Tommi Parrish's The Lie and How We Told It takes place in the span of one afternoon/evening, as two former friends from high school, now presumably in their 20s, hang out and catch up. It's all about the subtext in their awkward conversation, about the lies they told each other in high school about relationships and sexual desire, and how they're still weaving those lies today. In the middle of the book, one of the main characters stumbles across a graphic novella, and the story of the relationship in the novella provides a distorted mirror to what our protagonists are going through. Ultimately you can feel the characters' desires and pain, even if they're not conscious of them themselves.

Parrish's art is very interesting, portraying all characters as broad-bodied with small heads, creating gender ambiguity and fluidity. The novella art is crisp, black and white drawings that contrast to the colorful, painted main story.