Secrets and Lies

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate

So much about the cover of this book is misleading. First, the back says that there are seven students, seven deadly sins, and one secret. Not all of the seven deadly sins are covered. Second, in the blurb on the back, it implies that these seven students are unlikely allies, that was misleading. Two of the characters are sisters, three of them are best friends, one is the former boyfriend of another character. Unlikely, to me, implies that they aren't friends, and that just isn't the case.

Despite the misleading cover, however, I enjoyed this book. It starts out with a school assembly, where everyone is told that a teacher is having an affair with one of the students. Administration doesn't know who either person involved is, but they are going to find out. One of the seven students is the person who reported this scandal, and he knows who the student is, but not the teacher, and he wants to talk to her. One of the students is the student involved (and it is easy to figure out early on), and she starts to self-destruct.

There's more to this than just the school sex scandal though. One of the students is the school slut, who finds herself falling for one of the other seven students after they work on an English project together. Another student feels that she is being left out of things going on with her best friend, and ends up outing her ex-boyfriend. One student is the ex-boyfriend who falls in love with a social outcast.

These lives overlap, and their stories were interesting to read. This book was real in a way that a lot of young adult books try to be, but fail.