100 Books Like The Lying Game

I had to include the OG twisty friendship story on this list. Even though I read this novel a decade ago, that final twist stays with me. However, the twist wouldn’t have worked if I hadn’t been invested in the relationships.

What really struck me is that the “friends,” in this case, are actually cousins. As someone who considers my cousins to be my best friends, this was the aspect of the novel that resonated the most with me. Also, reading about a vacation home near Martha’s Vineyard didn’t hurt matters.

I liked this book so much I turned it into a play, which has been performed by a number of schools in the United States and England.

A nineteenth-century classic (first published in 1881) by one of America’s most famous writers, it tells the story of two boys who swap places: one is Prince Edward, the son of King Henry VIII, the other is Tom Canty, a poor boy from the London streets. The action, full of twists and turns (and Twain’s satirical observations about wealth, power, and identity) unfolds in London and Kent and incorporates a host of weird and wonderful characters that both boys encounter on their adventures.

It has had umpteen film and TV adaptations and has influenced every “role swap” plot that has ever been concocted since.

I love love love an unreliable narrator! Especially when that narrator is a beautiful, elegant woman who turns out to have the ugliest soul imaginable. I think as a whole, our society tends to be extra afraid when they see conniving evil existing in a female’s mind, especially when she’s physically beautiful and well spoken.

At certain points in this book, I found myself weirdly rooting for Amy and chomping at the bit to see how far her “crazy” would take her. The twists and turns kept me racing through this book and left me wondering at the end, “What happens to them now?!”

This book is an awesome locked-room thriller about six teens who are invited to a dinner and find themselves trapped in a room with a bomb, a syringe filled with poison, and a note with instructions that they have to decide who among them to kill within the next hour or they’ll all be murdered.

There’s something about close-proximity thrillers that gets me every single time. As a person who is definitely not a big fan of enclosed spaces in real life, these types of books have me breathless.

This book by Barry Lyga absolutely captivated me with its intense, dark narrative.

The story centers around Jasper "Jazz" Dent, who grew up as the son of the country’s most notorious serial killer. (Talk about a family tree!) Having been exposed to gruesome lessons in murder from a very young age, Jazz is haunted by the fear that he might follow in his father’s footsteps.

It helps explore the terrifying notion of nature versus nurture. Jazz’s battle with his own potential for evil is chilling, and it makes the read not just a thriller but a deep dive into his fight for a normal life. As bodies start appearing in Jazz's small town, he recognizes patterns that match his father’s killings, and so he starts to help the police. The pacing is superb, intertwining Jazz’s personal demons with a gripping murder investigation.

What really makes this novel stand out for… show more.

Next, we have a true standout in YA—a novel that arguably revolutionized the mystery genre for teen readers.

While mysteries have long been a staple in YA literature, in my view, this book sparked a new age. This novel, now adapted into a popular Netflix series, firmly established YA mystery as a force to be reckoned with, largely thanks to its clever twist.

Taut, scandalous, and enthralling, this book exemplifies the blame game genre.

This. Book. 

Wow. 

I felt changed after I read it and talked about it with everyone who would listen. Not only is this book a riveting, fast-paced read, but it’s an important novel about assault, grooming, and the abuse of power.

The protagonist is an aspiring teenaged singer who gets discovered and then manipulated and abused by a much older celebrity R&B artist. When she wakes up with her hands covered in his blood and finds him dead, she realizes she has no memory of what occurred the night before. This novel was enticing as much as it was heartbreaking.

Twain definitely wasn’t the first to cover the topic of switching places. Shakespeare, who was writing 200 years before Twain, wasn't even the first to do it. However, he did it with a great deal of style and a lot of laughs in The Comedy of Errors. This is considered to be one of his great comedies and it's easy to see why. This is a tale about two sets of identical twins who get all mixed up. A whole bunch of hijinks happens next. 

This is a great example of Shakespeare and a plot that has been adapted several times since. And while it's funny, the plot also reveals some deeper truths within the characters and society as a whole. As always with Shakespeare, it's meant to make you think.

RL Stine's Switched isn't just a switching places story, it's a switching bodies story. And in this Fear Street installment, one of them is a killer. Yeah, it's intense. Nicole is a super normal teenager with pretty regular problems, like a boyfriend who can't get his act together and homework she can't manage, but a trip to the woods changes all of that. Next thing you know, people start to die. 

Things really take some strange twists and turns so you're in for a wild ride with this one. This is classic Stine and just a fun read, if your idea of fun is being shocked, confused and frightened with every page. What a great time!

Lois Duncan's book really struck a chord with me, primarily because it takes such a dark turn from what starts as a seemingly typical high school prank (glad I hadn’t read this before writing my book!

The story revolves around a group of students who plan to kidnap their strict English teacher, Mr. Griffin, to scare him into being less harsh with his grading. But when the prank goes horribly wrong, leading to Mr. Griffin's accidental death, the real drama starts.

Duncan does a great job showing the panic and moral dilemmas faced by the students as they decide whether to come clean or cover up their deeds. What I really liked the most was how the book explored peer pressure and how easily authority can be undermined by youthful recklessness. Each character is drawn into this web of deceit, showing how quickly things can spiral out of control when… show more.