The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

The Lying Game by Sara Shepard is about two twin girls, separated at birth. Sutton is adopted and raised in a wealthy family, while the other twin, Emma, spends her early years with their flaky mom before being put into foster care. When the novel begins Sutton is dead, and yet she is still on earth and following Emma around, unable to remember how she died, or even how she lived. When Emma sees a video featuring a girl, a girl who appears to be killed and who looks exactly like her, but isn't her, she realizes something is terribly wrong. With nobody to turn to, Emma slides into Sutton life, trying to figure out what happened before the same killer that got her sister, gets her as well.

Although I hadn't read any thing by Sara Shepard before, the television show based on her teenage mystery series, Pretty Little Liars, definitely has me hooked. Unfortunately there are already a billion (or at least 9) books released so when I found out she was releasing a new series, I figured I'd start from scratch. It turns out The Lying Game has also been turned into a television show, so I get to add another guilty addiction to my weekly schedule.

I listened to The Lying Game on audiobook and really enjoyed listening to the narrator, Cassandra Morris. That said, I am undecided about the story itself. Sutton is an incredibly materialistic girl who has done a lot of bad things in her life, but her voice (as the ghost) seems so kind and gentle- is that the true Sutton, or is the real one evil? It's hard to tell and it bothered me.  Present Sutton seemed so much nicer than Past Sutton and I have to wonder how Shepard is going to reconcile the two personalities. I enjoyed most of the other characters though, Emma seemed reasonably conflicted over what was going on and Sutton's friends were so self-adsorbed it was easy to believe they didn't realize she was missing, although I was less convinced that none of her family members would have noticed either. It also felt like it took quite awhile for the story to get started, but there was plenty of intrigue and mystery once it did. In The Lying Game, it seems like everyone is hiding something in a way that makes it absolutely delicious to read about.

This is completely and utterly the first book in a series- already there are two sequels, Never Have I Ever which was just released and Two Truths and a Lie which is coming out in February. Although I am very intrigued to see how things turn out, I have to wonder exactly how many books I will be expected to read in order to learn; if The Lying Game is anything like Pretty Little Liars, than quite a few it seems! I'm conflicted over reading the books as they are released, reading them once the series is done (if ever?) and just tuning into the television show.

Ultimately, The Lying Game is a suspenseful novel packed with intrigue and questions, but lacking in answers, if you can handle the Massive Cliffhanger Ending then there is definitely enough drama to satisfy any craving you might have.

Release Date: December 7th, 2010
Pages: 305
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Source: ARC from Publisher and Audiobook