The Lying Game by Sara Shepard
pages: 307
released: December 2010
publisher: HarperTeen
cover love: ♥♥
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 Goodreads)
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 8/25/2011 ON BOOKSLIKESTARS.NET
Review:
Truthfully, I had my doubts about this one. Initially, I heard some iffy reviews and the plot seemed too similar to her first series, Pretty Little Liars. But forty pages into it, I could have slapped myself for doubting this book because it was fantastic. It really had me hooked. It’s a fast, fun and entertaining read and if you’re a fan of PLL, then you will not be disappointed. The glamorous, ritzy lifestyles of girls that lead seemingly charmed lives filled with dirty secrets, revenge, jealousy and twisted, torturous games.
Emma Paxton and Sutton Mercer are twins. But neither knows the other exists. Until Sutton is murdered and the next thing she knows, she’s following around her doppelganger that lives in Las Vegas, in her most current foster home nightmare. A disturbing internet video of Sutton being strangled prompts Emma’s search for her look-a-like and she luckily she finds the answer she was looking for. A few Facebook messages and a bus ticket later, Emma is deposited in Arizona to meet up with long lost twin, Sutton Mercer. Sutton never shows up…but her friends do. Confused and worried, Emma just pretends to be her twin, only for a little while until Sutton contacts her with what to do next. After a few weeks in Sutton’s stilettos, Emma knows this much: Sutton is never coming back and she has to keep playing her dead twin or she’ll be one too.
Sutton can’t remember anything about before she died. Shadowing Emma through her former life, she learns that she wasn’t a very grateful or nice person. Anyone could of had it in for her. Family, friend, or foe but which one? And was the Lying Game, a series a awful pranks Sutton and her minions played on other people and each other, have any significance in her death?
The Lying Game is a thrilling story that will keep you reading and guessing until you flip the last page. I can tell this series is going to be full of twists and turns and I’m ready to get sucked back in with book two, Never Have I Ever. As you all probably know, ABC Family started a new TV show based on this series. I tried to watch two episodes but couldn’t get into it. I don’t know, something wasn’t clicking. I kept fast forwarding through the scenes and felt detached from all the characters. I care more about the book version than the TV one. Hey, it happens.
4