The Lying Game

Another killer read from Ruth Ware!

When a text comes through to Isa Wilde in the middle of the night, three simple words, her entire life is turned upside-down.

“ I need you”

A human body was discovered on the marsh and with it, long ago buried truths are coming to light. With these words, Isa is whisked, both literally and figuratively, back to the idyllic town of her youth where she spent one fateful semester at a boarding school. Something terrible happened, leaving Isa and her three friends to pick up the pieces. This twisty turny thriller leaves you wondering who is lying, who is telling the truth, and unsure of who can be trusted.

What a wild ride! First of all, I want to highlight the fact that I listened to his one on show more audiobook and the reader, Imogene Church was, in a word, phenomenal. She brought so much life and feeling into Ware words it just added that extra layer of personality and suspense to the story. And speaking of words, Ware is a master with them. Rich with imagery, her words paint such a robust and full scene from beginning to end. Every detail, feeling, nuance is captured so perfectly and vividly. In true thriller fashion, Ware has a way of parceling out her information to the readers just enough to fill our heads will all sorts of theories, only to have them dashed and second guessed with the next chapter.

Solid read, one I highly recommend to all my fans of a good thriller. Ware has secured her place on my auto buy list and will gladly gobble up anything she puts out! show less

Fans of the Woman in Cabin 10 and In A Dark Dark Wood will be pleased to hear that Ruth Ware has published another tightly plotted thriller: The Lying Game. Isa Wilde is the living picture of domestic bliss with her partner Owen and their baby daughter Freya. After thirteen years with no contact, she gets a cryptic text from an old boarding school friend summoning her to return immediately to their old stomping grounds. Isa takes her still-nursing baby on a train to meet up with three other women who formed a tightly knit group for one tumultuous year at the Salten School. Kate, the artist who stayed behind in the town, is the one who sounded the alarm. She is still living in an old Mill that is slowly sinking into the sea, surrounded show more by memories and old paintings created by her father who taught art at Salten. They are joined by Thea-a tough-living casino worker who has been struggling with alcoholism, and Fatima- a doctor and mother who has recently renewed her faith in Islam. Kate informs the others that events from their shared past are coming back to haunt them. The book flashes back to when the four originally met on the first day of school. Isa and Fatima were attending the school for the first time, and Thea and Kate took them under their wing. Inseparable, they got up to some mischief by breaking the rules and engaging in a game that tested their ability to fluently lie and trick others into believing their stories. Alternating between the present and their adolescent days, the novel slowly illuminates the characters, and their interrelationships become more clearly understood. The four women are not clearly not welcome back in the town, and it is revealed that they had been expelled from Salten under mysterious circumstances. Things begin to unravel quickly as threatening messages are left at the Mill, indicating that their shared secret past will soon be exposed with devastating consequences. The novel explores the interplay of loyalty/ betrayal, and the line between protection and deception. A bit too much attention is paid to Isa’s obsessive ministrations to her baby-a complaint other reviewers have already remarked upon. For the most part, however, the Lying Game is a quick and absorbing read with strong characters and some decent surprises. show less

A secret kept by four boarding school girls from Salten House comes back to haunt them fifteen years later. Kate, Fatima, Thea, and Isa form a tight bond as they play The Lying Game. But the truth has a way of surfacing, and it does so with a vengeance.
The Lying Game by Ruth Ware details the formation and testing of these bonds of friendship and secrets in the atmospheric setting of a small town near the Reach, as Kate's nearby house, known as the Mill, is sinking into the bog.
How easily the four friends fall back into lying is frightening and incriminating. The leisurely pacing of the story belies the growing menace which the friends struggle to recognize.
The author's detailed descriptions of the behavior and thoughts of point of view show more character Isa dive deep into character so human it resonates like harmonics after a chord is played. Lovely twists of plot and surprises all the way to the end keep the reader going. show less

I really enjoy Ware's style and her books suck me in quickly. This one had a great atmosphere even if some plot points were a bit of a stretch. I wasn't a huge fan of The Woman in Cabin 10, but I loved her first book, In a Dark, Dark Wood. That one remains my favorite of hers so far.

This one relied a little heavily on the gimmick of "the lying game" which felt like the weakest point of the plot to me. It's part boarding school friendship story and part mystery. It takes place in a secluded spot on the coast of England in a dilapidated house that's only reachable at certain times of the tides, similar to The Woman in Black (which I loved).

Four girls, Isa, Fatima, Thea, and Kate have a shared secret from their past that has come back to show more haunt their lives. I really loved the character of Fatima. Even when some of the other's would grate on my nerves, I always enjoyed her. At the same time, she always seemed a little above the struggles of her friends and didn't quite fit with the group. Kate's father Ambrose was also a complex character that never felt like a cliche to me. The little town of Salten felt like a character as well. From the small houses covered in fishing nets to the nosy neighbors, it was alive in every way.

I also just left the stage of having an infant and so I love her descriptions of the the struggles and joys of new motherhood. The main character, Isa, has a six-month-old baby and the book talks about nursing, losing yourself in motherhood, the strain on a relationship, etc. It all felt so accurate and recent to me.

BOTTOM LINE: A quick read that's hard to put down. It doesn't quite measure up to her other's, but she has an undeniable talent for portraying characters and creating tense situations. show less

Trite. Ruth Ware's buzzy novels have been on my tbr for awhile. When this one became available at my library, I grabbed it. This was my first Ware, which turned out to be a mistake. It's bad.

Without rehashing the plot, here's what irked me the most:

Hated the character through whose perspective the story is told. She's insipid and actually a pretty lame excuse of a person. Her entire adult life is unraveled by poor decisions she made in high school, which by the way ruined the lives of other people then and has the potential to negatively impact the life of her current partner and father of their six month daughter.

No matter though. When her high school girlfriends text her out of the blue 17 years after she'd last seen them, she upends show more her life. When her partner questions her behavior, which he is given reasons to do, he is the bad guy and she the affronted and wounded party.

And therein lies the biggest issue with the book. It one thing to have even an unsympathetic and unreliable narrator (like Gone Girl, Girl on the Train...all the girls) and another thing to be stuck with a character I didn't like, didn't respect, and thought a simpering fool.

There are lots of side plots introduced that go nowhere and have no purpose whatsoever, including but not limited to a gutted sheep with a threatening note that is fretted about briefly and then ignored, numerous accounts of breastfeeding and leaky breasts, which have no bearing on the story, considerable anxiety about secrets from the past haunting the future (whiffff), a tense high school reunion during which nothing happens and more.

Based on the good reviews of her other books, this may be the novelist's equivalent of phoning it in. Save your time and your money. show less

Isa Wilde receives a text from her long-time friend Kate. 'I need you', and immediately rushes down to the coast to meet Kate and her other close friends. The four of them had been at boarding school together but a series of scandals had led to them being asked to leave. When a body is discovered in the Reach, a local tidal inlet, the past comes back to haunt the friends. They had always promised to be true to each other but Isa becomes more and more convinced that there is more to the events that summer than Kate is willing to admit. If the truth comes out Isa stands to lose her comfortable London life and her baby.

At its best this is a cracking read. Ware certainly knows how to twist a tale and her plotting is pacy. Although I found show more all the protagonists deeply unlikable people I did enjoy the story and twist was great. I did feel the ending was a little contrived but am willing to forgive that. This is a book written to appeal to the masses and it appears ready for the beach read season - it's a more intelligent option in this genre! show less

This author has gotten a lot of hype as thriller author with good twists (The Woman in Cabin 10) so I thought I would check her newest book out. While I wasn't head over in heels about it, the premise was good, the plot solid, and there were some good twists. While in boarding school Isa befriends three girls and they immediately become inseparable. Weekends are spent together, drinking, laughing, and playing the lying game. The goal is to say outrageous lies to people (strangers, peers, professors, etc.) and get them to believe you. Points are awarded on if they believe you, how tall the tale was, and if you could get one of the girls to crack and start laughing. The only rules are: stick to your story, never get caught, never lie to show more each other, and know when to stop lying. Their time at boarding school was cut short by a tragic accident (of which the reader won't find out until much later) and the girls haven't seen each other in well over a decade. However a chilling text from Kate (I need you) brings the four girls back together again. What they don't realize is that their biggest lie of all is going to come back and haunt them. For fans of suspense and plot twists. show less