INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER! “So many questions…Until the very last page! Needless to say, I could not put this book down!” –Reese Witherspoon “Once again the author of The Woman in Cabin 10 delivers mega-chills.” –People “Missing Big Little Lies? Dig into this psychological thriller about whether you can really trust your nearest and dearest.” –… this psychological thriller about whether you can really trust your nearest and dearest.” —Cosmopolitan
From the instant New York Times bestselling author of blockbuster thrillers In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10 comes a chilling new novel of friendship, secrets, and the dangerous games teenaged girls play.
On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten, along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister.
The next morning, three women in and around London–Fatima, Thea, and Isa–receive the text they had always hoped would never come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.”
The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second-rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty. But their little game had consequences, and as the four converge in present-day Salten, they realize their shared past was not as safely buried as they had once hoped.
Atmospheric, twisty, and with just the right amount of chill to keep you wrong-footed, The Lying Game is told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, lending itself to becoming another unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.
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The Lying Game is the first book I’ve read by Ruth Ware, but it won’t be the last. Published in 2017, this happened to appear on my building’s library shelves, so I jumped on it. I’m glad I had a chance to learn more about this author, and if you are a fan of psychological thrillers, you will enjoy this one. Let’s dive into the details…
Four ~15ish teens play the lying game. There are rules. They get points. Things get very intense. This all happened in the past, so we really don’t know which lie put them over the edge. In current days, a text message unites them again. Just what happened ~17 years ago. By 1/3 thru, we know there was a death. One of the girls’ fathers. Seemed like suicide. Only it wasn’t. Colleague at their school? One of the girls? A boy who wasn’t liked? A stepson who wanted revenge? Exactly how did this all come together?
So… let’s start with the negative, as that’s not usual for me. I didn’t like any the characters. They were all drawn well, and each had a key role… but several felt a bit vague in terms of why they needed to be involved. Isa is the voice whose POV we hear. Kate’s father is the one who died. They make sense. The other two girls… not so much. In the end, I get it… and I’m not giving away any spoilers. I’m just saying I think we could’ve done without these 2 characters based on how the whole story comes together, or at least they could have been combined into 1 single friend. Also… the secret was a little too obvious. We know it’s not suicide, and we know one of the main people killed the father, but where were the twists?
Okay… off my soapbox. The language was atmospheric (new word I’ve seen thrown around a lot lately, so I’ll use it too) and flowery. Sometimes it was excessive but it completely made the settings and emotions pop. For those reasons alone, I’ll read another Ruth Ware novel, as I really enjoyed picturing the book in my head. I also liked the relationships between various characters. Owen was an awesome father and boyfriend. Isa was so mean to him. True, he jumped to conclusions way too quickly, but she was just effin nuts in the way she treated him sometimes. Girl needed to be given her walking papers if she kept lying and holding secrets. I get she had a bond with friends, but thart was ~17 years ago and you don’t see them anymore. He’s your baby’s father and you say you love him… or do you? Maybe that’s the twist being hinted at.
Overall, I enjoyed it. Read 25% in 1 sitting, waited 5 days, then finished the rest in a 2nd sitting. So, it wasn’t a 5 to make me unable to do anything but read, but when I jumped back in today, I was hooked. Just wish it was a stronger ending. More to read by this author in the future tho!
I picked this up because I can’t resist a thriller that revolves around female friendship, boarding school, and gloomy English marshes and I wasn’t disappointed. It started out feeling a little slow and predictable but by the end I was really drawn in and surprised by some of the twists and turns. I would have loved even more digging into the friendships at the center of the story, but still felt satisfied with what I got.
This is Ruth Ware’s best novel…and I consider it more a conplex novel about what we do for love, than a mystery. I give it 4 and a half stars!!
Her writing style works so well as she takes you back to a time of four teens, not quite as outrageous as they think they are. Staying at a boarding school, all there for different reasons, all misfits, all trying to be cool and hip. And the atmosphere just pulls you into the school, the mill, the small town, the marshes and memories.
Isa is telling the story as she reflects on the past/present and becomes embroiled in it, threatening her future with Owen and their child, Freya.
Freya, the 6 month old, is drawn perfectly and made me laugh on several occasions and release the tension that builds in the book
The game of lying and how it affects others and yourself is really shown. The missing man, Kate’s dad, is always shown through other people’s eyes….and that is important…everyone sees what they want.
And small towns don’t ever forget the outsiders staying at the school….and some memories remain bitter and jealous….as are the people that remember.
This is not a happy ever after, but a coming of age book that you’ll savor and keep Kate, Isa, Fatima,Thea and Luc in your thoughts for a bit.
Read it, slowly, savor the brooding and desolation and remember the sub, swimming, laughs, and youth.
I love Ruth Ware, but the plot of The Lying Game felt a little too similar to that of In a Dark, Dark Wood: a group of school friends mostly isolated in a big house with lots of secrets between them.
I wasn’t really put off by the similarity, though, and the first ~80% of this book had me riveted. The conclusion, however, was a bit of a let down and left a fair amount to be desired, and some of the conclusions Ware has her characters making seemed a bit of a stretch.
Overall, another good Ware story, and a quick, compelling read. But if you’re looking for a great conclusion/wrap-up, I might try The Woman in Cabin 10, which is still my favorite of Ware’s books.
This was such an original premise. I was thoroughly captivated by the school girls who had been so mischievous in their youth and who were paying the price as adults. Another great one by Ruth Ware!
The Lying Game had me hooked from page 1 and kept me engrossed the entire time. Ruth Ware does a phenomenal job of creating a cast of characters that readers can relate to and care about. She is a master of building suspense and keeping the reader on the edge of their seats for the entire ride. The only negative about this book is that I didn’t want it to end.
“…it’s amazing how quickly it comes back, the facility to lie.”
The Lying Game may be my favorite Ruth Ware novel to date. Yes, it has a lot of the “I Know What You Did Last Summer” vibe going on but I didn’t care. I loved the characters, the alternating time frames, the family dynamics, the friendships, the secrets, the small-town dysfunction, the mystery, the thriller components, the social structure, the lying… and once the lying was done, at the very end, when truths were finally forced out, I even loved that. The Lying Game will be a re-read for me for sure. Check it out!
My favorite quote:
“I didn’t have the best childhood. You get f@cked-up, you’re liable to pass that on.” “Bullsh#t. … If that were true, none of us would ever reproduce. We’ve all got baggage. What about all the good qualities you’ve got to pass on? …no one knows what kind of parent they’ll be. Crap people have babies every day – but the difference is they don’t care. You do – that’s what makes the difference.”
Wonderful! I love this tension! A long book with continued thrills on every page! Couldn’t put this down. Completely blind sides by the end! Gone Girl move over!
Moody, atmospheric, sense of disaster builds. Reminded me of Daphne DuMaurier and the way she was able to create such atmospheric, uncomfortable settings. Of course the writing is nowhere near as good as DuMaurier .
wow a great read
talk about your 5 steps just about lying. I was totally engrossed. Just sat there till I finished ended up falling asleep but picked up the next morning. This is my first book by Ruth Ware and won’t be my last. I loved the writing and the characters, Superb read. I highly recommend and this should be a best seller.
thank you good reads for this fantastic read.
Great Mystery!!
“A lie can outlast any truth.”
“It’s not like London where the past is written over, again and again. Here, nothing is forgotten.”
Meh. I won’t rehash what all the other reviewers have described, but I will restate the consensus of many: The Lying Game: A Novel was weak.
“Those three little words: I need you.”
Ground Zero of the novel, the Big Lie, is seriously no big deal. It’s certainly noteworthy, but it’s absurd for four people to be so completely scarred and haunted for a lifetime about one irresponsible, and well-intentioned, action. We learn more, which enriches the story a tad, but overall it’s too much of a stretch to fully buy into the suspense.
Ha ha ha ha — the book that takes place along the reach in Salton is a reach. Get it? (Third cup of coffee this morning. I’m killing myself here.)
“If it’s true, what did we do?”
A moment of introspection here: Maybe I’m too American and jaded to find a story without complex deceptions, serial killers, and explosions or guns compelling enough for a thriller novel?
“I should have chosen you.”
The build up to each new revelation is extensive, but each truth revealed is unsatisfyingly lame. I kept thinking, “That’s it? That’s all? Huh.” Then I read on to see if it got more interesting, but it hardly ever did.
The biggest mystery, in my humble opinion, is WHY DOES ISA BLUSH, SCARLET / HOT / FLUSHING IN SHAME, IN EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER?
Isa, Kate, Fatima, and Thea were the best of friends for a year in boarding school. Thick as thieves, they kept to themselves at Salten House, bonded by a game they invented (The Lying Game), where they came up with increasingly higher stakes lies for a series of points and boasting rights. The girls spent much of their time at The Mill House, Kate’s childhood home–a quick walk across the marsh from their boarding school and home to Kate’s father, Ambrose, and stepbrother, Luc. But all that changes when Ambrose, an art teacher at Salten, dies; a scandal is uncovered; and the girls are expelled. Years pass without the four women seeing each other, until they receive a text from Kate: I need you. Isa–with her baby daughter in tow, Fatima, and Thea return to The Mill House, where Kate still lives, to help their friend. But what exactly happened all those years ago? And are the women still playing The Lying Game?
So I probably enjoyed this novel more than I should have, considering it’s rather predictable. There are so few characters in the book as a whole, it seems, for the ending to be that grand of a surprise. It’s also a slow-moving mystery where much of the drama could be avoided if the characters would just talk to each other or tell the truth – ever. The main character, Isa, puts her baby in danger far more often than a reasonable parent would, and for what? Even worse, while Isa is a fairly well-developed main character, her three best friends seem to be more of cliches or stereotypes than fleshed out characters.
Still, Ware has had this hold on me on each of her two previous novels–and she did it again here. The book is just oddly readable, and I found myself drawn to it, despite its flaws, so I have to give that to her. I read it rather quickly, despite being swamped at work, and found myself sneaking away to finish it on my lunch break. It’s very descriptive, just like her first two books, and you can easily picture the eerie setting. Even if you’re not fully invested in what’s happening or you’re pretty sure what’s going to happen, or who was involved, there’s just something compelling that makes you keep reading. The novel is told from Isa’s point of view, unfolding in the present, but flashing back to her memories of the past. It’s a rather effective technique, as we only figure out plot pieces as she does and can discern bits and pieces of the story through Isa’s perspective alone.
Overall, I’d hoped for a bit more, and I probably enjoyed Ware’s first two novels as a cohesive whole more than this one. But I won’t deny that I found this book intriguing and that it kept me reading. There’s certainly a lot in the novel that requires you to suspend some elements of disbelief. Still, I’ll definitely continue to read anything Ware writes–she just has a fascinating style.
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A lot of characters to follow but very easy to follow them! Love this author! She’s my fav! This story is more in depth than The Woman in Cabin 10 and equally good, if not better
I liked it. Can’t say I loved it, but the flow of the writing was great. The story itself was decent and kept me interested. It was a bit anticlimactic and easy to figure out.
Novel twist on coming of age genre for almost all characters. Quite a slog! How cruel girls can be! How addiction beats a family down, not just the user.
Have been a fan of the author, so this was disappointing. No plot really, just a few boring characters thinking and talking about something that happened years ago with no stakes. One of those books with no real momentum, and the twist was incredibly predictable.
This is not one of my favorite Ruth Ware books. To me it lacked some of the suspense and urgency some of her other books have. Even though it moved a little slow, at least for my taste, it still had a good plot full of rich characters. It probably wouldn’t be the first book I would recommend you read by her, but I would still definitely say read it.
I love the slow peeling back of what has happened in the past to reveal why the events in the present story line are happening. The narrative is first person, one character, but goes between the past and the present. What’s fun is that the more the reader learns, as the past is revealed, more story questions pop up–until the riveting end.
I couldn’t put it down. Loved the twists and turns.