Review: Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate

In Seven Ways We Lie, a chance encounter tangles the lives of seven high school students, each resisting the allure of one of the seven deadly sins, and each telling their story from their seven distinct points of view.

The juniors at Paloma High School all have their secrets, whether it’s the thespian who hides her trust issues onstage, the closeted pansexual who only cares about his drug-dealing profits, or the neurotic genius who’s planted the seed of a school scandal. But it’s Juniper Kipling who has the furthest to fall. No one would argue that Juniper—obedient daughter, salutatorian, natural beauty, and loyal friend—is anything but perfect. Everyone knows she’s a saint, not a sinner; but when love is involved, who is Juniper to resist temptation? When she begins to crave more and more of the one person she can’t have, her charmed life starts to unravel.

Then rumors of a student–teacher affair hit the fan. After Juniper accidentally exposes her secret at a party, her fate falls into the hands of the other six sinners, bringing them into one another’s orbits. All seven are guilty of something. Together, they could save one another from their temptations—or be ruined by them.

Riley Redgate’s twisty YA debut effortlessly weaves humor, heartbreak, and redemption into a drama that fans of Jenny Han and Stephanie Perkins will adore.

Review: This book was slow to get going for me but once it got going, I absolutely could not put it down! This was one of those books that I read the first little bit one day then picked it up the next day and read the rest in one sitting. This is part coming of age and part mystery but the storyline and characters are both very strong and that it why it ended up being such  compelling read. 

I do occasionally find teenage characters have a tendency to be a little on the whiny side, but this was totally not the case in this book. Each of the characters had their own storyline, their own depth and their own issues to deal with, just like a group of teenagers like this would have in real life. We get to deal with issues of depression and suicidal thoughts and yet this is not what this book concentrates on. There is a romantic aspect to it and also what it feels like to be the outsider. We also get a glimpse into the hugely complicated aspect of female friendship at this age, its ups and downs. 

The storyline, as I have already mentioned is strong. We don;t just have this whole notion of the student teacher relationship and how that is going to be exposed or not exposed at the case may be. That aspect is a slight mystery but more of an item of gossip than an actual investigation. There is a little bit of interrogation in this storyline, which I don't think would be allowed in schools in the UK, but some of that was amusing so I went with it. But the overarching storyline is definitely the relationships between these seven students and how they change and develop over the course of the novel. Of course emotions are running high and so nothing goes smoothly, but I really loved getting to know these characters and they way they tick. 

I think one of the reasons that this book was such a compelling read was because these characters are all so relatable. I could see a little of each of them in myself and I am sure anyone who picks this up will be able to relate to at least one of these young people and be able to see their own high school experience in these pages. I can't wait for more from Riley Redgate, such a good read!

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