Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate
2 out of 5 stars.
“We are always moving forward. We are hurtling through our lives. We are never standing still.”
Goodreads Description: 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 was given an opportunity by the publisher Amulet Books via NetGalley to read this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
Seven Ways We Lie is told in seven different points of view. I have a love/dislike for multiple points of view in books. If done right, it can be amazing. For Seven Ways We Lie though, it was a little hard to really connect with all the different characters and POVs. A lot of the characters sounded really familiar and sometimes I had to flip back to the beginning of the chapter to remember who’s POV I was in the middle of. I think that it could have been done so much better.
Connecting with the characters was pretty hard for me. There wasn’t one that I genuinely really liked. Each character is struggling through their own problem throughout the book while the entire school is also speculating who is involved in the student-teacher affair. There is so much going on and the author literally threw almost every single high school stereotype into one book. Even with so much going on, it was pretty boring a lot of the time.
I guess I expected something completely different when I read the description of this book. It seemed really promising, but I don’t think that it was executed as well as it could have been. Maybe a few less POVs would have given more time for each character and more time to really connect with them. The whole teacher-student scandal thing was basically all of the students trying to guess who was involved and there really wasn’t much a of teacher-student scandal really happening in the pages. It happened, but it wasn’t something actively going on.
I was confused by the entire thing, to be honest. There were some okay parts and it did leave me wanting to continue to the end. It seemed interesting and I can see why a lot of people really like this book and will like this book. This was a book that just wasn’t for me. If you are interested in this book, it will be released on March 8th! Just because it wasn’t a book for me, doesn’t mean it won’t be for you! 🙂 I am glad I was given the chance to read it though, so thank you again to Amulet Books and Netgalley!
Have you read Seven Ways We Lie? Will you be putting it on your TBR? Let me know!
I hope you have an awesome Monday! 🙂
socially awkward bookworm. 
Oh no, I’m so sad to hear you didn’t like that book so much 😦 I have to say, I agree with you about the multiple POV. Even if I enjoyed it more than you, in that book, since she wanted to write from SEVEN different POV, it was sometimes frustrating because I wanted to know more about a character, and well, there weren’t too much time for that.
I was hoping I would love it, because it sounded so interesting from the description. Yeah, there were some characters that I would have liked to know more about. I would definitely liked to see more of the relationship with Matt and Olivia too.
Yes, me too! Their relationship was great to read about, I would have loved more! 😀
I’m bummed you didn’t love it. The title caught my eye and I was really excited to read it. I think I still will!
I’m glad you’re still going to check it out! I think it just wasn’t for me, but I seen that a lot of people have really enjoyed it.
Good to know!
Great review!! I think I’m gonna steer clear of this book haha 😉
Thanks 🙂
It wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be, but I think it just wasn’t for me. So many other people have loved it.
You’re welcome! 🙂 ugh, I hate when that happens!
I actually quite enjoyed it to be honest. I feel like it was a realistic representation of how teenagers are now and the differences of when I was in high school many years ago. I agree with the blending of the multiple POV’s, but it didn’t bother me as much as the struggle to close off so many plotlines in the end. But overall I thought it was an interesting read!
I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed it! I seen that so many people really loved it. I guess it just wasn’t for me. I think I would have liked if there weren’t as many POVs, because there were more characters that I would have loved to see more of. I felt the closing off of the plotlines was so rushed and a little incomplete. I wanted more from that as well.
I wanted more from Valentine and Lucas T____T
They needed a better ending…
I wanted more of Valentine and Lucas too! I also wanted more of Olivia and Matt. Those were the only characters I really cared at least somewhat for. I didn’t like how it ended for Valentine and Lucas. I kind of just wanted the entire book to be about them, haha.
Yeah! Especially since Valentine was such a unique character and the fact that Lucas was pansexual. You don’t see that often in YA.
It’s nice seeing something new in YA and it would have been great to see more of it!
I like multiple points of view, but seven is way too much. You don’t have the chance to connect up with the characters. That’s a pity.
Shalom,
Patricia
I have a love/hate for multiple POVs. I think seven was just way too many. I wasn’t able to really connect much with the characters and there were a couple that I did want to know more about and connect with, but couldn’t because there were just so many other characters and so much going on.
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