The Lying Game series by Sara Shepard stars identical twins Sutton and Emma who were separated at birth and do not know of the other’s existence. A nice, rich family adopted Sutton while Emma was off living with their maternal mother for the first five years of her life. After her mother abandoned her, Emma was placed in the foster program and lived in multiple homes that she would run away from.

The story starts with Emma’s skivvy foster brother finding a video online of a girl who looks identical to Emma. After doing a bit of digging, Emma gets in contact with Sutton agree to meet up, but Sutton never shows at their meeting spot. Sutton’s friends find her and she pretends to be Sutton, hoping it’s a joke. The next morning Emma learns that Sutton is dead, and that she needs to keep pretending to be Sutton or else she will meet the same fate. Emma goes to report Sutton’s disappearance to the police, but they dismiss her, thinking it is another Lying Game, Sutton’s game of over-the-top pranks. Emma is forced to go through the charade of being Sutton. None of Sutton’s friends or family notice that “Sutton” is acting differently, but a classmate, Ethan Landry, does. Emma enlists Ethan’s help as she searches for Sutton’s murderer amongst the close family and friends.

There are six books in the series all told from what appears to be the POV of the deceased Sutton is narrating the story while following her lost twin sister, Emma. However, we also can see how Emma is thinking. The narration confused me at first -and truthfully it still does- but once you start getting into the plot, you forget about it.

The ghost of Sutton who narrates does not remember the events on the night of her murder, but as the series progresses and Emma finds more clues, Sutton begins having small flashbacks.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this series, as well as the adaption ABC did of the show, though the plot lines are very different between the books and the show (as there always is) with Sutton still being alive and constant side dramas sprouting up.

Pick up the first book and/or watch the series on Netflix. You wont regret it 🙂