Book review: The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

My summary:

Sutton Mercer has a life anyone would kill for, and then someone actually does kill her. Sutton wakes up in an unknown bathroom without any memory of how she got there, a girl steps in but she doesn’t even register that Sutton already is in there. No wonder, since Sutton is a ghost. When Sutton looks at the girls reflection she screams, the girl looks exactly like Sutton. The girl in the bathroom is Emma Paxton, Sutton’s unknown twin.

Emma lives in a foster home and her foster brother, Travis, is out to get her. Travis has found a disturbing video on YouTube starring Emma, only it’s not Emma, but how can she prove it? She never dreamed that she had a sibling. Emma gets in touch with her sister and arranges a meeting, only thing is that Sutton is dead, so who has agreed to meet up with Emma. Emma is lured into a trap and everyone around her thinks she is Sutton. A highly dangerous game is on, can she pass as her sister. Who killed Sutton? It could be anyone Sutton knew and soon it becomes apparent that the killer keeps a close eye on Emma’s every move.  

My thoughts:

The Lying Game was such a suspenseful and dramatic read. I didn’t quite know what to expect from Sara Shepard since this was my very first Shepard. But WOW I was like an addict from the first page; I just kept craving more and more. I wasn’t actually aware that The Lying Game was the first book in a tetralogy(yes, I just learned a new word, that means there will be four books) so I was a bit surprised when I understood that there was just to few pages left to unravel the whole mystery.

We get to follow both Sutton and Emma through a couple of dramatic weeks. Sutton’s thoughts and memories are being told from 1^st POV and Emma’s from 3^rd POV. Sara has created to very distinct characters with the twins, they are so different. Emma has always striven to please her, various, foster parents and to fit in, Sutton was spoiled, the ringleader among her friends and the center of attention. the ghost’s, We get to know Emma and Sutton, their identical twins but none of them knew that the other person existed.

The author certainly has a knack for writing mysteries, the reader will experience a bit of paranoia while reading this book. Every single person Emma hangs out with while posing as Sutton could turn out to be the culprit.

At the very end there was an epilogue, to me it felt unnecessary. I’m not to fond of the feeling of being underestimated as a reader, I don’t need an epilogue to list the loose threads and pointing out to me what I wish to know during the next installments in The Lying Games series. This was just a minor flaw for me other than that this was a superb read.

The next installment, Never Have I Ever, is due out in April 2011 and I can hardly wait to find out what happens next. My list of favorite authors has grown and I most definitely have to check out Sara Shepard’s other novels (like the Pretty Little Liars novels which I’ve heard such great thing about). If the rest of her books is anything near as good as this one I have many hours of good entertainment in front of me.

Listen to Sara Shepard talk about The Lying Game:

The cover:

Fitting.

My rating of this book:

4.5 stars out of 5

Want a second opinion? Check out these reviews written by some of my book blogging friends:

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The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

Published: December 7^th 2010
Pages(hardcover – I read the Kindle version):  307
Publisher: HarperTeen
ISBN: 0061869708 (ISBN13: 9780061869709)
Full disclosure: ARC received from HarperTeen via NetGalley. 

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.