4 stars

Lying Out Loud seemed to pop up out of nowhere - and after so long without a YA Keplinger novel, you can bet your ass I was EXCITED AS HELL. Then I got the chance to read this as an ARC that was personally signed to me by Kody herself and *DEAD* Lying Out Loud is cute and funny and happymaking and yayyyyy ♥

So Lying Out Loud tells the story of Sonny Ardmore, a compulsive liar, who sort of accidentally ends up catfishing a guy who she slowly realizes she has feelings for. The unfortunate part of that is that (a) the guy, Ryder, thinks Sonny's messages all come from Amy, her best friend, and (b) in real life, the two can't stand each other. It's hate-to-love romance of the Pride and Prejudice variety, because both characters are stubborn as fuck, with a modern internet twist.



I'll say upfront that Sonny is not the most likable character. However, Keplinger has a flair for creating quirky, flawed voices that steal your heart anyway. Sonny lies about everything as a defense mechanism - a back story revealed towards the end will nearly bring you to tears. When all is revealed, it becomes more understandable why a character would be so scared of letting people in and telling them the truth, but before that, the lying definitely grated on my nerves. I'm more of a compulsive truthteller, so I definitely had to remind myself to be patient with Sonny. I knew the character depth would be there - and it was. But it just felt like the lies went on for so long, especially the deception towards Ryder.

But that romance was plenty adorable, for sure. In real life, Ryder and Sonny don't get along, because Ryder is quite prideful and pretentious. He's suffering from a case of "the grass is always greener" since he was forced to move to Hamilton. But in their text messages and chats, Sonny gets to know another side of him - one that's bantery and adorable and more vulnerable than he'll let on. Despite all her lies, in those messages, she feels at ease to tell some of the truth - in the same way that internet communication has always put me at ease as well. It's so much easier to be open and honest when you don't have to directly face judgment. Before long, Sonny realizes she likes Ryder, and tries to take their internet romance offline without revealing the pseudo-accidental catfishing.



The friendship between Sonny and Amy is amazing and important as well. You can tell that the two are true best friends - always ready to help each other and when things get bad, they're there to deliver a swift reality check. The two of them are super sweet, but there's more to it than that. Even friends are scared sometimes to reveal all to each other, and Sonny lies to Amy just as much as everyone else. Their friendship has been quite codependent throughout the years, and after the ordeals of this book, they have to come to terms with the fact that they are two separate people who maybe won't always be together. This important theme was definitely present, but I wish we'd seen Amy become her own person in this book. I'd almost venture to say that she needs her own companion novel. However, I have to give super duper praise for the way Keplinger handles things like this - the friendship and the end of the romantic arc of the book - with realism and hopeful optimism. She doesn't do a cookie cutter happy ending, because life isn't always like that.



Keplinger fans will absolutely rejoice as this is a companion novel not only to The DUFF, but to Shut Out and A Midsummer's Nightmare as well. All of the couples from these books make appearances, so there are lots of Easter eggs to spot. In particular, though, there is a lot of Wesley. And hollaaaaaa, more Wesley is always better. Wesley is Sonny's best friend's brother, and as Sonny is practically part of their family (which is such an amazing family, srsly omg), he treats her as a little sister too. Their relationship is just so squee-inducing. Wesley is amazing. And Wesley and Bianca are just RELATIONSHIP GOALS. Seriously.

Unfortunately, of all of Keplinger's YA novels so far, this is definitely my least favorite. Now that's not to say that it's bad, but I just found it less personally relevant and/or inspiring. The DUFF had a clear message about body image and self-confidence, Shut Out had meaningful discussions about teenage sexuality - fighting the stigmas of slut shaming and virgin shaming, and A Midsummer's Nightmare made me cry because of the heartbreaking family dynamics that I found quite familiar. For Lying Out Loud I can't quite find such a relatable message other than, "Stop lying," and as a compulsive truthteller, that didn't do much for me. The story was still entertaining, and I love the gratuitous amounts of Wesley, but it's just not as meaningful to me as the others.

Summing Up:

Though it's my least favorite of Keplinger's YA novels so far, Lying Out Loud delivers the things we love most about her writing: quirky, flawed characters with depth, banter, hilarious hijinks sure to go wrong, meaningful (and at times heartbreaking) family dynamics, a healthy dose of realism, and WESLEY. *cough* Sorry not sorry.

GIF it to me straight!



Recommended To:

Fans of hate-to-love romance / mistaken identity hijinks.


*ARC provided by New Leaf Literary in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the contents of the review.

Not my favorite Keplinger novel, but I definitely enjoyed it.

This was fun! A little light, a bit thin in some places but I enjoyed it. (I kept picturing Sonny as Mae Whitman though... not necessarily a bad thing but did she remind me too much of Bianca? I'm not sure... maybe a little?) All in all, loved the devotion between Sonny and Amy. Really nice to see this kind of friendship as the base of a novel about secrets, romance, and the true meaning of family.

More to come.

I enjoyed this book. But I didn't love it. I liked the characters for the most part. Sonny did some really dumb stuff. But like 90% of books I've been reading right now. Everything got resolved in the last few pages. And some things still kinda left it open to what will happen. I like the book over all it was a fast read. It was funny. But when I look back at the duff (since they are companion novels) I like the writing style for both but I enjoyed the duff more so I had to give it 3 stars but it's on the verge of 4 stars if it could of just gave me a tiny bit more. Of there future.

But would recommend this to anyone who likes the duff.

once again, Kody Keplinger put together a good cast of characters, but something about this just did not click with me. It's like it wasn't ever totally fleshed out, there was no real turning point in the plot just an explicit tell. Sonny would stop lying. Then shed tell a worse one, then say she was going to do better and on and on until the book ended. Where was the actual self-discovery?

Also I'm a little. I don't know, biased, because I've been the quiet, pliable Amy friends with an insecure advantage-taking asshole like Sonny (I don't totally hate Sonny, she's a bit sympathizable, but she is undeniably harmfully selfish) and my experience was that it is impossible to feel good about yourself in that kind of parasitic relationship. You exist to validate them and your opinions or needs never matter. It's dehumanizing and toxic. So, yeah, I didn't buy Amy and Sonny as good friends.

2.75 stars

Okay so I love Kody Keplinger, but for some reason this book didn't catch my attention like the others. I understood why Sonny's life was so complex and difficult; however, I don't think that was justification for her to lie. And a lot of the situations that occurred could have been fixed if she just would have stated the truth. It wasn't like the moments didn't present themselves; she just chose not to acknowledge them and thought more about her own selfish needs and desires. I was disappointed by how unlikable she was. I loved the writing, but I don't think Sonny learned enough or received enough consequences for her actions. I think it was too easy. With that being said a fully review will be coming soon.

More like 3.5 stars

There were moments when I felt really emotional about this story and these characters but mostly it felt like I wanted to like it more than I actually did. Can't quite pinpoint what it was about this book that held me at a distance. Even so, I did enjoy it and I read it very quickly!

I was really looking forward to reading Lying Out Loud by Kody Keplinger and I think what really attracted me to the book, aside from the author and how much I've enjoyed her previous books, is that there's a person of colour on the front cover. Love that. It was pointed out to be at a recent Twitter chat and that very fact made me bump this book up my virtual-TBR pile. (Hurrah diversity!)

I didn't know very much about the book before I started reading. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that it's very much a modern-day Cyrano de Bergerac but I didn't properly read the blurb! I love mistaken identity stories and this one with its modern technology and catfish thing should have been right up my street. But for some reason I felt a little bit distant from everyone. I didn't really connect with Sonny and Amy's relationship or Sonny and Ryder though I wanted to for both relationships. I thought they were cute but we never really reached that point where I was super invested in their dramas or problems.

But that isn't to say that I didn't really enjoy this book or that I didn't race through it in almost a single sitting. I did. I just wasn't as fully there as I'd hoped. I did feel very emotional sometimes, mostly to do with Sonny's family and home situation and the fact that the Rushes take her in so completely and without question. But then, that's something that just gets to me every time, no matter what.

There are a lot of mentions of Wesley and Bianca from The DUFF in this book and that was lovely to see. Both how their relationship is going several years on but also how nice Wesley is with his sister and as a friend to Sonny. There were also some cameo appearances from other Kody Keplinger stories but, if I'm honest, they felt a little out of place and like they were shoe-horned in for the sake of it and threw me more out of the story. But then, I do also like how some books are interconnected in these small ways.

So, sort of a mixed review for this book. I did enjoy it! I liked how the fall-out from Sonny and Amy is at the heart of this story as opposed to Sonny and Ryder. More wonderful stories about female friendship, please.

I really enjoyed the DUFF by Kody Keplinger so I was hoping this would be more of the same. Sadly, I was just annoyed with the main character for the decisions she was making. I didn't think her backstory justified those decisions. I was hoping for a character that was just as flawed, charming, relatable and redeemable as Bianca. Lying Out Loud does make for a fun read with some heavier topics mixed in to add some depth though. Read after Sarah Dessen's Lock and Key and there were many similarities. Would recommend for Gr. 9+ interested in romance, and novels dealing with friendship.

I think it is super cute how they got together and I can't believe that she told him she loved him and he just left and the book ends with him calling her. YOU CAN'T JUST END LIKE THAT!1!!1!!! And shenanigans on that she could hide for that long that her mother left her. And how they were sexting, that's a no, even though what they were doing could be considered sexting. And as always love that Bianca and Wesley made an appearance. Still in love with them.