‘The Lying Game’ (The Lying Game #1) by Sara Shepard

by Natacha

Emma Paxton lives on the outskirts of Las Vegas with her foster family. Emma’s mother left Emma as a baby, and ever since Emma has lived in a lot of different foster homes.

One day Emma’s foster mothers son shows Emma a video with a girl being strangled in a chain. The girl is Emmas look-alike.

Emma’s shocked. Of course she knows the girl isn’t her, but on the other side, it’s a fact they look absolutely identical, so clearly they must have – not something – but someone in common. Could the girl in the video be Emma’s sister, even though Emma never knew about having any siblings?

She decides to clear things up and find the girl. In Google she connects the video with a Facebook profile about a Tucson, Arizona girl called Sutton Mercer. Their similarities are stunning!

Emma contacts Sutton who tells that she’s also adopted. The two girls agree to meet, and Emma travels to Tucson. But when Emma arrives, she’s mistaken for Sutton, and Sutton has disappeared!

An easy and enjoyable read

The first book in The Lying Game-series was an easy read. The beginning in Tucson was tiresomely long, though, because we as readers get to know that Sutton is dead, while it takes like forever for Emma to realize the same.

The story isn’t very realistic. I mean, who would travel to another state to meet their secret twin sister without even speaking to her on the phone first? But I shrugged it off while reading and enjoyed the ride. It was first after finishing the book the thoughts really appeared to me.

Unpredictable

The story is quite unpredictable. First I thought I knew who killed Sutton, but then it was a dead end. It surprised me, and every time I finally thought I’d figured it all out, things turned differently. It made it an exciting read.

Also ‘The Lying Game’ is well written and with loads of detailed descriptions from which I imagined Sutton’s home, her room, her family and her friends very clearly.

The only confusing part was that there are both a first person narrator (Sutton) and a third person narrator. I mixed them up several times and got pretty tired of turning back pages to find out who was who. Sutton was absolutely the best of the two narrators, because I got to know all her thoughts and feels.

Aired on ABC

If you like surprises and the mystery genre, The Lying Game is definitely a series for you. I think it’s best for 13 to 18 year olds, because you can relate to all the teen problems in it.

Like Sara Shepard’s first succes ‘Pretty Little Liars’ became a TV series, ‘The Lying Game’ has also been adapted to a TV series that aired on ABC. I’m sure, that if you loved PLL and struggled to know who killed Alison in PLL, you’ll also like to know who killed Sutton — how and why.

When you have read ‘The Lying Game’ in a flash, I’m pretty sure you’ll become addictive and jump to book number two ‘Never Have I Ever’! 😉