Scan barcode
A review by nita_kohli
Lying Out Loud: A Companion to the Duff by Kody Keplinger
3.0
A more like 3.5 stars.
Book Cover
The book cover depicts our three main characters in the book - Sonny, Amy and Ryder. The people on the cover resemble the characters closely, well so, no complaints there. Hence, I would say the cover is nice.
Plot
The story is about Sonny Ardmore who is in high school and is best friends with Amy Rush. Where Amy is drop dead gorgeous but a shy person, Sonny is average(according to her) and an extrovert. She is the louder one, the crazy one between the too. And yes, she is an excellent liar. She can come up with a lie on the spur of a moment and is making excuses all the time when in trouble.
Ryder is new at Hamilton High and is considered a snob. Students and teachers hate him alike as he cannot let go even a single moment to humiliate this school or this town. Sonny and Amy feel no different from others for him and cannot stand him. But, Ryder's heart and eyes are only for Amy and is totally into her.
One night Amy receives a mail from Ryder asking her out and Amy and Sonny see it as a very good prank opportunity. The same night, Sonny is working on Amy's laptop and she sees Ryder's chat or email (I don't remember if the mail comes first or the chat or who pings first...sorry) and she ends up talking to Ryder for the whole night. The heart to heart talk is an eye opener for Sonny as she gets to see a different side of Ryder and she kind of likes him. But, to her horror she realizes that she never logged out of Amy's chat and hence Ryder doesn't even know that he has been talking to Sonny and not Amy. And then begins the saga of confusion, more lies, hear breaks, friend fights, tears and laughter.
Characters
Sonny is a fun person but yes she is also bossy, sometimes mean, sometimes selfish and of course a big time liar. Though her habit of lying is her way of dealing the negative stuffs in her life and is part of her defense mechanism. Our heroine, is not perfect and may be this why I did not dislike Sonny. Because, I don't think any one is perfect and I love it when an author draws out a character who has flaws as it makes it more easy to relate to such a character. Yes, Sonny acts selfish and is mean at times but everyone does so in real life too. We are not saints all the time and we have our moments when we act totally self centered. Some times we do that without even knowing it. Few people boss around their younger siblings; then there are people who are ordering their friends and according to them they are doing it for their benefit. But, sometimes they don't realize that they might be hurting some one in this process. There might be a very few who actually enjoy doing so but Sonny is not one of those. But, yes she is like some of us who fail to realize what we are doing at times. So, yes! Sonny is not a flawless perfect heroine with every thing good about her - be it her physical appearance or her character but she does have a good side to her too and she appears very real.
Amy is our good girl - listens to her parents, listens to her teachers, listens to her friend Sonny - in short a docile girl. Altogether she is beautiful inside out. When the story starts she appears as a weak character who has cannot speak for herself but as the story progresses her character grows and she makes herself heard.Towards the end of the book readers see Amy voicing her opinion.
Ryder was like fine - I did not love him but he was kind of OK. I have nothing to say much about him.
What I like
I liked the main character Sonny despite her shortcomings. I also enjoyed reading about how author emphasized the two great and important aspects of any one's life - friendship and family. These two aspects form a big part of the book, be it Amy and Sonny's friendship or Amy's wonderful family and Sonny's not so wonderful and dysfunctional family, readers get to read about these aspects in some detail and I really loved reading about this side of the story. This underlying theme focusing on friendship and family is wonderful and fills you with warmth.
What I did not like
I am not able to come up with anything.
My final thoughts on the book
This is a great book that I thoroughly enjoyed. I would say I found it better than The DUFF and I think many people might not agree with me on this but I found this story with more depth and some great characters - both main and secondary.
So, all together a wonderful book.
Read this and my other book reviews at www.book-choose.com
Book Cover
The book cover depicts our three main characters in the book - Sonny, Amy and Ryder. The people on the cover resemble the characters closely, well so, no complaints there. Hence, I would say the cover is nice.
Plot
The story is about Sonny Ardmore who is in high school and is best friends with Amy Rush. Where Amy is drop dead gorgeous but a shy person, Sonny is average(according to her) and an extrovert. She is the louder one, the crazy one between the too. And yes, she is an excellent liar. She can come up with a lie on the spur of a moment and is making excuses all the time when in trouble.
Ryder is new at Hamilton High and is considered a snob. Students and teachers hate him alike as he cannot let go even a single moment to humiliate this school or this town. Sonny and Amy feel no different from others for him and cannot stand him. But, Ryder's heart and eyes are only for Amy and is totally into her.
One night Amy receives a mail from Ryder asking her out and Amy and Sonny see it as a very good prank opportunity. The same night, Sonny is working on Amy's laptop and she sees Ryder's chat or email (I don't remember if the mail comes first or the chat or who pings first...sorry) and she ends up talking to Ryder for the whole night. The heart to heart talk is an eye opener for Sonny as she gets to see a different side of Ryder and she kind of likes him. But, to her horror she realizes that she never logged out of Amy's chat and hence Ryder doesn't even know that he has been talking to Sonny and not Amy. And then begins the saga of confusion, more lies, hear breaks, friend fights, tears and laughter.
Characters
Sonny is a fun person but yes she is also bossy, sometimes mean, sometimes selfish and of course a big time liar. Though her habit of lying is her way of dealing the negative stuffs in her life and is part of her defense mechanism. Our heroine, is not perfect and may be this why I did not dislike Sonny. Because, I don't think any one is perfect and I love it when an author draws out a character who has flaws as it makes it more easy to relate to such a character. Yes, Sonny acts selfish and is mean at times but everyone does so in real life too. We are not saints all the time and we have our moments when we act totally self centered. Some times we do that without even knowing it. Few people boss around their younger siblings; then there are people who are ordering their friends and according to them they are doing it for their benefit. But, sometimes they don't realize that they might be hurting some one in this process. There might be a very few who actually enjoy doing so but Sonny is not one of those. But, yes she is like some of us who fail to realize what we are doing at times. So, yes! Sonny is not a flawless perfect heroine with every thing good about her - be it her physical appearance or her character but she does have a good side to her too and she appears very real.
Amy is our good girl - listens to her parents, listens to her teachers, listens to her friend Sonny - in short a docile girl. Altogether she is beautiful inside out. When the story starts she appears as a weak character who has cannot speak for herself but as the story progresses her character grows and she makes herself heard.Towards the end of the book readers see Amy voicing her opinion.
Ryder was like fine - I did not love him but he was kind of OK. I have nothing to say much about him.
What I like
I liked the main character Sonny despite her shortcomings. I also enjoyed reading about how author emphasized the two great and important aspects of any one's life - friendship and family. These two aspects form a big part of the book, be it Amy and Sonny's friendship or Amy's wonderful family and Sonny's not so wonderful and dysfunctional family, readers get to read about these aspects in some detail and I really loved reading about this side of the story. This underlying theme focusing on friendship and family is wonderful and fills you with warmth.
What I did not like
I am not able to come up with anything.
My final thoughts on the book
This is a great book that I thoroughly enjoyed. I would say I found it better than The DUFF and I think many people might not agree with me on this but I found this story with more depth and some great characters - both main and secondary.
So, all together a wonderful book.
Read this and my other book reviews at www.book-choose.com