There were clues dropped throughout the first half of the novel, leading up to the big reveal, but I didn't think the clues were that subtle at all - it kind of detracted from the reveal, in which the reader was supposed to feel as shocked as Juniper's friends at the news.Ī lot of the plots revolve around relationships: Juniper and the teacher, Olivia and Matt's burgeoning romance, Claire still struggling to deal with her relationship with Lucas, and Lucas - a pansexual character - dealing with his feelings for Valentine, who is asexual. Everyone assumes it's Olivia, because she's promiscuous, but I found it pretty obvious straight away that it was Juniper: she's the only student who doesn't joke about the revelation, and part of her poetry reads 'if they'll condemn Olivia's open legs, they'll condemn me if they ever find out'. Valentine is the one that discovers it, overhearing a conversation in the staff room after school, but he doesn't know who either of the people involved are: he anonymously reports it to the faculty, causing them to start student interviews straight away. There are many plots intertwined, but the focal point was the fact that there is an illicit student-teacher relationship going on. I automatically thought that seven perspectives was going to be too many - sometimes I find myself getting confused with three or four! - but it was manageable, and I ended up enjoying the book much more than I'd expected to. We get to read the story from the perspectives of Olivia and Kat Scott (twin sisters whose mother left them three years ago), Claire Lombardi and Lucas McCallum (a couple who broke up last year), Matt Jackson (who's struggling with his parents constant fights), Valentine Simmons (the smartest guy in school, but the least social) and Juniper Kipling (whose chapters are told entirely in a poetry style). First things first, I need to say a huge thank you to ABRAMS Kids, for accepting my request to view this title on NetGalley, and to NetGalley for the service that they provide.Īs you can probably tell by the cover, 'Seven Ways We Lie' is based on the seven deadly sins, and we get seven viewpoints throughout this novel.

The seven ways we lie