Mentor Text: The Lying Game!!!

            The Lying Game is a series of books written by Sara Shepard that was later produced into a movie. Books are always better than movies so I’ve read the first two books of the series and I’m waiting until February to get the next one when it comes out. The book is about two girls who are adopted twins that never knew each other until they met on facebook one day with intentions of meeting in Arizona, where one twin lives. The twin that lives in Arizona’s name is Sutton Mercer and the day they plan to meet, Sutton disappears. Emma is the other twin and she finds herself in Arizona among Sutton’s friends who all think that she is Sutton. Coincidentally, she slips into Sutton’s life hoping that she forgot to meet her and will be coming soon. Her life is turned upside down when she receives a note saying her sister is dead and she will be too if she doesn’t play along.

            Sutton is an antagonist and part of The Lying Game, which is a group of three of her friends who play mean pranks on people for fun. Emma is the opposite; she is a protagonist that came from many foster homes and just wants a real family to love her. She realizes her sister did many wrong things in her life and knows that she went too far with a prank that cost herself her life. The story is about Emma trying to find Sutton’s murderer when she is constantly being watched and no one believes that she is her twin sister. No missing body means no crime.

            The Lying Game relates to my book because it’s about bullying and my story is about one girl being bullied her whole life until someone finally stands up for her. The ideas I will take from the lying game are the pranks because my story is all about bullies hurting other kids verbally and physically. I like the idea of bullying through pranks so it’s not as obvious but everyone knows that it’s happening. Another thing I got out of The Lying Game is how the characters in it partied regularly and there were all different cliques. There are certain people that you just don’t talk to and I’d like to incorporate cliques into my story as well to make it seem more realistic. Not being invited to the parties that everyone goes to is embarrassing and something I could add to my main character’s troubled life.

            Reading The Lying Game gave me many new ideas for writing my children’s story because I was thinking about it while I read the books. I read both books in two weeks and was completely unable to put them down. When I stopped reading my book, I thought about it and wanted to know what happened next. Not only did I find a great mentor text for my book, but I also found an amazing book that I would recommend to anyone that loves to read. The book was recommended to me by my mother and it puts life into a new perspective once you read it.