THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the author of Survive the Night and Final Girls comes a tense and twisty thriller about a summer camp that’s impossible to forget—no matter how hard you try. Two Truths and a Lie. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and Emma played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out into … the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out into the darkness. The last she—or anyone—saw of the teenagers was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips….
Fifteen years later, Emma is a rising star in the New York art scene, turning her past into paintings—massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches over ghostly shapes in white dresses. When the paintings catch the attention of the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale, she implores Emma to come back to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor.
Despite her guilt and anxiety—or maybe because of them—Emma agrees to revisit her past. Nightingale looks the same as it did all those years ago, haunted by a midnight-dark lake and familiar faces. Emma is even assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager, although the security camera pointed at her door is a disturbing new addition.
As cryptic clues about the camp’s origins begin to surface, Emma attempts to find out what really happened to her friends. But her closure could come at a deadly price.
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I could not put this book down. So only get started if you have time to read the whole book in one sitting. Seriously.
A young slightly awkward (but then again weren’t we all?) 13-year-old girl goes to summer camp. One night the three other girls in her cabin disappear never to be seen again. As an adult, she goes back for closure and three new girls disappear at night from the same cabin as before.
Go read!
Riley Sager won me over with Final Girls so I happily jumped into The Last Time I Lied. I have to say, this one started a little slow for me. It took me a bit to really get into it but I will say once I was hooked, I was hooked. I listened to the audiobook version and I found myself unable to shut it off as it barreled its way towards an ending with so many twists and turns I felt like I was about to be thrown off a mountain road cliff. Again, Sager has a gift for making a reader think they have it all figured out, only to throw a wrench into the whole thing at the end that makes you rethink the entire book and want to reread it again immediately to see if you missed any hints. Sager has a fan in me and I’ll be moving on to the next book just as soon as I can convince my library to purchase it.
When a now 28 year old Emma gets invited back to the camp where she spent the summer of her thirteenth year, she decides to find out the truth once and for all about what happened to her three cabin mates that vanished with hardly a trace.
I went into this one, not only with it being my first time reading anything by Riley Sager, but also completely blind plot-wise and not even so much as knowing what genre it fell in. The novel has twist after twist and just continuously pulls the rug up from under you as soon as you think you’ve got it all figured out. I absolutely loved the back and forth between the main characters past and present. Filling in all the gaps within the story until finally coming to a quite explosive conclusion. I didn’t want to put this one down and found myself not only reading at a much quicker pace than usual, but reading into the wee hours of the morning. I urge everyone to pick this up, order it online, do whatever you need to do to get your hands on this one.. and when you finally do, you’re not going to be able to stop reading until you’ve uncovered the truth.
Om-GEEEE. If there’s a perfect ending to any book, “Riley Sager” wrote it when he penned the final pages of The Last Time I Lied. On the heels of enjoying Final Girls, I worried that a second Sager novel might not live up to my high expectations. I am glad to say I was so wrong. The Last Time I Lied occupies a lofty place among my absolute favorite novels: Megan Miranda’s All the Missing Girls and Mindy Mejia’s Everything You Want Me to Be to name the top two.
Fifteen years ago, Emma attended the prestigious Camp Nightingale, a summer camp for privileged children. Younger than her bunkmates and immature by comparison, Emma ingratiated herself to the “group leader,” Vivian, a kind of bitchy older sister who, rather than tormenting Emma, took her under her wing as a prodigy. The two shared a dramatic love-hate relationship until Vivian and the other two girls went missing, a loss that has followed Emma into adulthood.
Fifteen years later, Emma is back at Camp Nightingale as it reopens at the behest of owner and philanthropist Franny, a woman about whom Emma has mixed feelings. Emma accused her son of having a hand in her friends’ disappearances and is suspicious about why she’s been invited back to teach art to a new group of less privileged campers. Still, Vivian knew something back then and Emma’s obsession with Vivian’s disappearance, and to a lesser degree her guilt over it, drives her deep into an old mystery. When her three new cabinmates go missing, she has no choice but to go right to the edge to find out what happened then and what is happening now.
I can’t say enough good about this book or about how talented an author “Riley Sager,” whose real name is actually Todd Ritter, is. I pay him the highest compliment when I say there is no way I’d have believed either book, which are female protagonist-centric and resoundingly accurate, could have been written by a man. He writes with authenticity about the insecurities and coming of age problems that women experience in a way that is so endearing and engaging. I have a hard time ever putting his books down while simultaneously never wanting them to end. I sympathized with Emma’s plight while feeling her need for closure and the immense distrust that came with being outcast and suspect in a place she was reluctant to return to. He never gives away too much of the mystery too early, instead pushing the reader toward the next page. He is a master craftsman and an inspiration. Kudos, man. I nearly cried at the end of The Last Time I Lied. Damn, that was one good book. I’m only sad that it’s over and that I can’t erase my memory to read it again for the first time.
I was engrossed in Emma’s tale from the first chapter. Sager took me on a thrill ride of nostalgia, shocking secrets, depressing reality, and twists and turns that kept up until the very final chapter (that last one–wow). I was especially impressed by how well he crafted Vivian and Emma’s relationship. I fully understood Emma’s childhood fascination with her, the intense desire to impress and emulate.
5 stars, wish I could put more. I’ll be purchasing FINAL GIRLS as soon as possible.
I found myself sucked into this book immediately! As usual Riley Sager knows how to write a page turner. Summer camp is where the horror begins. You will not be able to put it down!
Toxic girls!
The plot is intriguing right from the start until the end. It’s so difficult to differentiate the truths and the lies. Not too mention this book is full of secrets.
Everything is well written, it will keep you up late at night past your bedtime because this book is such a page turner!
Every chapter will unlock new mystery which makes this book is so hard to put down.
This story keeps you guessing from the beginning until the end. There are also subtle hints that can help you figure out what happen 15 years ago and about the culprit who kidnap the new missing girls. There’s also a lot of red herring in this book which makes it more difficult to guess.
The last twist in that ending really shock me because I didn’t see it coming at all. It’s very unexpected and I guarantee it will blow your mind!
Overall, this is really great and I love it. Highly enjoyable and entertaining.
Two Truths and a Lie…
One: This book is so beautifully written, properly paced and professionally executed.
Two: I close the book with a giddy smile.
Three: This books sucks…
Correct number three is the lie.
Riley Sager left me speechless with this one. It is so wonderful, with hints of youthful banter and of spooky camp rumors. If you have not read this one, you MUST!
I have read a lot of thrillers this year, but few have pulled me in as The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager. I loved the summer camp creepiness of this novel, as well as the multifaceted messages it imparts to the reader. There are tales here of young love, sisterhood, trauma, and trust rolled into this beautifully worded 400 page stand-alone.
I personally loved the descriptions of the main character Emma Davies and her paintings whereby she hides the three girls who went missing in her youth beneath the very textured layers of paint which make her works noticeable. I loved her relationship with Theo, and I loved the flashbacks to her youth, which really evoked memories of my own teen years. The strength of pubescent love, the confusion of teenage desire and the very first experience of heartbreak were so clearly summoned by the author it was as though I was back in that same mindset, where love and betrayal are so acute, so blindingly intense, that the experience can feel like both the best and worst thing in the world.
The climax of this novel, where we learn of the true fate suffered by Natalie and Alison, as well as the conclusion to Vivian’s own story left me breathless long after I turned the last page. I was extremely surprised by the direction the ending took, and also grateful that the author seemed to recognize that both Emma and Theo were not simply able to ride off into the sunset together. This book not only dissects trauma, and pain, and friendship, but gives them due respect as well. Highly recommended, and definitely a thriller I would re-read, which for me is nothing short of rare.
I think this is my favorite of his so far! Most, if not all of us have at some point gone to some sort of summer or overnight camp, in the woods with others our age. What happened if your cabin mates went missing, and were never found again? You were the last person to see them leave the cabin and everyone is expecting you to have the answers. To know why they left, what they were doing and where they went.
Emma has lived this nightmare over and over again, since it has happened fifteen years ago. She is an artist and all of her work is scenes of the forest, of the girls, of the darkness they left into. Her work has gotten noticed and people love the gallery and series she has created. But she has hit a blank wall, she has no drive to paint, no motivation and nothing comes to her.
She then gets an invite to come back to the camp. Yes- come back to the camp as a painting instructor. It is the first time since the girls went missing that the camp is opening back up. Can Emma go back? Maybe it will give her drive, motivation or creativity to paint again. But she also has a different agenda this time- she is going to try and solve what happened to her cabin mates, once and for all.
This was such a good edge of the seat thriller! It brought back many memories of when I went to camp through school and just how something like this could easily happen. Another great BOTM pick!
An absorbing, complex read that kept me guessing for most of the book. Most of the charachters were well drawn, and the tension built nicely. There were a couple of really unbelievable plot points and contrivances but I was just about able to get past them, and I was glad I did because the ending was a corker. I’ll seek out more from this author.
I wasn’t familiar with this author, but after I saw a co-worked reading this book, I looked it up and read the synopsis online. I was immediately intrigued and began reading this novel. Such a fabulous book! Full of suspense and mystery, it really did keep me guessing the entire way through. I totally loved it! Can’t wait for read more of Riley Sager!
WOW!! I honestly do not even know where to begin with this book. Once again, Riley Sager had me thinking I had this whole story figured out, and literally in the last chapter he complete flips everything around on me!
Emma Davis was staying at her first camp, “Camp Rich Bitch”, and she had no idea what the summer held in store for her! Now here we are, fifteen years later and Emma is still trying to figure things out from her first summer at this camp fifteen years ago, and everything she thought she knew and everything she thought she had figured out is about to crashing down!
I will continue to love anything that Riley Sager writes! I am always so absorbed in all of his works, because they are so on edge and full of plot twists. The book never slows down with edge of your seat moments, and mind blowing events! He has such an amazing way of portraying this stories to where you cannot bring your self to even put the book down! I love the detail in everything he writes. There were so many moments, especially in this novel, that I found myself being about to picture everything perfectly in my mind. This is one of them books that I love, because as you read the book it is so full of informative parts and details it feels like a movie is playing inside your head as you read along.
This is definitely a book and author that I would recommend to anyone. This is the perfect mystery/thriller to place on your TBR list! 9/10 recommend!!
I loved all of the twists throughout the entire book!!! You weren’t sure until it is revealed what happened to the missing girls from Dogwood cabin.
For audiobook fans, the narration is really good. Narrator Nicol Zanzarella does a great job of conveying Emma’s confusion as she tries to figure out what happened all of those years ago.
WOW!! I honestly do not even know where to begin with this book. Once again, Riley Sager had me thinking I had this whole story figured out, and literally in the last chapter he complete flips everything around on me!
Emma Davis was staying at her first camp, “Camp Rich Bitch”, and she had no idea what the summer held in store for her! Now here we are, fifteen years later and Emma is still trying to figure things out from her first summer at this camp fifteen years ago, and everything she thought she knew and everything she thought she had figured out is about to crashing down!
I will continue to love anything that Riley Sager writes! I am always so absorbed in all of his works, because they are so on edge and full of plot twists. The book never slows down with edge of your seat moments, and mind blowing events! He has such an amazing way of portraying this stories to where you cannot bring your self to even put the book down! I love the detail in everything he writes. There were so many moments, especially in this novel, that I found myself being about to picture everything perfectly in my mind. This is one of them books that I love, because as you read the book it is so full of informative parts and details it feels like a movie is playing inside your head as you read along.
This is definitely a book and author that I would recommend to anyone. This is the perfect mystery/thriller to place on your TBR list! 9/10 recommend!!
This book reminded me of why I don’t try to figure out mysteries. Every time I though I knew who did it, I was wrong. Summer camps haven’t been the same since Friday the 13th. This book takes that tension and all of the best components of different thrillers and takes you on a twisted ride that will leave you breathless.
Every twist and turn keeps you turning the page. Best book I’ve read in a very long time. Riley Sagers books have become my new addiction!
The last time Emma was at Camp Nightingale, she was 13 years old and stayed in the cabin where the other three girls residing there disappeared into the night and were never found. Emma’s life has been haunted by that July 4th night 15 years ago, but now after carving out a successful career as an artist, has been asked to return as an instructor to the reopening of Camp Nightingale. Emma hopes that by the end of the summer, she will be rid of the feelings of guilt and anguish from that summer 15 years ago, but it isn’t long before strange things begin happening at the camp, and some of the horror of 15 years ago seems to have come back to plague her. When she is forced to stay in the same cabin as before, she chooses to view it as an opportunity to investigate. It isn’t long before she begins to realize that someone at the camp may know more about what happened 15 years ago than they have ever said.
The Last Time I Lied is told by alternating Emma’s current visit to Camp Nightingale with her visit 15 years before. The development of each character in the story throws suspicion on them now as well as in the past, including Emma herself. The reader is kept guessing right up to the end of the story, and even when it seems as though all of the questions have been resolved, there is another twist to throw the readers at the very end. Overall, an exceptionally good suspense mystery. Highly recommended.
This book is riveting, the perfect summer read. It keeps you on the edge and keeps you guessing as well. It would make you feel as if you’re actually in the camp. I loved how it goes back and forth in time, this book is just INCREDIBLE!