Seven Ways We Lie

This is an excited post for me because I KNOW Riley Redgate.  I had the honor of teaching R. in high school, and remember what an amazing reader and writer she was.  A super cool human!  Anyway, I only recently found these books and was excited to get in touch with her and to get started reading all three books!  I am reading her books in pub order and so I first started with Seven Ways We Lie.

The book has seven main characters who all represent one of the seven deadly sins.  Great concept, but the cool thing for me is that it doesn't run the book.  Each character was unique and different.  I saw differences in their voices and liked each of their perspectives, and most of all how Redgate brings all the stories together.

At the beginning of the book, the principal calls an assembly to discuss an issue with the student body:  someone turned in an anonymous tip that a teacher is having a relationship with a student.  Of course the entire school is talking about it, and everyone looks around now wondering who it is?  Which teacher would anyone even want to hook up with and which teacher would be crazy enough to start something with a student.

The book covers all aspects of high school: arts, sports, lunch time, teachers, families, drugs/alcohol/parties, love, coming out, friendships, needing to run out of class and sit in a bathroom stall for a few minutes, and of course, the seven deadly sins.  Each chapter, I was interested to see how the stories came together and how the characters changed.  I loved it!!

I really liked the book and am so happy and proud of R.'s accomplishments.  I can't wait to fangirl in a signing line someday if I am lucky enough to run back into her at a book festival (Yallfest?) or bookstore someday.  I also want to say to the kids out there who write, that Redgate is proof that you can do it.  I'm super pumped to now follow the career of an incredible author.