The Secret to Lying by Todd Mitchell

 

"The secret to lying is this: believe yourself and others will believe you, too."

James was the guy no one noticed — just another fifteen-year-old in a small town. So when he gets into an academy for gifted students, he decides to leave his boring past behind. In a boarding school full of nerds and geeks, being cool is easy. All it takes is a few harmless pranks to invent a new James: fighter, rebel, punk. Everyone’s impressed, except for the beautiful "Ice Queen" Ellie Frost and the mysterious ghost44, an IM presence who sees through his new identity.

But James is riding high, playing pranks and hooking up with luscious Jessica Keen. There’s just one thing awry: he’s starting to have vivid dreams of being a demon-hunting warrior, a thrill that is spilling over into dangerous and self-destructive acts while he’s awake. As he’s drawn deeper into his real-life lies and his dream-world conquests, James begins to wonder: What’s the price for being the coolest guy around?

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  My Rating:

I picked it up because:

I actually picked this one up by chance when browsing one of the shelves my the library; the title stuck out to me among the other books, and I love the shattered glass effect on the cover.

What I liked:

The school James attends was a great set-up for some interesting characters. I loved his friends, the school pranks, and I his conversations with ghost44, the mysterious *cough cough* very obvious who it is *cough* character who IMs James but won't reveal his/her identity. And then there's the dreams where he's fighting demons, a supposed parallel to his life, in a more direct aspect.

What I didn't like:

In a good book, I am the main character. I cry when they cry, I laugh when they laugh.  I never really felt that connection with James. I want to know everything that a main character is thinking, their reasoning behind everything they do. I wasn't in James' mind. I didn't really get why he did things a lot of the time, which is majorly important to me, especially when the main character is supposedly suffering from depression and self destructive behavior.

The Bottom Line:
I wanted to love this book, but I never really got James. Still, I'm glad I read it because I enjoyed meeting the characters in James' world. If you're expecting an accurate account of depression, this isn't your book. But if you're looking for a read that'll keep you interested, try this one out.

Read more reviews for The Secret to Lying at:
A Good Addiction and Tina Reviews