Lying About Last Summer

by Sue Wallman

 


A nail-biting teen thriller that will have you gripped
from start to finish.


Skye’s sister died last year in a tragic accident, so this
summer Skye’s parents think that a camp for troubled teenagers
might help her process her grief. All of the kids at the
summer camp have lost someone close, but the last thing Sky wants
to do is think about the past.


But when Skye starts receiving text messages from someone pretending
to be her dead sister, she knows the past can’t be avoided.
Someone at the camp is making sure of it – but who,
and how far will they go?






Winner of Zoella Book Club 2016, and Winner of Worcestershire
Teen Book Award 2017





We Were Liars meets Thirteen Reasons Why






Sue Wallman is one of the UK’s leading writers of teen thrillers





The cast of characters will keep you guessing who the villain
is, and the claustrophobic summer camp setting is the perfect backdrop
for the thrilling mystery

• ISBN13: 9781407166780
• Publish Date: 5 May 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Scholastic
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 272
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

Lying About Last Summer is one of those books that sucks you in, and doesn't let you go until you've finished it. I've had it on loan from the library for a while, but never felt like reading it until now. Yes, I am a mood reader, and sometimes I just do not fancy a book, but I finally wanted to read this one, and I did, and it was pretty awesome. It wasn't as twisty as I was expecting, as I had guessed a few of the things that came out towards the end, but it was still a stellar, enjoyable read.

Skye is a bit of a prickly character, I liked her right away, but the way she acts when she first comes to camp, and the judgements she makes of Fay, Brandon, Danielle did annoy me a little bit, especially since Fay seemed quite sweet and sensitive, and almost like you wanted to protect her from the big, bad world, but after what Faye goes through, losing her sister, you can kind of understand it, why would you want to get close to people when you see what happens to your blood, for crying out loud?

To see what really happened to Luisa was chilling, it seemed kind of too extreme for the book, which is a crazy thing to say, but when you think of Skye's life, and they're idyllic little house, it's hard to see it all going wrong, not helped by the fact Skye starts receiving text messages from Luisa, or so it seems? It added a bit of extra chill factor to the book, and that's the only bit of the story I didn't guess - who was behind those messages. I had Joe pegged as the bad guy, he riled me up something chronic, and there was just something about him that I didn't trust or believe, you know when you just get a feeling about someone? I felt that way about Joe. He was creepy with a capital C.

I really enjoyed Lying About Last Summer, I was gripped the whole way through and I read the book in one sitting, barely stopping except to eat and drink, Sue Wallman has written a pretty fantastic read, and I can't wait to see what she writes next! I'll be reading it for sure, because this was fantastic.

[Amber]

Ever since I listened to Wallman talk about her debut at a recent blogger event, I’ve been wanting to read it. It is obvious how much care and passion went into writing it, not only from the way she talked about it but also from the writing itself.


tour scheduleLying About Last Summer is a fantastic book that explores a teenager’s grief and guilt. There were a couple of things that particularly stood out to me, and the attention to the main character’s feelings was one of them. I felt that it dealt with grief very well. I haven’t lost a sibling, but I have lost someone very close to me, and even though I had nothing to do with their death, I still wished I could have done something about it. I think it’s a feeling that a lot of people experience when they’ve lost someone.

What was really interesting was how Wallman decided to base this story in a summer camp-type place, where a bunch of grieving teenagers have been sent to talk to counsellors and to bond over activities such as kayaking and abseiling. We got to see teenagers deal with grief in different ways, and it truly showed that death affects everyone differently.

A couple of other points about the book made for an interesting read. Firstly, there was a slight thriller or mystery feel to Lying About Last Summer, particularly surrounding the character of Joe. It wasn’t the most important part of the plot, but there were such undertones throughout and at the climax of the book it really tied into Skye’s character development. Wallman did a great job of weaving the storylines and undertones together.

Secondly, there were no shippy feelings, at least for me. This is probably a completely personal thing, as there was a relationship that could be considered a ship, however they didn’t do it for me. Which I didn’t actually mind, because to me the romance felt like it was more of a way to explore Skye’s character and to help her with her grief.

Lying About Last Summer is a very character driven book. Wallman has taken great care to develop Skye’s character in a realistic way while she deals with grief and guilt after her sister dies. Everything that happens in this book is connected to that, and everything that happens affects Skye in one way or another.

The only downside to the book for me was the length of it, and thus a few things that were left either unanswered, or not developed fully. I wanted to know more about what happened to Joe both before and after this particular story, and also what happened to the man that Skye’s sister was having an argument with in the beginning. I also wanted to know more about Danielle. So a few more pages could have done this.

But overall, Lying About Last Summer is a strong contemporary debut, and I’m really pleased with how Wallman dealt with her main character, as that was ultimately the most important part of the book.