Lying About Last Summer

Product Information

The book’s central mystery was resolved much earlier than I was expecting, and instead giving way to an ending that was more dramatic and tense.

This makes me sad because I really did get into it and enjoyed the first portion, I wanted more from it and it unfortunately didn't deliver. The story opens with first-person narrator Skye Colton witnessing her older sister, Luisa’s, death in the family swimming pool at Yew Tree House in Pitford. Even the other characters in this book are brilliantly well crafted and completely relatable and with realistic flaws and all. However the ending was so rushed, and you was sat there wondering why you'd spent so long reading this for it to come to that ending in literally 5 pages. The messages that the book was based around i found creepy at the beginning but then i got used to it.Highly recommend for the teen audience (easy four star) and with more than enough depth to keep adults engaged and entertained. A quick read that's enjoyable enough, I just feel like there's so much out there that's similar, none of it was new or surprising. Not only is it super gorgeous (and as author Sue Wallman said the reddish glow on the cover could be sunshine in the water or blood, dun dun dun) but it has a super awesome finish which makes it feel all special and I couldn't stop stroking the cover while reading. Faye who was one of skyes room mates was a nice character but was one of those characters who seeked boys attention but i did end up feeling sorry for her at the end. If it hadn't been for my pesky day job forcing me back to reality, I would've read in a single sitting – I was that hooked.

Skye has plenty of attitude but also an emotional depth and maturity beyond the much more familiar teenage angst. I also like how Fay's vulnerability is portrayed, and the multi-layered personality of Luisa during the flashbacks. You may think that this piece has all the ingredients of your typical young adult thriller novel, however I personally feel that it is more a story of courage. Her sister died in a tragic accident and her parents think a camp for grieving teens might help her.Paralysed by shock and crippled with fear, Skye hears her sister’s final moments but has kept this detail to herself and is tormented by guilt about failing to protect her sister. This year, 15-year-old Leah and the other two teens discover that the house has a dark past: a deathbed confession led the police to the buried body of a teenage girl earlier in the year, who had gone missing 50 years before. Fast forward one year and Skye’s mother is packing her off for a summer getaway at Morley Hill Activity and Adventure Centre for six days and five nights of back-to-back activities all fully-funded by a charity for bereaved kids.