Lying Out Loud

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Author(s)

Kody Keplinger

Publisher

Scholastic Press

Genre(s)

Age Range

12+

Release Date

April 28, 2015

ISBN

0545831091

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Kody Keplinger returns to the world of The DUFF in this brand-new companion novel! Sonny Ardmore is an excellent liar. She lies about her dad being in prison. She lies about her mom kicking her out. And she lies about sneaking into her best friend's house every night because she has nowhere else to go. Amy Rush might be the only person Sonny shares everything with -- secrets, clothes, even a nemesis named Ryder Cross. Ryder's the new kid at Hamilton High and everything Sonny and Amy can't stand -- a prep-school snob. But Ryder has a weakness: Amy. So when Ryder emails Amy asking her out, the friends see it as a prank opportunity not to be missed. But without meaning to, Sonny ends up talking to Ryder all night online. And to her horror, she realizes that she might actually like him. Only there's one small catch: he thinks he's been talking to Amy. So Sonny comes up with an elaborate scheme to help Ryder realize that she's the girl he's really wanted all along. Can Sonny lie her way to the truth, or will all her lies end up costing her both Ryder and Amy?

Editor reviews

2 reviews

Funny yet touching

August 04, 2015

Overall rating

4.3

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First of all, thank you Hachette Children’s Books for this review copy! I’d already enjoyed reading The DUFF a lot, and this book promised to be set in the same world, and might even be better. So thanks again for getting me this book!

Lying Out Loud, shortly called LOL, is set in Hamilton, just like The DUFF did. The DUFF is a great book, but it doesn’t really left an impression on me as much as I hoped it would do. With LOL, this is different. LOL takes place in the future, after The DUFF, and is about Sonya – Sonny. She struggles with telling people the truth, she’s a chronic liar. She’s best friends with Amy. And Amy we know from The DUFF: she’s Wesley Rush’s little sister.

The novel starts off with Sonny sneaking in and out of the Rush’s house, since, according to her, her mother kicked her out and her father is in prison. As a reader, you immediately learn that Sonny isn’t much for telling the truth. She rather covers everything uncomfortable up with a lie. But the seriousness of her telling lies only surfaces later on in the novel.

One night, Amy gets a IM on her laptop from Ryder, the snobby guy from DC the girls can’t stand. Only it’s not Amy who’s reading the messages, it’s Sonny. They send him a rude message, since he’d been crushing on Amy, and now he was asking why Amy had done that and whether Sonny was involved. Slowly, Sonny and Ryder get involved more and more. The only problem: Ryder thinks he’s chatting with Amy, not with Sonny.

The story unfolds in ways The DUFF did, only better. There’s a lot more to the story than one thinks when starting LOL. I didn’t expect it to be this good. The storyline is very dynamic. Since Sonny is lying – A LOT – everything turns out different than one might expect. Yet, in some way, it felt like I knew what was going to happen all along. I was rooting for Sonny, hoping that eventually she would tell the truth to Ryder and wouldn’t push Amy around anymore, but her lies seemed to get the best of her every time.

As for the characters, they have evolved since The DUFF. In my opinion, there were no real flat characters. I was a bit surprised by Amy’s parents, since they didn’t leave the best impression in The DUFF, but Keplinger brushes that off very quickly. For that matter, I think there are some gaps between The DUFF and LOL. But it doesn’t really ruin the story line.

Overall, I’m very positive about LOL. I found myself picking it up at 10 am in the morning and finishing it at 9pm just minutes ago (all the while my family and I drove to our holiday destination and all). So plus points for being addictive!

I would recommend this book to everybody who enjoyed The DUFF, but also for people who like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, If I Stay and any John Green book (but less dramatic). I believe this story will stay with me for a while.

Good Points

- Better than The DUFF: more evolved characters.
- Hilarious yet serious when needed.

Nanouk, Staff Reviewer Top 500 Reviewer 23 reviews

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Lying Out Loud review

June 01, 2015

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When I first started reading Lying Out Loud I had decided not to read any previous reviews or to check the ratings on Goodreads. I wanted to read this book with an open mind and to decide for myself if I liked it and not allow my opinions to swayed by anyone else's. I am glad that I did because otherwise I would have been much more disappointed in Lying Out Loud than I already am. There are so many things about Lying Out Loud that I really disliked, such as the characters that weren't well developed and were one dimensional with no depth and a plot that felt unoriginal.

Sonny Ardmore is a compulsive liar who takes advantage of her best friend Amy Rush and her family's kindness and generosity. She is obnoxious, is constantly feeling sorry for herself, has absolutely no initiative, is manipulative and completely disregards anyone else's feelings but her own. Yes, I know that this all a defense mechanism so that she never gets hurt by anyone because she has been hurt so many times but, she doesn't have any good qualities to counteract the bad ones. We learn from Sonny in order to make a friendship work we should lie to our best friend and walk all over them. If you lie to everyone you eventually lose touch with reality and never accept responsibility or handle any situation like a mature person. You can say or do what ever you want or feel like at the moment and not care if your actions have repercussions. You should chase after the boy and pretend to be something that you aren't in order to be liked.
Amy Rush never stands up for herself, or has an opinion and let's people walk all over her. Her friendship with Sonny is a little bit unbelievable and extremely one sided. Also Sonny's living arrangement at the Rush's house is unrealistic. I know for a fact that if my best friend was living in my house without my parents knowledge my parents would certainly not be " Oh sure your friend can live here free of any responsibilities and treat you like trash and we'll be nothing but supportive of this". I am not saying that my parents or anyone's parents wouldn't help out a friend in need but, considering that the Rush's family was all together nonexistent a few years ago I don't feel that it's realistic that they would so readily add another member to their family. I mean, all that they do in Lying Out Loud is give them money, buy the food and be extremely supportive of everything.
Sonny and Ryder's relationship felt like something that I have read a thousand times before and was completely forgettable. Their whole relationship went like this I hate you / we talk for a while it turns out that you are much more than the pretentious jerk that I thought you were / and now I love you / I will formulate a grand scheme to make you love me /and *poof* we are in love. That's not how life or relationships work.
The plot is .... Cheesy, corny, unoriginal, cliché any one of those words perfectly describes Lying Out Loud. Sonny is up late one night in able to sleep because she is stressed about college she does what anyone else would do she decides to play computer games on Amy's computer. Ryder starts instant messaging her at 2 a.m. So they talk and what do you know? Ryder thought he was "talking" to Amy. So Sonny now knows that he is the love of her life and must win him over no matter what the cost is. The whole time that I was reading I was kept on waiting for it to become interesting.

It was BORING!

The ending was, in my opinion, wrapped up too quickly and the character development felt rushed. I don't want to dislike books and leave negative reviews. I always try to look at the books qualities instead of finding the negative but this book has so many negatives that I can't give Lying Out Loud more than 2 stars. I think what bothered me the most is that this book almost encourages girls to chase after the boy and feel like the boy simply won't like her if she doesn't change something about herself. I don't think that anyone should feel that they need to change who they are in order to be liked.