[Review] The Lying Game by Sara Shepard (#1)

Title: The Lying Game

Author: Sara Shepard

Publication: 7th December 2010

Publisher: HarperTeen

Source: NetGalley

Pages: 300

My Rating:

Blurb:

I had a life anyone would kill for.

Then someone did.



The worst part of being dead is that there’s nothing left to live for. No more kisses. No more secrets. No more gossip. It’s enough to kill a girl all over again. But I’m about to get something no one else does—an encore performance, thanks to Emma, the long-lost twin sister I never even got to meet.

Now Emma’s desperate to know what happened to me. And the only way to figure it out is to be me—to slip into my old life and piece it all together. But can she laugh at inside jokes with my best friends? Convince my boyfriend she’s the girl he fell in love with? Pretend to be a happy, carefree daughter when she hugs my parents good night? And can she keep up the charade, even after she realizes my murderer is watching her every move?

From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting new series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences.

Let the lying game begin.

My thoughts: 

Heads up--Sara Shepard is back, and her new series holds the same formula that made the Pretty Little Liars series so successful--mystery, secrets and pretty girls with no clue!!

Being a huge fan of the Pretty Little Liars series, I was so excited to read her new series, despite not having finished the PLL series. I tried not to read the blurb or any reviews, since I wanted my thoughts to be purely my own and not influenced in any way. I seriously don't even know what I should say.

This one is written in a strange way. Sutton Mercer, one of the twins, is dead right from the get-go, and she is the narrator. She sees everything through the eyes of Emma, the other twin, the one with the not-so charmed life; and so the perspective can be a little confusing at times, but I must commend Sara for the originality.
Sara's writing style remains generally the same as it had been all through her last series. Her prose is both simple and descriptive and easy to read. The dialogue is meaningful to the plot. The language allows the book to be recommended for 12+, but, same as with the Pretty Little Liars series, drugs and language are ever-present. Perhaps not quite as prominent, but it does push the age group to at least 16+.

In The Lying Game, Emma becomes homeless after her recent foster family throws her out for something she didn’t do. Shortly after, she discovers that she may have a long-lost twin, and so she travels in hopes that she may have a new home. What she doesn’t know though, is that Sutton has been murdered, and although she has come back as some form of spirit, she has been stripped of all possible memories. She doesn’t know who has killed her, and now Emma must live the life of Sutton: “no body, no crime”.
Anyone is suspect—but after a close encounter at a sleepover, it is absolute that someone who was very, very close with Sutton pulled it off, and if Emma is next if she doesn’t play along.

I loved the mystery elements, as well as the character interactions. So much of it frustrated me, just because Emma's life remains to be hard, even when she has been promised a better one. I loved Ethan. He's so sweet and charming, and it's sad but I reckon something is going to happen to him in the next book. There's a lot of cattiness going on with her friends. At this point, I'm not sure who did it—they all had motives.

Overall, this series is one you should keep a close eye on.

Buy:
Live in Australia?
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Live elsewhere?

Amazon | The Book Depository

I have received this review copy in return for an honest review.




Series:


Never Have I Ever (#2)
The Dead Life (#3)?

Learn more about The Lying Game and read more reviews at Goodreads!