Having already read The DUFF and being surprisingly impressed by Kody Keplinger’s writing style and moxie. I was really excited to sink my teeth into the companion novel LOL.I think what impressed me most about Keplinger’s style is just the amount of sass she puts into her stories and her characters. At the minute in YA fiction there is a macabre trend of stories about incurable illnesses or suicide so it is refreshing to have a story that is about solvable problems that are still real and relevant. This is exactly what you get with Keplinger’s writing and it is no different from her latest offering – LOL.

In Lying Out Loud, our protagonist Sonny has a problem. She is a bit of a liar. She has learnt that she is a quick thinker and can make up excuses on the spot. However, sometimes her lies can’t get her out of real life desperate situations she manages to get herself in.

In a Cyrano de Bergerac-esque novel Sonny responds to the amorous emails from new student Ryder. As the conversation flows, Sonny realises that she likes him. One problem, she is replying on her best friend Amy’s email account. Ryder likes Amy, not Sonny. Sonny begins to weave a crafty web of lies to make Ryder fall for her instead but eventually her perpetual mendacious behaviour catches up with her.

LOL is a really great read that is hard to put down. It deals with themes of unrequited love, friendship along with deeper issues such as abandonment and poverty. It definitely should be a part of all young adults’ libraries.

Hamilton High: Lying Out Loud: A Companion Novel to The Duff by Kody Keplinger is available now.

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