The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

REVIEWED BY TATUM SPICER

The main characters of “THE LYING GAME” are twins Emma and Sutton. Emma is a deranged, miserable teenager who is living her unfortunate years in and out of foster homes. Emma is, good hearted and philosophical, however but not very confident. Sutton, on the other hand, is adopted into a wealthy suburban family and is a popular ring leader of her group of acquaintances. Sutton is the far more superior and privileged twin. Sutton can be cruel to the people around her, obnoxious and arrogant.
They are unaware of each others existence until they become teenagers. Sutton however fails to show up to a reunion that Emma organises. Emma ends up in Sutton's house playing the role of her long lost twin without raising any suspicions. Over time Emma is unsure of Sutton's whereabouts until receiving an anonymous note claiming that Sutton is dead. While remaining in disguise, Emma tries to solve the mystery of her sister’s supposed murder. She grows suspicious of several people but by the end, realizes that she’s going down the utterly wrong path. All this time the ghost of Sutton has been following Emma every move.
Adapting the role of Sutton, Emma has to convey her sister’s poisonous personality. Emma manages to satisfy Sutton’s friends and parents, however weakens in disguise when around an outcast at their school that she can relate to and is interested in. The dead Sutton has had every piece of information on her mysterious past wiped out after her death. She doesn't remember the way she treated people, but gradually learns through Emma's eyes. She feels exceptionally guilty, wishing that she could've been more like Emma.
Emma mistakenly believed that Sutton was murdered by her jealous friends. When she discovers this not to be the case she becomes concerned that her murderer is still on the loose.
In the story, Emma drops everything she possesses, ditches her current foster family, and turns up in a remote area. Hoping to find some answers to her shameful empty life. Without having a moment to breathe or think she gets whisked into an unexpected opposite life. She risks her own existence, feeling obligated to fight for her sister and to get some answers. Therefore the message in the book is on how far one would go to protect another.
The book revolves a lot around personal safety, and how to protect yourself in times of trepidation. Also on trust, the book is entirely based on thinking you know someone when you actually have no idea who they are. Emma deals with finding her true friends, and the people that she can emotionally relate to.
When examining the title of the book “The Lying Game” I had an immediate suspicion that lies and secrets would have a big impact on the story. The story in my opinion is very enjoyable. I was absorbed to the genre and the plot that generates it. However it’s not a very content story as it contains death, gloom, loneliness and individuality.
I would absolutely recommend this book around, as although it isn’t a very uplifting tale, it left my clinging to the seat desperate to know more. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

Vicky Angel by Jacqueline Wilson

REVIEWED BY MELANIE RABINOWICZ

Jacqueline Wilson is the author of a children’s book Vicky Angel, illustrated by Nick Sharratt. After a tragic accident, things start to change between Jade and Vicky, two best friends who have known each other for their whole lives. Although they are best friends, they are two completely different people. Jade is a very sweet, organised and caring person, who never wants to hurt anyone but Vicky, on the other hand, is a very popular and self-absorbed person.
In this story the friendship and love between Jade and Vicky starts to become very complicated. Although at the end, the two friends make up after heaps of fighting and annoyance between each other, nobody knows how this complication was resolved as it is not clear in the book.
In this book there is more than one important message. One of the messages in this book are that you don’t always need your best friend with you all the time, although you feel like you do sometimes you can get through life by yourself and be independent. I think this book has taught me to be independent and don’t rely on anyone to help you get through life.
I think the title relates to the book a lot, when you see the title of the book you think its going to be a calm and sweet story because people think that angles live in heaven and are peaceful people. In the end it ended up being a depressing book.
I would rate this book eight out of ten. The reason I would give this rating to the book Vicky Angel, is because I enjoyed it very much and I thought it was really enjoyable, although it was very different to what I expected, I found that once I started to read this book I couldn’t put it down. I also liked this book because it has a start, middle and end and in the book when there was any problem they always had a resolution to the problem even if they didn’t tell you how it was resolved.

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

Alison and her friends lead privileged lives in a small town in Philadelphia. When Ali, the unquestioned leader of their group, disappears , her friends are distraught. But they also feel tiny twinges of relief that all the secrets they had shared with Ali are now safe. Soon, however, their seemingly perfect world seems about to unravel as mysterious text messages are received that could only have come from someone who knew what Ali knew. The author maintains a high level of tension throughout the story, which remains unresolved at the end of this first book in the series. The characters are not well differentiated at the beginning of the story, but gradually develop as the story progresses , revealing each to be quite unpleasant in her own way. The story alternates between individual characters’ stories, before bringing the group together at the end. The reader is very tempted to read on as the plot finishes with one chilling question