| The Lying Game | |
 | |
| Author | Sara Shepard |
| Publisher | HarperTeen |
| Publication Date | December 8, 2010 |
| Number of Pages | 307 |
| Series Guide | |
| previous True Lies |
next Never Have I Ever |
The Lying Game is the first book in The Lying Game book series.
SummThe story is about a girl named Emma Paxton, who comes to believe she has an identical twin sister. She goes on Facebook, and sends a message to the girl, Sutton Mercer. Sutton writes back saying that they need to meet. However, Sutton is actually dead. Emma goes to the Sabino Canyon, Tucson, Arizona. While waiting for her sister by the bus stop, she is kidnapped by a group of people. They take her across the street, and remove the sack over her head. That's when Emma finds out that it's just Sutton's friends playing a prank.
The friends believe that Emma is Sutton, and take her to Nisha's party. Nisha is Sutton's archnemesis and is always pranked on by her and her friends. Back at Sutton's home, Emma still goes on with the charade as being Sutton. The next morning, Sutton's younger sister, Laurel finds a note under her car wiper. She gives the letter to Emma without reading it. The letter says 'Sutton's dead. Tell no one. Keep playing along...or you're next'. Emma, immediately panicked, goes to the police station to report it, but she is not taken seriously because of Sutton's past pranks and lies. When Emma goes to school, Garret, Sutton's boyfriend, takes that Emma is Sutton like everyone else. Emma begins liking a boy named Ethan. Ethan lives next door and was in love with Sutton.
Emma learns about a game Sutton and her friends play, "The Lying Game", an elaborate pranking game. Emma also learns that one day that Sutton's friends took it too far, and almost strangled Sutton. Ethan told Emma that he saved Sutton that night that she almost died, so Emma concludes that Sutton died after that incident and anyone could have killed her. Emma runs off with Ethan and she tells him everything and he promises to keep her secret and help her find Sutton's killer. Emma decides to stay and pretend to be Sutton so she can also find out who killed her sister.