The Secret To Lying
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The Secret To Lying
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3.55 of 5 stars
A teenage boy’s self-reinvention gets out of control in a sharp, funny, poignant, and compulsively readable novel that gives a familiar th... read full description

reviews

Jan 28, 2011
Tammy rated it: 4 of 5 stars
My Thoughts:
This is the second book this month that I have read about teenagers reinventing themselves. I think that's a fantasy all dream of doing at one time or another. I know I did. Especially during those teenage years when most are trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be.
James gets a second shot to reinvent himself when he is transfered to a new school with a new set of peers. James makes up a brand new past and dives in to his new life determined to be someon More...
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Jan 13, 2011
Danielle rated it: 4 of 5 stars
When James Turner gets into the American Science and Mathematics Society, he sees it as an opportunity to reinvent himself. At his old school, James was nearly invisible, but at ASMA he makes up stories about his past life, letting his new peers see him as a street-fighting, car-stealing, bad-ass. For the first time in his life, James is noticed. At first it's innocent; a couple of pranks, sneaking into his girlfriend's room, staging a protest over the cafeteria food. But no matter what he d More...
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Nov 10, 2010
Christi rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Summary: James Turner is a typical teenage boy, the type no one cares to notice. When he starts going to a new school, American Science and Mathematics Academy, he creates a new identity for himself, explaining away the cuts on his arms and his sour demeanor as the products of a “rebel, punk, street fighter.” The entire school falls for his lies with the exception of the popular and unimpressed Ellie Frost as well as an omniscient online presence named ghost44. James falls deeper and deeper into More...
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Jun 13, 2010
Kari rated it: 4 of 5 stars
A train wreck waiting to happen and an artful blurring between reality and fantasy, The Secret To Lying masterfully delves into one teen’s struggle to be noticed. The boy who was often forgotten, James finds himself at a new school with a fresh start. With opportunity ample before him, he holds nothing back in the stories he comes up with regarding his past- until it becomes too much even for him.

On a shallow level, this book is about lying and reaping what’s been sown. On the deeper More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Mar 31, 2010
TinasBookReviews rated it: 4 of 5 stars
High school sophomore James arrives at the American Science and Mathematics Academy boarding school (yes we are finally seeing a YA dork academy and not the gothic, creepy one normal to this genre) looking for a fresh start and a new life. James takes the opportunity to reinvent himself to the students. Instead of the nobody he was, he claims “rebel outsider” whom spent the majority of his time as a freshman, street fighting and stealing cars. Of course this places James in the ranks of drool-wo More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Mar 16, 2010
Christine rated it: 5 of 5 stars
The Secret to Lying, is about a boy who doesn't feel that he fits in at his school or even at home. He feels overlooked everywhere he goes, until he is offered the chance to go to a new school. A boarding school for nerds actually. James figures anything would be better than his life the way it is, so when the next school year starts, he is living in a dorm and starting over at a new school. The thing is, James believes that his life was too boring to let anyone know about his actual life, so in More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Oct 25, 2011
Veronica rated it: 3 of 5 stars
To be honest, I didn't know what to make of this book. I felt like I drifted through it in James' desperation; the desperation of being alive and not buying it. I found it interesting how the author managed to implant a real-life experience into a surreal concotion of labyrinthine dreams and knowing that it's easier to run away from yourself than to face yourself but that escape is just impossible. I suppose that this isn't the type of book I normally read. It didn't put me on the safe side of a More...
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Mar 30, 2011
Anila rated it: 2 of 5 stars
Much as I appreciate the recommendations of my friends, at this point I'm going to ignore everything they say about Todd Mitchell because they are unforgivably biased. You see, he's a local author and he's done a lot of writing programs with the library for teens, some of which I've attended and enjoyed. But because many of my fellow library-goers know him in person, I think they may be prejudiced towards his books. I enjoyed Traitor King, but it wasn't as mind-blowing as they led me to belie More...
17 comments like (3 people liked it)
Jan 21, 2011
Suzanne rated it: 3 of 5 stars
James is the kind of kid who plays on the football team but never gets an H on his locker from the cheerleaders--and no one even notices but him. Stuck in obscurity in corn field, Illinois, James yearns for so much more and thinks his prayers have been answered when his good test scores get him admitted to a public gifted boarding school. With a wise-cracking roommate and a whole new bad boy identity he cultivates through lying and pranks, he soon has a reputation, and that's way better than hav More...
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Jan 15, 2010
John rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Imagine a midwestern boarding school for immensely smart high school students, focusing on math and science, to better prepare them for the rigors of the best colleges. For the talented students who get to attend, it's a chance to live away from their families, and spend their sophomore, junior and senior years in close competition with more of the smartest kids from around the state. But it also brings the temptations and opportunities that come with dorm life.

Our protagonist, Jam More...
3 comments like (4 people liked it)
Jul 01, 2010
Ariadne rated it: 4 of 5 stars
The real secret to Todd Mitchell’s book, The Secret to Lying, is that while it is shelved in the teen fiction section most adults would probably find it just as enjoyable and relevant. The story follows James Turner as he attempts to find a balance between who he is and who he wants to be. Invisible and ignored, James gets an opportunity to reinvent himself when he goes to a new school. His yearning to be noticed leads him to lie about his past and who he is, and as the lies snowball his eccentr More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Aug 18, 2010
Vy rated it: 4 of 5 stars
In this coming-of-age story, James starts a new school and uses that opportunity to create a different persona, based on a series of lies. As one would predict, this doesn't work out so well, and he struggles to figure out who he really is and how to end his self-destructive behavior.

I don't read a lot of fiction, but I was drawn to this book because I went to a high school that is very similar to the one James enters (which is based on one the author attended). It was good to be rem More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Feb 01, 2011
Charlie rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Here's a review I wrote for www.matterdaily.org:

Todd Mitchell

Written by Charlie Malone
Monday, 27 December 2010

“The geeks let me be whatever I imagined.”secret_to_lying

This realization gives teen-aged James Turner permission to become anyone he wants at his new high school. At any moment it seems James might get lost, damaged, or destroyed by his reinvention of himself. Young adulthood can be terminal. This truth gives The Secret to Lying its drive.
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Aug 17, 2010
P.M. rated it: 2 of 5 stars
James Turner is bland, anonymous, and unremarkable at his high school. When he gets a chance to attend a prestigious boarding school for advanced students, he decides to re-invent himself. He creates an identity as a street fighter, car-wrecker, law-breaking juvenile delinquent. He makes new acquaintances such as roommate Dickie Lang, Cheese, Muppet, and Heinous. He gets involved in a relationship with world-wise, tattooed Jessica Keen but he secretly yearns for the Ice Queen, Ellie Frost. A mys More...
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Jan 15, 2012
Jessi rated it: 3 of 5 stars
This book was very Jungian and made me want to go scoop up a Joseph Campbell book and immerse myself in archetype and dream theory. Overall it was an enjoyable read. I appreciated that it dealt with something that many people experience - depression and anxiety without a "good reason." James, who suffers from extreme loneliness and disassociation, also feels guilty for these feelings because he comes from a nice, normal background. To compensate, he creates a false persona when he tran More...
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Oct 20, 2011
.s added it
At first I thought this book was just going to be about James and his problem with lieing when he moves to a new school. As I continued to read ferther on into the book I actually started to like it. In The Secret To Lying, James, a very smart high school student moves to a school for every gifted people. He then meets Ellie, the so called Ice Queen. He then falls in love with Ellie, but hes told so many lies that not even James him self really knows who he is anymore. Towrads the end of th More...
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Jul 08, 2011
Leah rated it: 3 of 5 stars
While I'm not one to read teen literature, I had the opportunity to meet the author and decided to read the book. It was well written and the moral of the story itself was quite good. The moral being that lying and pretending to be someone you are not can chip away tiny bits of you until you don't know who you are. While I enjoyed it a bit, it was an exceedingly easy read, (which is not something I normally enjoy), and it became slow and boring about half way through. I'd recommend reading this More...
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Aug 28, 2010
Fey rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Simply put, The Secret to Lying, by Todd Mitchell, was amazing. Rarely do I encounter a YA book that so accurately captures the challenges and thrills of being a teen. It’s been a few years since I’ve been a teenager, but this book brought it all back to me – the awkward struggle to fit in, the desire to be unique and exceptional in some way, the playfulness and seriousness of friendships and new love. This book has it all. And although the book primarily hones in on the struggles of a teenage More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jan 01, 2012
Anne rated it: 3 of 5 stars
The secret to lying is to believe the lie yourself

James Turner is overlooked by everyone at his school, so he jumps at the chance to go to a boarding school for talented math/science kids. He figures that there he can re-invent himself. Which he does, by lying about pretty much everything. The only problem is that he still feels pretty empty inside so he pulls all sorts of pranks and stupid stunts, as well as by cutting.

Well-written, a good read. Interesting to have a mal More...
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Jun 04, 2010
Meaghan rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Meh. Although this sounds like the kind of thing I ought to like -- boarding school novels, psychologically troubled teens -- I really couldn't get into it. Half the time it felt like a ripoff of Looking for Alaska, and I figured out ghost44's identity almost right away. I might pick up this author again, depending -- I think he has promise, anyway, even if I didn't like this book. The book didn't suck, it just wasn't as good as it could have been. More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Dec 25, 2010
Lizza rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Won the ARC copy.

The Secret to Lying is about an average teenage boy--James--who decides to reinvent himself by lying to his new schoolmates and pretending to be a rebel. Soon, the lies pile up, and it becomes hard to discern the lies from reality. James deals with various teenage issues: confusion about one's identity, fitting in, being comfortable about one's self. Most of us have experienced the "Who Am I/Where do I Belong" phase in life. The book reminds us that there is More...
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Nov 09, 2011
Rachel rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here
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Oct 16, 2010
Kare rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Epic Wins: (What I loved about the book!)

- The message: That sometime we are our own worst enemy and that we have choices to make in life that are ours alone.

- Like I said with It Started with a Dare, lying sucks! James has to lie and twist the truth till he doesn’t know who he is and has to find himself; he does this through his dreams.

- James: When he wasn’t lying he was pretty funny, made me laugh a lot.

- All the crazy pranks that him and his More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jan 20, 2011
Kricket rated it: 3 of 5 stars
invisible, average teen james turner finds an opportunity to recreate himself at a public boarding school two hours from his hometown. it starts with a sid vicious poster and a few lies about where
the scars on his arms came from. then he dyes his hair purple and begins planning pranks with his roommate. soon he's lying about everything. but no matter what he does, he can't impress the lovely
and aptly named ellie frost.

when he starts having vivid, crazy dreams and getting IM More...
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Aug 16, 2010
Book Sp(l)ot rated it: 4 of 5 stars
When 15-year-old James gets accepted into American Science and Mathematics Academy, a boarding school, for the start of his sophomore year he takes the opportunity to reinvent himself. Gone will be the nearly invisible James that no one will remember once high school is over and in his place is a new James, an adventure loving, car stealing, street fighting James--created by lies. Known across the school now, dating a cool Junior and reviled as the cool kid among all the nerds at the school, Jam More...
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Dec 09, 2010
Jennifer rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Reviewed by John Jacobson aka "R.J. Jacobs" for TeensReadToo.com

Moving to ASMA (American Science and Mathematics Academy) gave James a chance to change himself. No longer would he be the nerdy guy who didn't get a date or any attention. No longer would he be invisible. Instead, James can start a new life. Through lying.

Suddenly, James is seen as someone exciting. Sure, he's going to a school for math and science, but there is a definite sense of coolness about him n More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
May 27, 2011
Sarah rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I'm still not sure if I liked this book. It is a clever novel about a boy, James, who spends his days invisible at high school. One day, his teacher suggest he should go to a private school (for nerds) and he decides to be someone else. So he starts lying and eventually everything slips out of control. I think the book was good, it does address a lot of the reasons why James lies (instead of just brushing them aside) . But I just don't know if I liked it.
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Apr 18, 2011
Les rated it: 2 of 5 stars
Okay novel. The "re-invention" stories were unbelievable (would anyone in a school for the "best and brightest" really believe that he fought martial arts duels with swords?). It was obvious by the 2nd chapter who the eventual love interest was going to be, and, big suprise, she isn't as perfect as he thinks she is. On the positive side, the pranks between the dueling roommates were imaginative and the dream sequences were creative.
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Sep 22, 2010
Judy added it
A teenage boy’s self-reinvention gets out of control in a sharp, funny, poignant, and compulsively readable novel that gives a familiar theme a surprising twist.
James was the guy no one noticed — just another fifteen-year-old in a small town. So when he gets into an academy for gifted students, he decides to leave his boring past behind. In a boarding school full Real issues of cutting and eating issues FIC Mit 334348
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Oct 23, 2010
Warnie B. rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I wasn't entirely sure what this book was going to be about when I picked it up; if I had known, I might not have given it a chance, and I'm actually really glad that I did. The Secret to Lying is, at it's heart, about identity--about the disconnect between who a person wants to be, or thinks he or she should be, and who a person actually is, and about what happens when the gap between gets too wide and the pieces start to fracture. I felt like it was a really good look into the mind of someone More...
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