#arcAugust BOOK REVIEW : 7 WAYS WE LIE BY RILEY REDGATE (@abramsbooks)

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (March 8, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1419719440
ISBN-13: 978-1419719448 

Final book for ArcAugust!

I'd throw up a blurb about this from amazon or such but THEY DAMN NEAR SPOIL EVERYTHING so basically 7 sins and growing up and these characters clash. BADLY.
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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—from Kat, the thespian who conceals her trust issues onstage, to "SPOILER", 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 seven unlikely allies at the heart of it all, the collision of their seven ordinary-seeming lives results in extraordinary change.

REVIEW BELOW

I have had this as an arc for about a year, thanks to netgalley, but I would constantly push it back. I now realize how dumb of a decision that was. This surprised the hell out of me in terms of the range of issues and characters it covered. 

In my opinion these stories seemed to revolve around Olivia and Juniper, and to some degree Claire. I felt that Kat, Matt, Lucas, and Valentine were almost secondary but they added so much more to the main players. They were diverse and had problems I could understand.

Okay, main plot point is that there are rumors of a student-teacher affair going on in this high school. It is quickly laughed off by many students except for one of our characters who was the anonymous source of this information! I don’t want to spoil anything but I got to get some things out so…

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERTS!!

.

FUCK YOU CLAIRE! SERIOUSLY!

She didn’t get nearly as much punishment as she should have. You could have ruined lives had the situation not turned, you judgey ass. I understand her self-esteem issues but omfg.

Valentine and Lucas. I just adore Lucas so much and YAY to a pansexual jock character who isn’t an asshole. Valentine grew on me and I didn’t expect that outcome for them, also whoa did I get this character wrong.

Okay DONE.

Sexuality is a HUGE character in this book. Probably the most important as well. These characters are dealing with issues that are creating turning points in their lives for better and worse.

Olivia is so misunderstood but then you have Matt who is so opposite and yet they click so well.

These characters coming together almost felt like a version of The Breakfast Club.

Really fantastic debut.

Riley Redgate is the author of SEVEN WAYS WE LIE and NOTEWORTHY. She loves thunderstorms, the Atonement soundtrack, and DJ Khaled's Instagram presence. She is reliably 8-13 minutes late to most engagements and would like to apologize preemptively. These are the only important things about her.  

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