THE LYING GAME by Sara Shepard

In The Lying Game by Sara Shepard, there were many outstanding features. Things such as detail and character development made the book a success. When I began the story, I had high expectations due to another of her series, Pretty Little Liars, because it had an amazing plot and brilliant suspense-filled chapters. I fell for Shepard’s writing and just had to try her first in the series The Lying Game.

“Sutton had a life anyone would kill for. Then someone did.” Emma Paxton has been from foster home to foster home her whole life. When she discovers she has a long lost identical twin, Sutton Mercer, she hops on a train ASAP to meet her. When Emma arrives at Sutton’s hometown, everybody assumes Emma IS Sutton. Emma soon gets a death-threat note from a mysterious mastermind informing her that Sutton is dead and Emma is being forced to masquerade as Sutton or she’s next on the list. When Emma finds out about the Lying Game, a game Sutton and her friends play consisting of hard core pranks, she realizes that Sutton and her friends are more devious than she thought. Once the first prank of the Lying Game is played, Emma realizes that how her sister died could be a prank gone terribly wrong. Let the Lying Games begin.

Shepard made the plot of this novel so complex and intense that is was hard to put it down. It had a lot of sub-plots and description throughout the book. Those are qualities I find essential to having a decent storyline. That being said, I think The Lying Game has too much resemblance to Pretty Little Liars.The plot of The Lying Game has a very close resemblance to Wanted, the last in the Pretty Little Liars series. Although Shepard does write both books very well, I was looking forward to something different. Both novels had the murder-mystery plot to them.  I loved the novel regardless. The narrative voice of The Lying Game was a little hard to follow since Sutton, the dead twin, is the narrator. The way this book was written was foreign to me. I have never read a book that was written like The Lying Game was, so I had some trouble following the story at first. This passage gives an example of how Shepard wrote the novel in Sutton’s perspective.

“I watched Emma as she floated toward sleep, her face untroubled and unsuspecting. I wished we could have had one day together, one hour. I wished I could whisper in her ear and tell her what I knew for sure: Always sleep with one eye open. Never take anything for granted. Your best friends might just be your enemies. Most important, she shouldn’t trust a single thing she knew about me yet. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but something deep inside, something I couldn’t quite comprehend, told me I was the trickiest member of the Lying Game by far.”

Sutton can get into Emma’s head and tell her thoughts. In parts of the novel its a little hard to keep up with what Sutton is talking about: her own situation or Emma’s. To some people, it can be as challenging to follow as it was for me. Once I got into the book and got used to the way Shepard wrote, it was an amazing read. I enjoyed how easy it was to put myself into Emma’s shoes. Since I have never had any experience in Emma’s situation, it was a big part of the book to me.

             I would rate this book a 7 out of 10 because even though it had an outstanding plot, it lacked originality. I loved the book, but I wish it didn’t have such a close relation to her other series. When I finished, I felt like even though it is the first in a four-book series, the end was too abrupt. Shepard knows how to get the reader hooked, but it’s going to be hard to wait for the next book, Never Have I Ever, with so many unanswered questions.

Reviewed by Jenny McCrummen

8th Grade