Tuesday, March 1, 2011

The Lying Game by Sara Shepard -- a review by Hope Austin

The Lying Game
by Sara Shepard
***

There are only two things Emma Paxton and Sutton Mercer have in common. They look exactly alike, and both want to find out who murdered Sutton. Sutton is a ghost, following Emma around, trying to make sense of what happened. Emma is a foster kid trying to survive the next school year with her hellish foster family. Through a series of of convoluted events, Emma ditches her Nevada foster family and winds up in Sutton's hometown of Tuscon, Arizona. Emma is instantly mistaken for Sutton and introduced to the lifestyle of the rich and fabulous. Even though Emma knows next to nothing about Sutton, she tries to adjust as best as she can. Although Sutton and Emma can't communicate, they both desperately try to find the answer to one question : Who was Sutton Mercer, and why would somebody want to kill her?

If you're going to read this book, you'll need to have a strong suspension of disbelief, or you'll be staring at the book saying, "You have got to be kidding me." Even so, it was a fun quick read. If you're looking for a book with a deep meaning, skip this one. However, if you just need to pass the time, this is a great book for that. I've said this before, but Sara Shepard knows how to keep a reader on the edge of their seat. What I really liked about it, though, was that it only bore a few similarities to Pretty Little Liars, so you know that Shepard isn't just a one-trick pony. I'll definitely be reading the next one in the series.

5 comments:

TheBookNurse said...

I agree with you. This was what I wrote about it:
4.0 out of 5 stars Who killed Sutton Mercer?, December 6, 2010
This is a fun new YA series by the author of the Pretty Little Liars books that have now been reincarnated as an ABC Family Original TV Series.

Emma Paxton sees a snuff video of what she thinks might be her long lost identical twin on YouTube. She escapes her most recent foster home and heads to Arizona and inserts herself into Sutton's home and life to try to figure out what happened to this sister whom she never got to meet.

Red herrings abound as Emma tries to find out what led to Sutton's demise and who killed her. The problem is that Sutton and her friends had invented a dangerous pranking activity they named "The Lying Game" and there are quite a few who might be mad enough to have committed murder as an act of revenge or anger because of one of those devious games.

Emma interacts with Sutton's best girlfriends, her handsome boyfriend, and her sister, Laurel. In an unusual twist, however, the ghost of Sutton is able to observe all of Emma's activities and also read her thoughts as Emma snoops and blunders around trying to figure out exactly what might have happened. Sutton cannot interfere or interact with the living and functions as a first person observer, interjecting her voice here and there in somewhat random fashion, but she is not able to direct the investigation and in fact, isn't quite sure of what happened herself!

Needless to say, because it's the first in a new series, the ending is a cliffhanger. Too bad, but the reader will have to wait until July 26, 2011 for The Lying Game #2: Never Have I Ever to find out more.

Enjoy! This book is a fun mix of mean girls, murder, and mystery.

Ms C.

Sarah Gnefkow said...

Sounds interesting I think I'm going to check this out next time i'm in.

George Morejon said...

The concept seems interesting

Ian Zig. said...

yaa... nope

Halea Coulter said...

eh. . . maybe, if I'm desperate