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  • Secrets and Lies by Jacqueline Green
  • Karen Coats
Green, Jacqueline. Secrets and Lies. Poppy/Little, 2014. 305p (Truth or Dare) Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-316-22031-6 $18.00 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-316-22029-3 $9.99 R Gr. 7-10.

At the end of Truth or Dare (BCCB 7/13), Emerson, Tenley, and Sydney thought their troubles were over and that the deadly game of dares had stopped with Tricia’s death. Now the darer is back, however, and the girls will do nearly anything to protect the malign secrets he or she knows about each of them, all of which are provided in this book as backstory, making it fairly accessible as a standalone. As they chase down clues to the malefactor, each girl is also attempting to manage her love life through break-ups and new possibilities, and the darer is resorting to more and more dangerous games, poisoning Sydney’s ex, nearly killing Tenley, threatening to kill Tenley’s mother, and actually killing another girl as a warning to the trio. Tenley and Emerson become more fully fleshed characters here, with Tenley’s self-awareness the key to making her likable as she acts the mean-spirited vixen to get the information she needs. Emerson, on the other hand, works through the insecurities that drove her to make such questionable choices in the past and is primed to make the right choice just as things fall apart, while Sydney, whose character development largely took place in the first book, may be naïvely pushing the real killer’s buttons. So many unanswered questions, so much tingly suspense, so much dark drama: by the end of this book, some readers will think they have the identity of the darer figured out based on who is being targeted and how, but that herring may turn out to be red after all; in any case, anticipation for the finale will be high. [End Page 575]

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