Guest Book Review: Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate!

Seven Ways We Lie
Author: Riley Redgate
Publication Date: March 8, 2016
Published: Amulet books
Source: Netgalley
Reviewer: Lametria

My Rating:

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.

I thought the seven deadly sins were only in Vegas, but apparently they’re in Kansas as well, in the hallways of Paloma High to be exact. The seven sins lay in seven of the students, Olivia, Kat, Juniper, Claire, Matt, Lucas, and Valentine. In some way all these people connect to different drama that is happening in the school. There’s a student-teacher scandal, a hidden homosexual, some envy, mentioned and family drama. Which is typical high school drama if you attend Degrassi.

The plot of the story was kind of weird, but that’s expected considering the book was narrated by seven different characters, which was very interesting. It was nice to get different points of view, it’s like walking in someone else’s shoes, and learning both sides of the story instead of one. My favorite character was Lucas, because he is really funny and real and just so confident and yet not confident in who he is. Valentine was cool too, he’s a fellow outcast, and I love that he befriended Lucas, because I think they make a great pair. As for Matt, he has a lot of issues going on at home, as well as Kat, who is trying to run away from her family problems instead of trying to talk about them like her twin sister, Olivia. At least Olivia found an outlet in Matt, and vice-versa. Claire is full of self-doubt and envy while Juniper is full of heartbreak and a huge secret, which is very obvious once you read her chapter. I found Claire to be really annoying and self-centered, and the same goes for Kat. They were both just really whiny, and I get why Kat was, at least her reasons are understandable, considering her family issues. I liked Olivia and Juniper, I don’t have much to say about them, I just liked that they weren’t whiny. Matt was okay, he’s a good big brother and a good shoulder to cry on if you really need one, but I think that shoulder is only for Olivia.

Overall, I think the book was an okay read. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t that good either. The YA genre has a lot of the same cliché stories, so I wasn’t surprised by the outcomes and like I said, the plot wasn’t really there, but then again there were seven point of views. I applaud the author for writing those seven perspectives, which is why I give this book 3.5 stars.