Title: The Lying Game
Author: Ruth Ware
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
First published: June 15th 2017
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Finished reading: August 1st 2017
Pages: 352
“I hate lying. It used to be fun – until I didn’t have a choice.”
*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Vintage Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***
The truth is I have been wanting to read one of Ruth Ware‘s books for ages and I was actually going to read one of her other titles first, but decided to tackle The Lying Game instead due to mixed reviews. I guess I didn’t want the other books to possibly spoil my reading experience for this one… I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up enjoying The Lying Game despite a few things I wasn’t happy about. What became clear very early on is that I was going to love the writing style. I was hooked right from the first chapter and even though the story itself isn’t as fast-paced as I would have liked, it was the writing style that still made me thoroughly enjoy The Lying Game. I liked the mystery around what happened all those years ago and what the friends are hiding. I had my suspicions on the lies and secrets of the group, but I wasn’t able to guess the full truth until the very end. What did bother me considerably were the characters. I wasn’t able to connect to any of them and this made this more character driven story a lot more difficult to love. One of the characters stood out painfully for me: Isa. I actually despise her for how she treats both her baby daughter and husband and was starting to feel more and more frustrated as things went further. And it’s clear that these feelings have influenced my experience negatively. I wasn’t sure what to think of the ending either… But like I said before, what probably saved this story for me was the writing style. This alone has made me look forward to her other stories now!
When a human bone is found in the seemingly idyllic coastal village of Salten, it causes a unexpected and uncomfortable reunion for four childhood friends. They hadn’t seen each other for years, but one message from Kate and they all come back, knowing perfectly well what she is so worried about. The four have been hiding secrets and covering everything in lies for years, but things are slowly starting to unravel… Will they be able to stop the truth from coming out? What would happen if it does?
Now I’ve read The Lying Game I can see why it has been receiving mixed reviews. I haven’t read her other books yet, so I can’t compare, but if the writing style is anything close as good as in The Lying Game I can see why the plot and characters could be a disappointment. The characters were highly unlikeable and to be honest the whole unreliable narrator theme is getting old. Unreliable or not, my main issue was with Isa and the despicable way she treats her baby, her husband and people in general. Not liking the characters made it a lot harder to enjoy this more character driven and rather slow paced thriller… I still quite enjoyed the ride though, mostly because the writing style had me seriously hooked.
You can also find me at Goodreads. Twitter. Instagram. Facebook. Bloglovin’.
