This is a short, and essentially rather simple story at its heart, but my word, it is wonderful. 'The Gods Lie' is the story of 11 year old Natsuru Nanao, a football loving boy who has just moved to a new town with his mother, and Rio Suzumura, the tallest girl in their sixth grade class. Natsuru's football team has just accquired a new coach whom he dislikes, and in addition to this, he has been outcasted by one of the girls because he rejected one of them on Valentine's day, whereas Suzumura is isolated from everyone because of the secrets she carries- starting with the fact that she and her little brother Yuta live alone, their father being overseas working in Alaska. It is this secret that Natsuru finds out by chance, and thus a tenative friendship forms between Natsuru and Suzumura. This leads to him running away from attending football camp to stay with Suzumura for the summer, and that is when both other secrets get revealed and the tenative friendship turns into first love.
Now, I don't want to give any spoilers, so I won't give specifics as such, but the story works beautifully. The blossoming relationship between Natsuru and Suzumura doesn't feel particularly forced or contrived or even too old for their age- it works just right, and particularily with little Yuta in the mix too, seeing them together does at time seem to echo the potential families they should have had/ could possibly be in the future. They have a good chemistry together, and the moments they share, whether shocking or sweet, both serve to show this. And the other relationships in this work well too. Of course, given the shortness of the story, it is not as if we get very long in-depth studies of said relationships, but the story works well with the length it is given. I know I got very attatched to Natsuru, Suzumura (and Yuta) very rapidly, and for good reason. You cannot help but feel for the characters and somehow understand where they're coming from. And of course, there is a sense of being catapulted back to the different feelings of childhood- of how everything is new and intense, how you (usually) just live in the moment, and just how dependent you are on the adults around you and how that can make things fall apart when they don't come through as you'd always believed. It is wonderful.
As to how the story ends- it is tragic, but not in a big, bombastic way, but rather quietly. Not tragic in the typical sense, but there is a melancholy to it, almost a sense of defeat. I know I found myself wishing that they'd had a bit longer to enjoy themselves and each other before it all happened. Yet, it was inevitable. There isn't really any other way things could have ended for Natsuru and Suzumura. But, that end is not the end, as such, and the last page leaves us with a sense of hope for them.
To summarize: This is a short, but very sweet and sensitve story, and I would reccomend it over and over again.
