SEVEN WAYS WE LIE BY RILEY REDGATE
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Source: Netgalley in return for an honest review
Publication Date: March 8th 2016
Synopsis:
Paloma High School is ordinary by anyone’s standards. It’s got the same cliques, the same prejudices, the same suspect cafeteria food. And like every high school, every student has something to hide—whether it’s Kat, the thespian who conceals her trust issues onstage; or Valentine, the neurotic genius who’s planted the seed of a school scandal.
When that scandal bubbles over, and rumors of a teacher-student affair surface, everyone starts hunting for someone to blame. For the unlikely allies at the heart of it all, the collision of their seven ordinary-seeming lives results in extraordinary change.
Seven Ways We Lie is an interesting high school drama story told from the perspective of seven different main characters. As a scandalous controversy plagues the school it seems to add more drama and conflict to the lives of these seven students. Each is dealing with their own struggles and consequences of their actions.
From the cover of the book and other reviews I have read the book being told in 7 POVs is suppose to represent the seven deadly sins. After reading I can see how that is suppose to be incorporated, but while reading I do not think that idea really worked into the book. Each character while representing a certain sin was also influenced but the other sins as well. I just felt like it wasn’t very well done and executed using the bases of the different characters being different sins.
That being said I did think that being considered, Redgate did a good job developing the characters and carrying a story with seven different perspectives. Each character while having their own issues also share secrets and are woven together nicely. The thing that I really enjoyed that Redgate did to help with the transition between characters was to use different writing styles. I did think it was a little odd that Juniper’s chapters were written in poetry, it just doesn’t seem like a way someone actually thinks. It was interesting, but I just did not feel like it feel very well. Also in Matt’s chapters I got really annoyed because of the repetition of words (one of my big pet peeves) He used the work “like” way too many times .
Overall I enjoyed the book, I just felt like it was missing something. The characters were able to learn and grow from the sandal that struck the school and the situations there were put in, but I didn’t feel like there was a real plot. I know most contemporaries tend to focus on the characters and are sometimes weak on plot, but this book was just lacking in some areas. It was intriguing and fast paced so I was engaged and couldn’t put it down. Just when I got to the end I felt like I missed something somewhere because I was just not completely satisfied. I would recommend this to anyone who loves interesting characters and high school drama or just a fast enjoyable read!
