since she's never had any furniture she cares about, or a chance to build memories in a comfortable family home. In this way, the lie reveals more about her inner state than a direct truth would.
Evie’s relationship with Ryan is built on layers of these half-truths and carefully crafted deceptions. She withholds her true identity from him for most of the story, even as she reveals intimate, emotionally truthful aspects of her life—such as her strained relationship with her mother or her longing for stability. These moments of vulnerability allow her to create a sense of trust while concealing critical information. Similarly, when Ryan confesses his involvement in illegal activities, it creates the illusion of honesty, but he, too, withholds crucial truths. Their relationship becomes a reflection of the novel’s theme: truth and lies can coexist, and they’re often indistinguishable from one another.
The blurriness between deception and truth extends beyond personal relationships into Evie’s work as a con artist. For her, truth is not an absolute but a tool to be wielded strategically. She often gives people just enough truth to make her lies convincing. In the Atlanta police interrogation, for instance, Evie admits she has lived under a fake identity, but she frames it as the result of an abusive relationship—obscuring the real reason for her deception while still invoking a narrative of survival. This theme reflects how the characters' survival depends on their ability to obscure or reshape the truth, questioning whether truth can exist in a world built on deception.
