FICTION

NECESSARY LIES by Janice Daugharty (HarperCollins: $20; 176 pp.) Set in 1953 in the backwoods of South Georgia, the novel “Necessary Lies” walks the line between depth and pure melodrama. Not only is 17-year-old Cliffie Flowers poor, uneducated and pregnant, but the baby’s father, Roy Harris, is a brutal, duplicitious man. Still, Cliffie dreams of marrying him and escaping the repressive community where she has spent her life.

With the exception of Roy, who is relentlessly evil to the point of being boring, the characters in “Necessary Lies” neatly manage to avoid two-dimensionality in spite of their predictable situations. Unusual description and subtlety can make virtually any cliche magically original, and Daugharty does this beautifully.

Unfortunately, “Necessary Lies” runs into trouble toward the end, when Roy Weeks graduates from plain old evil to cartoonishly evil. A house is torched, people die, and secrets are revealed that, instead of being shocking, may cause many readers to roll their eyes. This is frustrating since, without all the pyrotechnics, “Necessary Lies” would have been a satisfying novel about a bright but ordinary girl trying to act from her best self in a scary situation.