2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss The Lying Game, the first book in the Lying Game series by Sara Shepard.

Pages: 307 pages

Length: 1 month (July)

Participants: Eirelyn, Luisa, Temitayomiyoshiseun

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

Thanks, SarahKat! :D

I've never read this author before, but I've seen both Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game tv series that are based on her books.

Even though The Lying Game tv series is several years old, I just watched it recently and was left a little dissatisfied because it ended with a lot of loose threads. I thought maybe I'd get some more answers and closure from reading the books lol.

Hii!!! :)
I'm so glad I found buddies to read this one.
I have the pretty little liars books, dont recall if I finished all of them. And also that I had The Lying Game series too and never read them. So, here we gooo :)

I never saw or read Pretty Little Liars, yet I plan on doing so later. I never knew that The Lying Game was a series. I guess I will be looking forward to watching it after our read.

Temitayomiyoshiseun wrote: "I never saw or read Pretty Little Liars, yet I plan on doing so later. I never knew that The Lying Game was a series. I guess I will be looking forward to watching it after our read."

I think there's only one season, and I'm not sure how closely it follows the books.
Anyway, I'll start the book this weekend :)

I had never heard of The Lying Game until I found the series on Netflix a few months back. It is 2 seasons, a total of 30 episodes.

I have now finished this first book, and I can say that it is vastly different from the tv show! Most of the characters (view spoiler)[present are the same, but their personalities differ so much from the book to the show. Even the plot line is different in a lot of ways, and some of the characters who are mains in the tv series are basically just background characters in this first book. Maybe they will become more prominent later on (there are several books, after all, so of course we're just getting going), but there are some huge differences already. (hide spoiler)]

The biggest difference between the book and the show is that (view spoiler)[Sutton is *dead* in the books but is very much alive in the tv series. Her being a ghost/spirit watching over Emma's shoulder as everything unfolds definitely gives the books a more supernatural element which is not at all present in the tv show. The show is completely realistic, non-supernatural fiction. (hide spoiler)]

I got caught up comparing the show & book lol. I'll post my actual review of the book next. :D

I finished this book, and I'm going to leave my review here. I know it's super early, but I'll keep checking in throughout the month. :D

(view spoiler)[This book was entertaining enough but certainly didn't immerse me. I had watched the tv series recently, and it left so many loose ends, that I wanted to check out the book series to see if those loose ends would be wrapped up. They definitely weren't in this book, but I didn't expect them to be, given that this is a six-book series (plus a couple "in between" books).

I did, however, expect the characters be fleshed out much better than they were. I couldn't even rely on my knowledge of the characters from the tv series to help with this book because the characters were so vastly different. Because of that, I didn't feel like I really knew much about the characters at all other than Emma. Madeline, Charlotte, Laurel, Ethan...all their personalities were very evident, but their backstories were practically non-existent. Characters are by far the most important part of any story for me, and this book just didn't deliver on that at all. (hide spoiler)]

I'm giving it 3.75 stars, and I'm not sure yet whether or not I will continue the series.

I finished the book last night and I give it a 3.5. Clearly this is a series and I’m invested so I will keep reading the other books to get the most out of it.