Ashley Hanlon

Ashley Hanlon
The Lying Game
Sara Shepard
Just Right
65

1.  So far in the book I had read about Emma's lifestyle and how Sutton takes place as a guide almost.  Sutton has come to the realization that she's dead and she keeps having these flashbacks of the night she was murdered.  But, the only problem is that most of the flashbacks aren't anything important and useful to find out who her killer is.  So, she tries to help Emma lead in the right direction towards some evidence and clues that might crack the case of Sutton's death.  Except no one knows that the famous Sutton Mercer of Arizona is dead because she has Emma take her place.  Emma is blown away when she steps into her long lost twin sister's life because she definitely got the better life.  Sutton lives in Arizona with this amazing family who really cares about her, she has a lot of friends, and she's the queen bee at school.  Not to mention, she has a little sister close to her own age and her boyfriend, Ethan, is this cool mysterious guy that all the girls are jealous of, Ethan is also the bad boy type but his brothers a cop so he never gets into too much trouble.  On the other hand though, Emma has been living from foster care home to foster care home.  She never really had a stable place to call her home.  The closest thing she did have to a home was when she was with Clarice, a foster care mom who works at a bar with an eighteen year old son of her own, Travis.  Clarice has always blamed Emma for everything because she believed that her own kid, Travis was the perfect child even though he was in and out of juvy all through his childhood.  But Travis did have a big crush on Emma.  He practically made it a habit of trying to see her naked.  But, now Emma ran away from her foster care home with Travis and Clarice and is living the good life as Sutton Mercer.

2.  I've always loved Sara Shepard's writing style, her unique perspective from the characters make the book even more fun to read about.  The only thing that bothers me about this book so far is that it does get very confusing.  The way how Sutton adds in her perspective on Emma playing the role of Sutton confuses me a little and I find myself having to re-read some parts of the book.  Other than that I enjoy reading Sara Shepard's writing.  The plot of the book also keeps me turning the page and its hard to put down the book.  How Emma is in search of her birth mother and Sutton's killer as well as keeping this big secret from everyone keeps me hooked on the story and I always want to know what happens next.

3.  The theme in this book is revenge.  Revenge is pretty much part of the plot in this book.  Its all about Sutton and Emma figuring out and avenging Sutton's killer.  In the very beginning of the book Sutton wakes up and sees what she thinks is herself but it really is Emma.  After she fits all the pieces together that she's dead and Emma is her twin and not her she gets very angry very quickly.  And all she can think of is how she is going to communicate with Emma to get back at her killer.  And once she figures out that Emma wants to escape her life and live happily she uses that to her advantage and has Emma take over her old life to find the person that killed her.  All throughout the book so far, Sara Shepard writes a lot about future plans about what Emma and Sutton plan to do to get revenge on Sutton's killer.  Emma is constantly stirring up plans to find whoever did this to the only sister she had and how she is going to take down the culprit behind this murder.

4.  My favorite character would have to be Emma.  Emma is a nice girl with good intentions but does bad things.  Until she moves to Arizona to take over Sutton's life and pretend to be her she was living the life of an unwanted foster care kid who always ended up in trouble for either shoplifting or trespassing.  But she does have a nice sense of humor so the book isn't too intense to read about.  Emma also is amazed at how different Sutton's life is compared to her old one back with Clarice and Travis.  She also is quick on her feet when covering up her secrets when somebody starts to get suspicious about Sutton (Emma) not being Sutton.  I also think she is amazing at acting like Sutton, especially when she's with all of Sutton's best friends.  Sutton's friends are the ones that know Sutton best, so Emma being able to pull off her act of being Sutton and fooling her friends is impressive.  Although, sometimes her friends do get suspicious but Emma seems to be able to cover up her secret every time.  Emma overall is just a fantastic character and I love her personality.  If Sara Shepard didn't write Emma into this book I definitely wouldn't I liked it as much and probably wouldn't have even bothered to read it.

5.  My least favorite character is Sutton.  She is just a mean girl who even though she is dead thinks she's still the queen bee.  I get very frustrated with her throughout the book because her character isn't very helpful in figuring out who her own killer is.  She only remembers the little unimportant details of her old life.  Nothing about the night she was killed.  Only on some occasions she will remember something she saw that happened that night, but it will be blurry and hard to make out what it is really.  Also, I think she needs to cut Emma some slack.  Emma didn't even know she had a twin sister until right before Sutton was killed, whereas Sutton knew for awhile but didn't think it was important to tell her twin.  And Sutton is constantly yelling at Emma, even though Emma can't hear her because Sutton's dead, but Sutton gets frustrated that Emma doesn't understand about Sutton's life.  The thing is Sutton doesn't realize that if she contacted Emma sooner than she did then maybe Emma could of gotten to know Sutton and maybe prevented her death.  Sutton also gets mad when she sees Emma hanging out with her friends and going out on dates with Sutton's boyfriend, Ethan.  But, Sutton doesn't realize that Emma was just playing the part of Sutton and trying to make it believable.  So Sutton doesn't really have the right to be mad at Emma because she could of informed Emma with more information about their birth mother and family so that they could of lived all together happily like a normal family, all reunited again.

6.  I think someone in Tucson will find out about Emma's little secret life as Sutton.  It won't be her family but her friends or maybe Ethan.  Once one of her friends finds out they will probably be a lot of help with looking for the real Sutton's killer.  Also, with Sutton and Emma's birth mother.  I think Mads will be the friend to find out first.  She already seemed pretty suspicious of Emma when she first arrived here so she will eventually put all the pieces together and be of assistance in Emma's search.  Mads also has the advantage of living in Tucson so she will be able to help show Emma around so if they need to go investigate somewhere Emma won't get lost in the middle of Arizona and then get herself killed by the same person who killed Sutton.  Then all hope will be gone for the twins of ever getting the justice they deserve.  I wonder what will happen if Emma's secret gets spilled out?  If one of Sutton's friends, like Mads, knows then maybe she will be able to help Emma cover up her big secret about Sutton.  I hope someone in Tucson does find out because I think Emma could really use the help of another person to help catch Sutton's killer, before Emma gets killed herself.